Growth, Thinning Treatments, and Soil Properties in a 10-Year-Old Cottonwood Plantation on a Clay Site

Abstract

Two of four Stoneville select cottonwood (Populus deltoides Bartr. ex Marsh.) clones planted at 12- by 12-foot spacing on old field clay soils had 80+ percent survival at age 5 and were subjected to three stocking levels. Plots were left unthinned (approximately 266 trees/acre) and thinned to half the number of trees (about 126 trees/acre) and to 60 trees per acre at age 5. Dbh growth the next 5 years differed significantly but amounted to only 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5 inch annually by treatments. Thinned plots had 23 and 35 percent less total volume (5th-year cut plus 10th-year standing) than unthinned plots. Tenth-year soil N, P, K, Ca and Mg values were greater than 5th-year values, but only Ca equalled and Mg exceeded plantation establishment measurements.

Citation

Krinard, Roger M.; Kennedy, Harvey E., Jr. 1983. Growth, Thinning Treatments, and Soil Properties in a 10-Year-Old Cottonwood Plantation on a Clay Site. Res. Note SO-302. New Orleans, LA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Forest Experiment Station. 4 p.