Abstract
Allured by the potential productivity of clonal plants, various agencies including Forest Department are increasingly raising such plantation for boosting productivity of marginal forests and reclaiming degraded lands as well as other difficult sites. The ‘True to the type’ genotype of the clonal plantation dictates productivity but it is ensured by survival per cent in a plantation. In sites having a poor survival history, the well-perceived yield advantages of clonal plantations may dwindle significantly, if its survival dips. Comparison between 8.5-year-old clonal and seedling plantations in a site having deterring physical and chemical soil properties revealed poor survival of clonal plants. Thriving clonal plants grew as per the popular notions and accumulated non-significantly higher G50, GBH, height and wood biomass per plant than seedlings, till 7.5 years age. In ninth year, rising casualty in clonal plants reversed the growth pattern and higher wood biomass yield was observed in seedling plants. Also, GBH:G50 ratio, which usually indicated similar growth in clonal and seedling trees, titled in favour of seedling plans.
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