Clonal variation in nutrient use efficiency for production of biomass and stem wood in eucalyptus clones

Eucalyptus is the most important genus planted in worldwide and shows a broad productivity response depending on species, clones and soils factors. At present, about 2.5 million ha of Eucalypts plantations are maintained for paper and pulp and wood based industries take lead in Eucalyptus clonal plantations under farmland. Clonal selection and deployment is receiving attention as an intensive forest management tool for increased wood production. While screening Eucalyptus clones for high productivity and good pulpwood traits, it is equally important to have knowledge on such selected clones for their nutrient use efficiency. Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding, Coimbatore, India has a long term systematic tree improvement programme in Eucalyptus spp. aimed to enhancing productivity and screening of clones for site specific. In the process, twenty four clones of Eucalyptus spp. were studied for the nutrient use efficiency from the established clonal trials. Considerable variations were observed when the selected 24 clones of Eucalyptus clones were subjected to nutrient use efficiency studies. In the case of nutrient use efficiency for production of biomass and the stem wood, C-188, C-10, C-14, C-19, C-123 and C-186 clones are registered lower consumption of available nutrients for production of biomass and stem wood compared to ITC clones and the seed origin seedlings.