Taper in trees

SILVAMAN

Any foresters have ideas on best way to reduce or limit taper in conifers where early heavy thinning is necessitated for stability?

fergus1001

SILVAMAN wrote:

Any foresters have ideas on best way to reduce or limit taper in conifers where early heavy thinning is necessitated for stability?

It's a hard one since the stocking rate is positively correlated to the taper of the trees, you could reduce turbulence of the wind by doing a prunning regime and let the wind flow through the stand instead of having it pushed up over the canopy and cause windblown trees whitin the stand and keep your stocking rate higher for longer,

But by keeping the stocking rate higher you will inhibit girth growth of trees so you have to assess what exactly you want from the stand

Where are you located ?

SILVAMAN

West Limerick-interested in keeping the trees standing for longer so heavy thin coupled with high pruning

fergus1001

I'd suggest a light thinning regime that's 0.8x (0.7 minus YC) x thinning cycle

YC= yield class
Thinning cycle= time in years between thinning

Then use the high prunning at the edges to let the air filter through, I'd do this before the thinning took place because the trees provide strength to each other

I'd also extend the thinning cycle (the norm in 4-5 years) that would increase the height growth and decrease the taper

It would be worth having a critical height calculated for your site aswell (age/height at which risk of windblown trees is significantly increased)

May I ask why you want to reduce taper ?

SILVAMAN

Taper in sawlog is considered undesirable.

fergus1001

SILVAMAN wrote:

Taper in sawlog is considered undesirable.

Well if that's the case a normal thinning regime 25-30% stems removed in first thinning, systematic line and chevron system 1 in 7 would do the trick, I'd need more details on the site to say exactly how much