■gicre 2. — Tuo stumps 

 were oultured to 

 produce Christmas 

 trees: left stump ' 

 was treated to favor 

 adventitious shoots; 

 right stump was 

 treated to favor a 

 branch turnup . 



which were competing for space with the featured turnups and shoots, were removed. In 

 addition, about half of the lower branches of the new turnups were pruned to reduce 

 excessive height growth. 



A paired-tree design method was used: stiunps treated to favor branch turnups were 

 matched with those treated to favor adventitious shoots. This same pairing method was 

 used in each of 4 successive years following the cutting of the original trees. In- 

 cluded were 6 pairs of trees in each of 4 years at 5 locations --making a total of 120 

 pairs of trees. All treatments were randomly assigned. 



Basal Pruning 



Low-density crown, due to excessive distances between whorls, was felt to be 

 responsible for reducing the quality of many trees. Five different basal pruning 

 methods applied once at the start of this study were tested to determine if height 

 growth, and as a result, distance between whorls could be reduced and if higher quality 

 trees would result. The treatments were: 



1. Remove lower two-thirds of the green crown 



2. Remove lower one-half of the green crown 



3. Remove one-half of the green crown from midtree, leaving 

 lower branches for future stump culture (fig. 3) 



4. Remove crown along two-thirds of one side of the green 

 crown and strip off one inch or more of the bark 



5. Shear buds from leaders and laterals 



A paired-tree design, with one of the pair randomly chosen for pruning and the 



other used as a check, was used to determine pruning effects (fig. 4). Six pairs of 



trees for each of the five treatments at five locations--a total of 150 pairs--comprised 



the sample. When treated, the trees averaged 12 feet in height, ranging from 10 feet 



on the plot near Eureka to 14 feet on the plot near Lolo. 



3 



