Timing of Bag Application and Removal in Controlled Mass Pollination

Abstract

Controlled mass pollination (CMP) among outstanding parents is one way to increase genetic gains from traditional wind-pollinated seed orchards, but the economic success of CMP depends on both genetic gains and costs. CMP has been shown. to be cost-effective (Bridgwater et al. 1998) even when costs were adjusted for risk (Byram and Bridgwater 1999, These Proceedings). Both of these studies assumed that CMP was 100% effective. That is, there was no pollen contamination during the CMP process that would reduce the expected gains from mating outstanding parents. This assumption is not always met under operational conditions due to variable strobilus development and the limited amount of time to conduct CMP. It is important for producers of CMP seeds to know how much contaminated seed might be produced under operational conditions.

Keywords

pollen contamination, electrophoretic analysis, strobilus developmental stage

Citation

Bridgwater, F.E.; Bramlett, D.L.; Hipkins, V.D. 1999. Timing of Bag Application and Removal in Controlled Mass Pollination. Proceedings of the 25th Biennial Southern Forest Tree Improvement Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA