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Summary
Cuttings taken from one and two-year-old mother plants were compared with one and two-year-old seedlings. The plants for all four treatments were raised from the same culled first generation clonal orchard batch. The trial was planted in July 1985 on improved pasture at Flynn in Gippsland Victoria.
At 4.3 years, cuttings from one-year-old mother plants carried 30.9% more stem volume than one-year-old seedlings. Cuttings from two-year-old mother plants carried 9.4% more volume than one-year-old seedlings.
Gains in form traits for cuttings were highest for cuttings taken from two-year-old mother plants. When compared to trees grown from one-year-old seedlings, cuttings from two-year-old parents provided a 20% improvement in stem straightness, 17% improvement in branch quality and an increase of 19% in the incidence of single stemmed trees with no ramicorns.