A review of dipterocarps - Center for International Forestry Research

Plantations 159
parvifolia and S. platyclados is promising. Fox (1971/
72) investigated the performance of wilding stock of
Dipterocarpus caudiferus, Dryobalanops lanceolata
and Parashorea tomentella, of which D. lanceolata
performed best. This was confirmed in a trial by Chai
(1975). Jafarsidik and Sutomo (1988) developed a field
guide for the identification of dipterocarp wildings for
a production forest in West Sumatra including wildings
of the genera Anisoptera, Dipterocarpus, Hopea, Parashorea
and Shorea. Wardani and Jafarsidik (1988) put together
a field guide for the identification of dipterocarp wildings
of the genera Dipterocarpus, Dryobalanops, Hopea
and Shorea for a forest area in West Kalimantan. Mauricio
(1957) investigated factors which influence the performance
of wildings of Parashorea plicata and Shorea contorta
to determine: (i) the effect of the wilding size on survival,
(ii) the time the wildings require to adapt to the planting
site, and (iii) the most suitable size. In this experiment
P. plicata had a higher survival, specially at heights of
20 cm and less. Lantion (1938) tested the performance
and the behaviour of wildings of Dipterocarpus grandiflorus
and Shorea teysmanniana and smaller plants had higher
survival. The Forest Department in Malaya had a trial
of Dryobalanops oblongifolia and D. aromatica in the
nursery where six month-old wildings were transplanted
into small claypots. D. oblongifolia wildings had 76%
survival in the nursery and about 90% survival in the
field after six months whereas D. aromatica wildings
had a survival of 100% in the field (Anon. 1951).
Rayos (1940) tested the effect of storage time of
wildings of Hopea pierrei on survival by covering their
roots with moist sawdust. Survival was higher the shorter
the storage time and it was greater for seedlings 10-20
cm high than for those in other height classes. No effect
of storage time on survival rate was found by Siagian et
al. (1989b). Moura-Costa (1993) obtained high survival
rates with wildings from Parashorea malaanonan,
Shorea parvifolia and Dryobalanops lanceolata.
Forest-pulled seedlings were watered and kept in plastic
covered chambers with high humidity until a new root
system had formed. Survival in the nursery was up to 95%
in a large scale operation. Barnard and Setten (1955) used
wildings in an investigation on the effect of planting patch
cultivation but found no difference to planting in
unprepared patches. Wardani (1989) found that shoot and
root-pruning increased survival of wildings. Hormone
treatment of wildings for growth stimulation has been
reported for Vatica sumatrana (Masano and Omon
1985), for Dipterocarpus retusus (Omon and Masano
1986), for Shorea platyclados (Napitupulu and Supriana
1987) and for Shorea selanica, (Siagian et al. 1989b).
Increased survival rates were found for S. platyclados
and V. sumatrana but not for D. retusus and S. selanica.
The Forest Department Sarawak reported the
establishment of wilding nurseries as seedling reservoirs
(Anon. 1948c). Before a heavy seedfall, cleanings were
made beneath fruiting trees to form natural ‘nurseries’
which were used later to plant forests with low natural
regeneration or in secondary vegetation. The seedling
yield was excellent.
The use of wildings is not unequivocally supported.
Wyatt-Smith (1963b) is critical about the use of wildings
for the following reasons: (i) transplanting large forest
seedlings is generally not successful, (ii) small forest
seedlings suffer high mortality during the first two years,
and (iii) the pool of young forest seedlings cannot serve
as a continuous supply for large-scale plantations.
Vegetative propagation
Among the methods of vegetative propagation of grafting,
air layering, tissue culture and cutting propagation, the
latter is the most commonly used technique. Plant
production from cuttings has been intensively
investigated. Dick and Aminah (1994) have carried out a
thorough review on cutting propagation of dipterocarps.
Research work has been carried out on important factors
influencing the rooting ability of dipterocarp cuttings,
such as rooting facilities, rooting media, source of
cutting material, type and treatment of cutting. According
to Dick and Aminah (1994) 56 dipterocarp species have
been tested, among them almost all of the species
suitable for plantations. Vegetative propagation of
dipterocarps is increasingly successful and has been
introduced as large-scale operations in Indonesia
(Sutisna, personal communication). Moura-Costa (1995)
gives a detailed description of vegetative propagation
techniques for Dryobalanops lanceolata and several
Shorea spp. in context of plant production for large scale
enrichment plantings of dipterocarps in Sabah. However,
when cutting propagation is used in plantation
programmes, it is necessary to precede such large-scale
application by an established procedure of selection of
superior stock plants. Clonal propagation of selected
material from dipterocarps is in its infancy in the whole
region (see e.g., Finkeldey and Havmoller 1994). Moura-
Costa (1995) discusses a procedure of selecting best
genotypic material at the seedling stage, the so-called