PARAMETERS AFFECTING SHOOT PRODUCTION AND ROOTING OF CUTTINGS FROM LODGEPOLE PINE HEDGES

By propagating lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) cuttings in vivo, we ob tained after 7 growing cycles (ca 3.5 years) in a greenhouse, sufficie nt number of cuttings from most families to establish clonal progeny t ests. Twenty-one full-sib families with approximately 20 clones per fa mily were studied for five years. Years when cuttings were set, famili es within latitude and clones within families differed significantly i n rooting percentages, with the variance components 4.2%, 8.2% and 9.5 %, respectively. One way to get a frequent and uniform rooting is to t ake cuttings from non-leading shoots since they have higher rooting pe rcentage than leading shoots. Neither total length of the cuttings nor length of the primary needles were significantly correlated to rootin g percentage. With appropriate management of the ortets and the cuttin gs during rooting, most clones could be included in a cutting propagat ion program.