Clonal Forestry: Principles and Practices

The key to clonal forestry is the ability to produce and rapidly multiply selected, superior proven clones on a large scale for establishment of uniform and high quality plantations with enhanced productivity maximizing commercial as well as environmental benefits. Development and use of appropriate clones in diverse degradation scenario can effectively restore such landscapes. However, clonal forestry needs to be evolved especially in case of tropical broad leaved tree species where efficient clonal protocols remain unavailable. Insufficient adventitious rooting at matured stage when desirable characteristics get fully expressed constitutes a major bottleneck apart from difficulties during propagation of these species. High priority must be given for developing and scaling up clonal procedure for important species to meet future requirement of plantation establishment. Clonal approach should also form an important constituent of ecological restoration with identification and deployment of clones having adaptability growth and productivity at degraded sites. Exotic species such as Eucalypts, Acacias, Poplar have been extensively cultivated, there has been now a serious realisation of giving importance to local species as it has multifarious advantages. India has been endowed with species that can be used for short term as well as long term plantations. The king of the timber is teak and its demand will always be there in India and using clonal material for its extensive cultivation is the need of the hour. Clonal forestry is here to stay and has to be developed, nurtured and popularised for taking care of the demand for wood in India. To propagate and cultivate indigenous species, superior clones having better wood quality traits are to be identified and further tested by using multilocation trials. This book on clonal forestry has been prepared for a wide range of possible readers, including students, researchers and forest managers. We hope it will serve the purpose of promoting scientific understanding on the subject.…