Survival is critical in clonal plantation

Allured by the potential productivity of clonal plants, various agencies including Forest Departments MC Increasingly raising such plantation for boosting productivity of marginal forests and reclaiming degraded landsas well as other difflcult 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 significcantly, 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-signitlcantly higher G5O. GBH. height and wood biomass per plant than seedlings, till 7.5 years age. In ninth year, rising casualty in clonal plants reverscd the growth pattern and higher wood biomass yield was observed in seedling plants. Also, GBH:G5O ratio, which usually indicated similar growth in clonal and seedling trees, tilted in favour of seedling plants.