Evaluation of the growth of young plantation of mesquite (prosopis alba griseb) in the middle west argentine chaco

Abstract

Prosopis alba is the main native species used in the furniture industry in the el Chaco province, Argentina. Despite the economic importance there are not dasometric records in the Chaco province. The objective of this study was to investigate the growth of P. alba plantations. Three plantations (4, 5 and 7 years old) at different plant densities were studied.In each plantation, the normal diameter and total height was measured. In addition, the average of annual increases in diameter and height; the arithmetic means of annual increments and the weighted mean of annual increases in the average of diameter and height were calculated for each plantation at 95% confidence level. The analysis of varianza and the Tukey's test were performed to analyze the data output. In seven years old plants, the lower thresholds of the average annual increase in diameter and height were 0,158 and 0,80m, respectively; while the upper thresholds were 0,187 and 0,93m, respectively. Significant differences were observed in plantations of 4 and 5 years old compared to plantations of 7 years old. The weighted average of the growth in diameter and height were 0,172 and 0,87m, respectively.

Keywords

• forestry
• plantation
• parque chaqueño