Management of Short Rotation Coppice Crops of Eucalyptus grandis Hill ex Maiden

Abstract

Results are given of three experiments in the summer rainfall region of the Republic of South Africa which were designed to compare in short rotations the survival, growth, form and final timber yields of the parent seedling crop of E. grandis with successive coppice crops managed under different systems of coppice reduction. The effects of different times of initial coppice reduction, numbers of reductions and final numbers of shoots per stool are given for various ages up to eight years old, as well as pertinent observations on coppice behaviour made during the enumerations of these and other experiments conducted by the Wattle Research Institute and in the course of silvicultural and harvesting operations in commercial plantations of the species. On the basis of these results and observations, practical recommendations are given for the successful management of plantations of E. grandis grown in short rotations on a clearfelling system and regenerated by coppice.