Variation in Wood Properties in Pith and Peripheral Region of the Trunk in Dalbergia Sissoo Roxb.

The paper deals with the variations in wood-properties in pith and peripheral region of the trunk of Dalbergia sissoo Roxb. to understand the extent of genetic control on the different wood-properties during the early phase of tree growth for early selection of different genotypes and also for juvenile wood properties. The study was conducted in seed raised plantations of Dalbergia sissoo at four sites located in three forest divisions of Punjab namely Amritsar, Hoshiarpur and Ferozepur, representing three agro-climatic zones of the State, twelve trees of different diameters of similar age of 27 years were selected for the study. Five transverse discs of 10 cm thickness were cut out from the trunk of each of the 12 trees at 2 m, 4 m, 6 m, 8 m and 10 m heights to cover the vertical variations. The pith and peripheral (outer most) wood from the each disc of all the trees were considered for the collection of wood anatomical data and specific gravity. The variance ratio (F) test indicated that variations among the trees of pith wood were significant for trees for fiber-inter- tree variations even at the early phase of tree growth for these wood traits, indicating fiber-length and specific gravity are highly under genetic control and can be used for early selection of genotypeslength and specific gravity only. This shows that variations were significant among different trees and non-significant due to vertical and peripheral direction except specific gravity for vertical direction for peripheral wood.