The Effect of Coppice Number on Its Growth and Productivityin Second Rotation of Eucalyptus urophylla

The impact of stem number left for each trunk on tree growth and productivity in a second rotation coppice of Eucalyptus urophylla was studied by cutting 5.5 years old plantation in previous rotation. The results showed that the survival rate of coppice was lower in one stem left than 2 5 stem left per trunk. The coppice with less stem or stems would have a higher increment of height, diamter and volume of indivival stem. At year 3.5, the stand volume was the highest (45.49 m3·ha-1) in the treatment with 3 stems left per tree, followed by the treatments with 4 and 2 stems per tree are the second (44.21 m3·ha-1) and third (42.25 m3·ha-1) respectively. They were 131.7%, 128.0% and 123.0% of the stand volume in the control treatment (no thinning for the second rotation coppice), respecively. The pole production for construction were 174.3%, 148.6% and 155.4% of the control treatment, respectively. Therefore, it is suggested that 3 stems per tree should be left on the middle fertility site at the planting spacing 2 m×3 m and 2 4 stems per tree should be left to second rotation coppice of E. ruophylla in south China.