Pinus Radiata

Abstract

During the last two years two reviews have been published on the micropropagation of Pinus radiata D. Don. The first, by Aitken-Christie and Thorpe (3), detailed the techniques used in the micropropagation of juvenile radiata pine. The second, by Smith (25), described the genetic improvement of Pinus radiata, procedures used to micropropagate juvenile radiata pine in a small production laboratory, and a cost-benefit analysis of the use of micropropagated planting stock. The following chapter describes new developments in the propagation of radiata pine and their effect on the direction of tissue culture research at the Forest Research Institute (FRI) New Zealand. Only brief details of the methods used to micropropagate juvenile radiata pine are given, since these have been well covered in the two previous reviews. Over the past 4 years research on the micropropagation of mature radiata has also been undertaken. Progress made and problems encountered during this research are described.