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Planting configuration affects productivity, tree form and survival of mallee eucalypt in farm forestry plantings

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Abstract

Mallee eucalypts have been extensively planted in the Western Australia wheatbelt for salinity mitigation and as a short-rotation coppice crop for the production of cineole and bioenergy feedstocks. Mallee has been planted in wide-spaced narrow belts (2–6 rows) within annual crops and pasture, but optimal planting configurations have not been determined. Here, we assess the biomass yield responses of Eucalyptus loxophleba ssp. lissophloia and E. polybractea to; four row treatments (1, 2, 4 and 6 row belts) and five within-row spacing treatments (1, 1.5, 2, 3 and 4 m). Thirteen years after planting, the row effects on plot-level biomass productivity of E. loxophleba ranged from 4.3 to 21.2 Mg ha−1 year−1. For E. polybractea, both row number and within-row spacing affected yield, which ranged from 2.7 to 18.8 Mg ha−1 year−1. For both species, the highest growth rates were observed in the one-row belts with shorter (< 3 m) within-row spacing. Within the belts, reductions of growth rate were observed with additional rows, due to increased competition and significant suppression of internal rows; and with wider within-row spacing, due to lower initial planting density. However, when including the area between belts, wider belts generated more biomass. For both species, average tree size decreased with additional rows and shorter within-row spacing. For both species, the number of stems per tree increased with wider within-row spacing, and also for E. polybractea, with fewer rows. The substantial variation in productivity, tree size and form found in these results will affect harvestability and ultimately the economic viability of future mallee plantings.

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The SAS code generated during analysis from the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Wayne O’Sullivan, Marianne Perry and Jasmine Stokes for their assistance in data collection. Also thank you to Sarah Van Gent, Richard Mazanec, Wayne O’Sullivan and Rick Giles for reading early drafts. We would also like to thank the reviewers and editors who provided important comments that improved the manuscript.

Funding

This project was made possible with funds from the State Government of Western Australia. The authors would also like to acknowledge the contribution of an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship in supporting this research.

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  1. School of Molecular and Life Science, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA, 6845, Australia

    Beren Spencer, Amir Abadi, Mark Gibberd & Ayalsew Zerihun

  2. Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, Kensington, WA, 6151, Australia

    Beren Spencer & John Bartle

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  1. Beren Spencer
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Spencer, B., Bartle, J., Abadi, A. et al. Planting configuration affects productivity, tree form and survival of mallee eucalypt in farm forestry plantings. Agroforest Syst 95, 71–84 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-020-00543-0

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