| dc.description.abstract | The relationships of heartwood width and sapwood width, growth rate, and stem volume with tree age were studied in 141 eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana L.) trees. The sample trees were selected from seven naturally open grown stands in central (loamy prairie, shallow prairie and loamy bottomland), eastern (shallow prairie), and western (sandy prairie) Oklahoma range sites with tree ages ranging from 5 to 29 years. The relationships of tree age to tree heartwood and sapwood width, and stem volume differed with range site. On average, heartwood width increased with increasing tree age from 10 mm in fifteen year old trees to 210 mm in twenty-seven year old trees. The width of sapwood and rate of transformation of sapwood into heartwood was slow up to 15 years of age and increased thereafter at an exponential rate until about age 27. Trees up to 15 years old in western Oklahoma had smaller heartwood width than trees of the same age on other sites. Stem volume increased markedly in trees greater than 15 years old. These data indicate that any control measures applied to invading eastern redcedar should be taken when the trees are less than 15 years old or less than 2 m tall. Once the trees are older than 15 years or taller than 2 m, then allowing the trees to grow for commercial harvest should be considered as a management alternative. Tree age and range site are impOliant factors determining heartwood and sapwood width, and stem volume of eastern redcedar. | |
