Introduction to tree breeding

Tree breeding is carried out to improve a desirable trait, such as stem straightness or to improve resistance to disease.  At the Earth Trust our tree breeding programme (also referred to as tree improvement) focuses on increasing the amount of recoverable timber from a harvesting operation.  We do this by selecting for faster growth rates and improved form.

The process begins with the selection of the best parent trees growing in the wild (‘plus-trees’) that exhibit desirable traits, such as stem straightness and fast growth rates, relative to their neighbours.  Seed is collected from these plus-trees and grown on for long-term breeding studies.  

At Paradise Wood seedlings grown from plus-tree seed have been planted out in progeny and provenance trials.  As the seedlings grow they are monitored to observe if the desired traits of the plus-tree parents (and their genes) have been inherited by their offspring.  The best performing trees, with superior form and vigour, will be selected to form the genetic base from which all subsequent improvements will be obtained.  

This is the same selective breeding process that has been successfully used for many centuries to modify wild plants and animals into the familiar domesticated crops and livestock we rear today.  It is only in the last few decades that these same methods have been applied to improving hardwood timber trees.

Tree breeding | Broadleaved trees | Species research