Influence of initial spacing and row‐to‐row distance on the growth and yield of silver birch(betula pendula)

Pre-commercial thinning effects on growth, yield and mortality in even-aged paper birch stands in British Columbia

“…In our study, it appears that the lowest and the highest densities were within the range where paper birch height is unaffected. Our results contrast with Niemistö (1995a), who found that silver birch grown at 400 stems ha À1 had reduced height growth in comparison to denser stands. They also differ from studies in young red alder, where thinning frequently results in height growth losses for short periods of time (Hibbs et al, 1995).…”

Neighborhood size effects on mortality, growth and crown morphology of paper birch

“…By contrast, height growth was generally unaffected by birch-free radius, agreeing with many other studies that height is relatively less sensitive to competition than diameter because it is a higher priority for carbon allocation in trees (Lanner, 1985;Wagner et al, 1989Wagner et al, , 1999Bell et al, 2000). Stand density is generally known to affect height growth only when it is extremely low or high (Niemisto, 1995), and the lack of predictable thinning effect on height in our study, as well as that of on similar sites, suggests densities commonly found in these young birch stands are below competition thresholds for height. Additionally, height growth on these sites occurs in spring when resources are not limiting, whereas diameter growth occurs later in summer, when drought limits photo- synthesis, and competition release should therefore affect height growth less than diameter (Wang et al, 1995).…”

Genetic Parameters of Growth Traits and Stem Quality of Silver Birch in a Low-Density Clonal Plantation

“…Higher productivity (up to 8.90 m 3 ha −1 year −1 [29] vs. 5.25 m 3 ha −1 year −1 in studied trial) and good stem quality might be achieved in conventional plantations with higher planting densities [30,31], although increasing planting distance does not influence the height growth [31]. Nevertheless, decreased competition and application of the pre-selected planting material apparently improved the assortment structure of the studied birch, shifting its distribution towards the higher value, thus suggesting efficiency of the low-density clonal plantation for the production of solid wood and possible further economic improvement in a low-density short-rotation plantation.…”