THE IUFRO ABIES-GRANDIS PROVENANCE EXPERI MENT IN GERMANY - RESULTS AT AGE-18 19/

The results of the IUFRO Grand-fir provenance experiment in northern a nd central Germany at age 18/19 are presented for height, diameter, vo lume and losses. The experiment was planted on 13 sites, 12 of which a re included here. The provenances represent the coastal part of the na tural range in British Columbia, Washington and Oregon quite well. Fro m the continental part only 3 Idaho provenances are included. In addit ion to 41 IUFRO provenances 22 other provenances are included, 5 from Vancouver Island and the rest from Oregon, where II represent elevatio nal transsects. In height growth low and mean elevation provenances fr om northern Washington, from Vancouver Island, Coastal Southern Washin gton, and North Oregon are performing best. The same is true for diame ter growth and volume with a slightly better performance of Oregon sou rces in diameter due to the higher losses in the Oregon provenances. D ifferences between test sites are considerable and explain roughly 2 t hirds of total variation for quantitative characters. They are most dr astic for losses, where also more rank change occur between provenance s than for height and diameter. Volume differences of provenances rang e from 30% to 176% of standard provenances mean. An overall ranking in cluding height, diameter, and losses shows that 7 Washington provenanc es, 3 B. C. provenances and 1 Oregon provenance surpass the overall me an by at least 10%. Correlations with earlier measurements of the same experiment demonstrate that early selection is not very precise and t hat indirect selection would not have been possible with the character s under consideration.