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Home → Publications → Tree Planters' Notes → Tree Planters' Notes Volume 18, Number 3 (1967) → Height Growth of Loblolly Pine Improved Only Slightly After Ten Years of Tip Moth Control

Height Growth of Loblolly Pine Improved Only Slightly After Ten Years of Tip Moth Control

This study was designed to measure the influence of Nantucket pine tip moth (Rhyacionia frustrana Comst.) attack on height growth of loblolly pine (Pin us taeda L.). Two groups of four 0.10-acre plots were planted with loblolly pine seedlings at a 6 x 6 foot spacing in January 1957. The trees on one group of plots were sprayed each week between March and October with a mixture of 2 pounds of DDT in 100 gallons of water. The trees on the other group served as controls and were allowed to grow unprotected. Spraying was discontinued after seven growing seasons, because of the physical limitations of reaching the top of 25-foot trees with ground equipment. The pattern of height growth and the height advantage resulting from the spraying treatment are shown in table 1 and figure 1. The additional height growth resulting from tip moth control was evident at the end of the first growing season and increased to 2.3 feet at the end of the fifth growing season. Since the fifth year, there has been a gradual decrease in this height advantage to 1.1 feet at the end of the tenth growing season. There appears to be no difference in stem form resulting from the spraying treatment.


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Author(s): R. G. Merrifield, R. R. Foil, Thomas Hansbrough

Publication: Tree Planters' Notes - Volume 18, Number 3 (1967)

Volume: 18

Number: 3