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Enhancing Pinus pinea cone production by grafting in a non-native habitat

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Abstract

Pinus pinea is an interesting species for its valued pine nuts. Despite the high demand for this nut, the species is mostly harvested from natural forests, because the time elapsed until the trees come into production hinders advances toward a more intensive cultivation. The grafting technique has been used to favor an earlier production in native Mediterranean habitats. In Chile, stone pine has been recently included in orchards. The objective of this study was to assess the initial performance in terms of growth, entry into production and cone yield of three grafting trials of the species established in Chile; two of the trials included nursery-grafted plants and the other, in situ grafting of P. pinea on a 3-year-old P. radiata plantation. An earlier entry into production and a higher number of female strobili and 1-year-old conelets (up to 2.9 times) were found in nursery-grafted plants compared with control seedlings. Growth was higher in trees in situ grafted onto radiata pine than in seedlings; eight years after grafting, the trees had achieved reproductive maturity, 67% had on average three cones per tree, and the presence of female strobili and 1-year-old conelets was 6.6 and 15.6 times higher than in seedlings, respectively. Radiata pine could be a feasible rootstock for either in-nursery or in situ stone pine grafting. Grafting accelerated stone pine entry into production, showing to be an effective tool for stone pine propagation and cropping.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Ramón Mella, Silvesco S.A. and Sociedad Agrícola Morel Morel for providing the land for trial establishment, and for taking care of the trials.

Funding

Trials were established and maintained via the projects “The edible pine nut of stone pine, an attractive business for Chile” funded by INNOVA, CORFO (07CT9 IUM-51) (2008–2012) and “Technique development for producing stone pine (Pinus pinea) pine nuts, an attractive commercial option for Chile”, funded by FONDEF, CONICYT (D11I1134) (2012-2016). The Chilean Ministry of Agriculture funded measurements and analyses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chilean Forest Institute (INFOR), Sucre 2397, Ñuñoa, Santiago, Chile

    Verónica Loewe-Muñoz, Rodrigo Del Río & Claudia Delard

  2. CONICET Biometry Unit, College of Agriculture, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Av. Haya de la Torre s/n, Córdoba, Argentina

    Mónica Balzarini

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  1. Verónica Loewe-Muñoz
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Correspondence to Verónica Loewe-Muñoz.

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Loewe-Muñoz, V., Del Río, R., Delard, C. et al. Enhancing Pinus pinea cone production by grafting in a non-native habitat. New Forests 53, 37–55 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11056-021-09842-5

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