In the 1970s, the Danish State Nature Agency imported seeds for the establishment of the seed breeding stands Saltbjerg F808 and Tveden F824. At the age of a Christmas tree (10 years), the best 400 trees per ha were selected corresponding to a selection of approx. 8% of the original trees in the stand. These were followed closely for time of leaf out, form and quality.
At age 12-14 years, 183 carefully selected plus trees were grafted in the State’s sister nurseries; Sønderskovgaard FP246 and Skibelund FP266. This corresponds to the best 1% of the trees in a culture being included for further breeding in these seed orchards.
For the FP1004 seed orchards, 15 clones have been selected from among the 183 clones mentioned above, corresponding to only the very best approx. 0.1% of the total number of seed import trees. This clone seed orchard is therefore a 1.5 generation orchard, and improved compared to Sønderskovgård FP246 and Skibelund FP266.
All in all, you should expect a significantly better and very uniform average shape of the trees and average growth power, and hence also less need for regulation and shaping. The trees also become slightly narrower and have a slightly later emergence than the offspring from Ambrolauri, Georgia. In the selection, emphasis is also placed on post-harvest quality and thus the risk of needle loss after felling is reduced.
Progeny trial set and monitored by Kbh. University across 4 locations in Denmark with very different soil types shows that this genetics is superior to trees grown from seeds from Ambrolauri regardless of location type. In this context, the value of a 1 ha cycle is documented to be 40% higher.
