Effects of thinning intensity and crown class on cherrybark oak epicormic branching five years after treatmentThis article is part of a larger document. View the larger document here.
Thinning in oak-dominated stands may have many desirable consequences, including increases in tree growth and mast production. One of the potential disadvantages, however, is the proliferation of epicormic branches, which leads to reduction in lumber quality and value. We assessed the effects of thinning intensity and initial crown class on cherrybark oak (Quercus pagoda Raf.) epicormic branching in a 35-year old plantation in east central Louisiana. The thinning regimes were light, with residual stocking (Goelz 1995) of 75 percent, heavy, with 50 percent residual stocking, and an uncut control. The crown classes of all residual trees were classified immediately after treatment with a numeric crown class system (Meadows and others 2001). Five years after treatment, the number of epicormic branches increased across all treatments and crown classes. However, trees with higher crown class scores (the more dominant trees) continued to have fewer epicormics than trees with lower crown class scores.