Effect of different progeny test strategies in the performance of eucalypt clones

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to investigate whether the performance of an individual in clonal testing was affected by the location of the initial selection. The study also evaluated the effect of mass selection and BLUP (Best Linear Unbiased Prediction) on the performance of individuals in the progeny test and the clonal test. In the progeny test, 62 half-sib E. grandis families, 68 half-sib E. urophylla families and 62 full-sib families between E. grandis and E. urophylla, plus four checks were evaluated totaling 196 treatments. The experiments were carried out at three sites: Aracruz and São Mateus, in Espírito Santo State and Caravelas, Bahia State, Brazil. The 1000 best individuals were classified by mass selection and BLUP. In the clonal tests 257 clones were evaluated in two locations: Aracruz and Caravelas. In both the progeny test and the clonal test, two years after planting, the circumference at breast height and basic wood density were measured and the sum of standardized variables (Z) was estimated for simultaneous selection of both characteristics. The results indicated that the origin of the individual in a progeny test had a small effect on the performance of the clone when evaluated in other environments; the estimates of realized heritability and the linear regression coefficient were small in all the selection strategies. Thus, the correlation between the performance of trees selected in progeny tests and their respective clones in the clonal test was small.