COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION OF TISSUE-CULTURED PINUS-RADIATA

Micropropagation has provided the vehicle for large numbers of cloned planting stock to be established in the forest. The current output of micropropagated stock from the Tasman Forestry Lt,. micropropagation f acility at Te Teko (Bay of Plenty, New Zealand) is 2.5 million rooted plantlets per year from 32 clones. Production from some clones over a five-year period has now exceeded 0.5 million plantlets in total. Exte nsive optimization of culture protocols has brought this about and by the close of the 1994 forest establishment program, an estimated 4000 hectares will be stocked by clonal plantlets in discrete clonal blocks .