ABSTRACT
Araucaria angustifolia (Brazilian Pine or Araucaria) is a potential native species to Brazilian forestry. However, a number of challenges and technical restraints still persist, making difficult its expansion as a species for forest plantations, among which the lack of cloning technologies evaluation in field conditions. So the present study aimed to evaluate the potential use of Araucaria plants produced by cuttings and grafting for wood production in comparison to those produced by seeds, by assessing field vigor and establishing a form factor for plantations with equivalent age. Plants from cuttings and seeds were planted in a 3 x 3 m spacing, being part of the last intended to be rootstocks for grafting. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with three treatments and plots of a plant (one tree plot). Plants from cuttings had higher growth in diameter at breast height (7.4 ± 2.41 cm) and total height (4.2 ± 1.08 m) at 74 months after planting, followed by grafted plants and from seeds, with similar results. We conclude that cuttings and grafting are potential techniques for Araucaria plants formation for wood production, and, in particular, grafting is recommended by the easiness of in its application, besides the fact that it can be used for seed orchards formation and presents volumetric increase and form factor similar to seedlings.
Keywords:
Vegetative propagation methods; Volumetric increase; Growth habit
