Kintigh's Mountain Home Ranch
Premium Wholesale Christmas Trees and Nursery Stock


Genetically Improved Forest Seedlings *



The outstanding quality of our trees will help make your retail lot successful.
We have repeat customers going back more than 50 years!
We are a wholesale Christmas Tree business and all trees are sold FOB at the farm in Springfield, Oregon.

*

Advantages of Genetically Improved Forest Seedlings

By Dr Sara Lipow Ph.D., former forest geneticist
of the Oregon Department of forestry

*

Planting Genetically Improved Seedlings- a Good Value for Most Landowners

Genetically improved seedlings are a good value for most landowners involved in reforestation. They are also become more widely available to Oregon’s family forest landowners, in part because the Oregon dept. of forestry (ODF) has been working to make genetically improved seed available to nurseries growing stock for them. This seed is available through ODF’s Forest Tree Seed Bank.

Genetically improved seed is produced from trees known to contain genes that confer fast growth. These trees are identified in large, replicated field trials, typically using fifteen or more years, designed to test the genetic potential of "parent trees" found in natural stands in the woods. The process of identifying "parent trees" in the woods and testing them in field trials is called tree improvement. Once fast growing trees are identified, cuttings from them can be taken and placed in a seed orchard. Starting about 10 years later, the orchard trees can be induced to produce cones containing "genetically improved" seed.

How much faster will the genetically improved seedlings grow? This will depend on the number of parent trees tested during tree improvement, the number placed in the seed orchard, the precision of the field trials, and many other factors. As a rule, most genetically improved Douglas-fir seed available today in Oregon will produce seedlings that grow 5-30% faster than those from woods-run seed. The innate potential of genetically improved seedling will be maximized on good sites, with good control of vegetation and other silvicultural factors.

Importantly, tree improvement programs and their associated seed orchards serve specific geographic areas called breeding zones. Parent trees are selected from within a breeding zone, and the field trials are designed to test them across a range of conditions found in the breeding zone. Be sure to match the seedlings you plant to your breeding zone.




*
All Contents Copyright Kintigh's Mountain Home Ranch, 2015
All Rights Reserved
www.kintighs.com
*