Options for converting a clone trial of Eucalyptus camaldulensis into a clonal seed orchard considering gain, fertility and effective clone number

We evaluated a clone trial comprised of 20 ramets each of 40 Eucalyptus camaldulensis clones for growth and fertility at 4 years of age. The clones differed significantly in growth with 65–100 % survival in 38 clones while two clones had low survival (40 and 10 %). Fecundity was high and fertility variation low, as indicated by the sibling coefficient value ( Ψ = 1.4) with 55 % of clones contributing 80 % of the fruits. Thinning strategies were considered to convert the clone trial to a clonal seed orchard and enhance both gain and diversity in seed crop. When clones were selected based on growth without considering fertility, truncation selection (to retain clones with higher DBH than the trial mean value) would give 8 % gain, but 59 % reduction in effective population size ( N e ). Gain and predicted diversity ( N e ) was highest when ramets were selected in linear proportion to the breeding value of each clone. Mass selection with the same intercept (for DBH) as truncation selection would give a moderate 3 % gain, but over two times higher predicted N e than truncation selection. When fertility of retained trees was considered after thinning, mass selection would yield 52 % effective contribution from the orchard trees compared to only 30 % contribution from truncation selection and linear thinning. Higher representation of superior clones in linear thinning and mass selection would lead to greater fertility variation and over 30 % reduction in effective clone number ( N c ) from that predicted ( N e , assuming equal fertility among ramets) before thinning.