New Zealand Journal of Forestry (2015) 60(1): 8–11
©New Zealand Institute of Forestry

Feature article
Successful varietal forestry with radiata pine in New Zealand

Mike Carson ¹, Sue Carson ² and Christine Te Riini <sup>3

1</sup> Managing Director, Forest Genetics Ltd, Rotorua
² Chief Scientist, Forest Genetics Ltd, Rotorua
³ Operations Manager, Forest Genetics Ltd, Rotorua

Varietal forestry (sometimes termed clonal forestry) can be defined as the commercial production and deployment of plants of field-tested, individual genotypes (clones or varieties) of forest tree species. The varietal forestry programme managed by Forest Genetics Ltd (FG) with radiata pine is one of a few such successful programmes with pines worldwide, and has been built on over 60 years of R&D in breeding and propagation. Clonal varieties offer substantial additional benefits to forest growers when compared with commercial seedlots produced in both openpollinated and control-pollinated seed orchards. Although cloning technologies for pines have been available for over 30 years, a reliable and cost-efficient varietal development and delivery system for radiata pine has only recently been perfected.
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