Juvenile-adult Correlation for Early Selection in <I>Casuarina equisetifolia</I>

Abstract

During 1984-85, through comparison tree method 199 female plus trees 52 male plus trees were identified. Of these, 79 female and 20 male plus trees alone had adequate number of rooted sprigs for planting. Thus ultimately ramets of these plus trees were planted in a double ring isolation computerized design at NeyveIi. Seeds from 25 female plus trees each crossed with 3 male plus trees thus forming 75 progenies were raised in the nursery, evaluation was carried out both at 6 months after sowing (juvenile) and 36 months after planting (adult) in the field at two sites viz., Coimbatore and Mettupalayam. The four juvenile characters viz., seedling height, collar diameter root length and nodule number (6MAS) were each correlated with nine adult (36MAP) characters viz., height, basal, diameter, dbh, suitability index, needle weight, branch weight, bark thickness, pole weight and total biomass at Coimbatore and eight adult characters were included with the exception of basal diameter at Mettupalayam. This correlation revealed collar diameter to reflect more reliably the adult performance.