Silvicultural considerations for the production of poles in Pinus radiata D. Don plantations in Chile

Abstract

The production of poles in Chile is done by choosing trees specially selected for that purpose, however, the forestry that is massively applied is oriented to the simultaneous production of pruned, sawn and pulpable logs. Silviculture for the specific production of poles in Chile is a technically complex issue, not addressed to date, whose description and analysis is what this review attempts to outline. The technical requirements of poles in terms of size, stem shape, knots, nodal thickening, straightness, spiral grain and resistance were analysed. These requirements were related to the variables site, stand density, genotype, pruning, thinning and harvest age. From the analysis of the variables it was concluded that a high-density forestry is required with multinodal plants in sites of regular too bad quality, but that generates high density wood with a low pruning and a selection thinning.