Working Papers of the Finnish Forest Research Institute 114: 20–22 Field behaviour of Scots pine cuttings compared to seedlings

Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) growth and stem form characteristics between cuttings and seedlings of the same origin were compared in a ten-year field trial. The seedlings were taller than the cuttings throughout the experiment, but the growth patterns- profiled by the relative growth rate- were similar in both groups. There were some changes in stem form characteristics after 9 and 10 years in the field, indicating that the use of cuttings for stem quality selection at an early age has no advantages over the use of seedlings. The consistent performance of cuttings compared to seedlings of the same origin indicates that the field performance of cuttings is a valid measure of their genetic potential and that cuttings can be used to speed up selection in breeding programmes with Scots pine