Many woody plants respond to intense clipping through an increase in growth parameters and nutritive value. However, optimal clipping intensities that result in peak plant growth and nutritive value have not been determined. We studied the response of Ziziphus mucronata and Acacia nilotica saplings to four clipping intensities. Parts of the main stem and each lateral branch were removed to simulate 0%, 30%, 60%, and 90% clipping intensity. After four months of resprouting five sapling growth parameters were determined viz. height, basal stem diameter, length of the longest shoot, root length, and number of new shoots. In addition, foliar crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fibre (NDF), acid detergent fibre (ADF), total phenolic (TP), and condensed tannin (CT) concentrations were determined. Shoot clipping did not stimulate sapling height and basal diameter growth, while shoot length responded to an increase in clipping intensity with a weak hump-shape in both species. Ziziphus mucronata increased root growth in response to increasing clipping intensity, while A. nilotica showed no clear trend. The largest number of new shoots was produced at 60% and 30% clipping intensities for Z. mucronata and A. nilotica respectively. Ziziphus mucronata produced more new shoots than A. nilotica. The most severe (90%) clipping intensity produced the highest CP and lowest NDF content in the two species, reduced TP and CT content in A. nilotica, but not in Z. mucronata. We conclude that an increase in clipping intensity produced varying responses in sapling growth parameters and nutritive values in Z. mucronata and A. nilotica.

许多木本植物通过增加生长参数和营养价值来应对强烈的剪枝。但是，尚未确定导致植物峰值生长和营养价值的最佳修剪强度。我们研究了Ziziphus mucronata和Nicacia nilotica的响应幼树到四个修剪强度。去除部分主茎和每个侧枝以模拟0％，30％，60％和90％的剪切强度。重新萌芽四个月后，确定五个树苗生长参数。高度，基茎直径，最长芽的长度，根长和新芽的数量。此外，还测定了叶面粗蛋白（CP），中性洗涤剂纤维（NDF），酸性洗涤剂纤维（ADF），总酚（TP）和缩合单宁（CT）的浓度。枝条修剪并没有刺激幼树的高度和基部直径的增长，而枝条长度对修剪强度的增加做出了响应，两个物种的驼峰形状都很弱。Ziziphus mucronata响应修剪强度的增加而增加根的生长，而A. nilotica没有明显的趋势。粘虫Z. mucronata和A. nilotica的修剪强度分别为60％和30％时，产生的新芽数量最多。金丝mucronata生产超过新芽A.罗非鱼。最严重的（90％）削波强度在两个物种中产生最高的CP和最低的NDF含量，降低了尼罗罗非鱼的TP和CT含量，而在Z. mucronata中却没有。我们得出结论，剪枝强度的增加在Z. mucronata和A. nilotica的幼树生长参数和营养值上产生了不同的反应。