By Future Trees Trust Researcher Joe Beesley.

Over the last winter, research staff at Future Trees Trust collected 5-year data from our sycamore progeny trials. These trials, planted in 2016, are testing the performance of a number of plus trees we have selected across Britain and Ireland. The findings will allow us to remove poorly performing trees from our seed orchards and thereby improve the quality of the seeds produced there.

We have planted two trials: one at Armoy in County Antrim and the other on the Bathurst Estate in Gloucestershire. In the winter we recorded the height, diameter and form of all the trees, and we have just started to have a look at the data. As you can see in this histogram, the trees at Bathurst are already much taller than those at Armoy! But despite this difference there are particular plus trees that are performing well at both sites.

 

 

See full updates from Joe in his presentation “A Tale of Two Projects” in the Future Trees Trust Webinar: