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Virginia Pine

Introduction

Virginia pine (Pinus virginiana Mill.) is the second most commonly planted tree species for Christmas tree production in North Carolina. Visit the National Christmas Tree Association Web site for a description of Virginia pine. It is widely planted by North Carolina Christmas tree growers east of the Appalachian Mountains where Fraser fir (Abies fraseri (Pursh) Poir.) cannot be successfully grown. Virginia pine is a deserving Christmas tree species because of its :

• rapid growth (3 to 5 years to harvest),
• short needles,
• good branch structure for holding ornaments,
• pleasant pine scent and
• dark green color.

However, Virginia pine also has several significant problems as a Christmas tree species. Chief among these problems are

• poor stem form,
• non-uniformity and
• extreme susceptibility to damage by the Nantucket pine tip moth (Rhyacionia frustrana (Comstock)).

In fact, due to the cumulative effect of these and other problems, growers typically only market about 50% or less of Virginia pines planted. The future use of genetically improved planting stock will help improve this yield.

Currently, the planting stock of most North Carolina growers originates from the North Carolina Division of Forest Resources’ seed orchard at the Morganton Forestry Research Center. This orchard contains 20 clones that were selected for forest production rather than for Christmas tree production. While this material is a good temporary source for growers, a comprehensive comparison of available Virginia pine material is needed. The intensive effort and resulting high value in growing Christmas trees (relative to forest products) warrants identification and use of the best available material by growers.

Tree Improvement Program

The tree improvement strategy includes establishment of the Virginia Progeny Test Series using open-pollinated seeds from select trees of existing forest tree improvement programs. These selection were orginially made based on growth and stem form. The current progeny test series will be sheard and managed as Christmas trees and additional traits such as branching habit and tip moth resistance will be evaluated. As good performing families are identified in these tests, recommendations made so that growers can obtain good quality seed form existing seed orchards. Eventually, elite selections will be made from these tests and grafted into a control-pollinated seed orchard to provide growers will genetically improved seed. The following table shows the anticipated schedule for the Virginia pine tree improvement program.

Proceed to Virginia Pine Progeny Test Series
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