Comparison of seedling growth among Populus deltoides clones

Seedling test with 599 Populus deltoides clones introduced from Tennessee and Louisiana of United States was carried out for 3 years to measure growth increment of 13 clones with good growth performance.The results showed that as follows: There was obvious significant difference in ground diameter growth among clones with single root and stem.There was extremely significant difference in ground diameter growth among clones with two roots single stem and among clones with three roots single stem.There was extremely significant difference in seedling height growth among clones.Phenotypic variation coefficient of ground diameter and seedling height of tested clones were 12.638% and 5.570% respectively,broad-sense heritability were 0.835 and 0.860 respectively,and genetic variation coefficient were 11.562% and 5.150% respectively.The results demonstrated that there were great genetic potential and broad genetic variation of traits in tested clones.Thus,tested clones were elite materials with good potential of large genetic gain.