Early performance of mahagony clones (Swietenia macrophylla King) at Pococi from Limon, Costa Rica

In Costa Rica, reforestation for commercial purposes using native species of high market value has not been developed with the potential that the country has, mainly because of the lack of suitable genetic material for each of the productive regions. To achieve successful production systems, genetic material identified as superior based on its performance under different site conditions is required. The objective of this study was to evaluate the dasometric performance at early age of mahogany genotypes developing under the conditions of the Guapiles site, with the purpose of improving the package of intensive and site-specific forestry production for this species. For this, a clonal trial was evaluated for nine years, to know the performance of the different genotypes evaluated. An average normal diameter of 16.3 cm tree-1 was recorded at the end of 108 months, which represents an AMI of 1.81 cm tree-1 year-1. Clones 207, 233, 194, 227, 57, 52, 21, 126, 201, 61, 56, 72, 199, 97, 191, 16, 187, 217, 276, 183, 173, 40, 3, 100, 193, 185, 177, 307, 1 and 237 were selected to continue genetic improvement for this site. Its use would generate an average volume of 0.2206 m3 tree-1 at 9 years. The remaining clones should be discarded for commercial reforestation purposes and preserved for other later possible purposes.