A One-Parent Progeny Test and Seed Orchard for the Improvement of Red Pine

Abstract The open-pollinated progeny of 290 red pine from Michigan's Lower Peninsula were sown in a replicated nursery experiment in 1961. They will be transferred to permanent field plantings in 1963 and 1964. The field plantings will contain 290 origins X 15 replicates X 6 trees per plot = 26,100 trees and will cover about 30 acres each. As necessary they will be thinned by removing all trees of the poorer progenies and poor trees in the better progenies. That is a form of half-sib family selection. The field plantings will be measured and serve as progeny tests. Starting sometime between 1970 and 1975 they will also serve as breeding arboretums and as seed orchards for the production of seed of proven genetic superiority. As soon as practicable a second-generation test-orchard will be started. It will supersede the first one in 20 or 25 years. Because the test-orchards will provide inheritance data, they promise considerably more genetic improvement than do schemes involving only clonal propagation. They promise less information and improvement per progeny than would control-pollinated tests. However, if comparisons are made on a per-test or per-unit-of-effort basis, the use of open-pollinated progeny in the first generation is advantageous in this species.