ASSESSMENT OF Pinus greggii Engelm. ex Parl PROVENANCES IN PLANTATIONS OF THE OAXACAN MIXTECA

Abstract

Some characteristics of 13 provenances of seven year-old Pinus greggii, planted in 1997 were evaluated in Tlacotepec Plumas and Magdalena Zahuatlán in the Mixteca of Oaxaca. A 2 x 13 factorial arrangement (communities for provenances) was used under a completely randomized blocks design with 12 replications and 9 individuals per experimental unit. Trees in Tlacotepec Plumas and Magdalena Zahuatlán, had 4.7 and 3.7 m height, 12.3 and 9.7 cm of basal diameter, 7.4 and 4.8 cm of diameter at breast height and 12.3 and 10.8 nodes; current annual increment (CAI) was 0.73 and 0.47 m in height; 1.96 and 1.51 cm in basal diameter; 1.12 and 1.03 growth cycles, respectively. Soils of Tlacotepec Plumas and Magdalena Zahuatlán had pH of 7.6 and 8.1, respectively, as well as 0.16 and 0.08% nitrogen. Provenances from central Mexico, Comunidad Durango, Zimapán, Hidalgo State; El Madroño, Queretaro State; El Piñón and Molango, Hidalgo, showed 1.18, 1.14, 1.10 and 0.99 cm, of mean annual increment (MAI) of diameter at breast height, magnitudes are not significantly different, but greater than 0.64 and 0.66 cm of MAI in diameter at breast height of provenances from the north of Mexico: Jame, Puerto Los Conejos and Los Lirios, Coahuila and Galeana, Nuevo León. The upper growth of trees of the first three provenances indicates the sites where Pinus greggii seeds could be collected for future plantations in some communities of the Oaxacan Mixteca.