A Study on Improvement Effects of Seed Quality for DifferentGenerations and Categoris of Seed Orchards of Chinese Fir

A continuous fouryears research has been carried out to test qualities of seeds produced by 22 seed orchards of Chinese fir in Zhejiang province.The results demonstrate that the seed quality of seed orchards exceeds that of ordinary seeds on all six indexes analyzed,including 1 000seed weight(8.6% increase),woody seed rate(-19.5%),germination percentage(2.0%),germination index(4.7%),shoot length(2.7%) and vigor index(8.4%).Average genetic gain is 4.7%,8.9%,0.8%,1.2%,1.1% and 2.6%,respectively.About 60% to 95% orchard seeds exceed general seeds on certain indexes analyzed,while 45.5% orchard seeds outperform ordinary seeds on all indexes analyzed.Quality of seeds from orchards of different generations does not always follow a specific pattern.However,on average,seeds from orchards of the 1.5th generation perform the best, the 2nd generation the next, while the 1st generation the least.Of special notice is the superb quality displayed by seeds from orchards consisting of two high quality clones.Furthermore,seeds from premium provenance orchards show significantly a better vigor than that from orchards of the 1st,1.5th and 2nd generation.