Loblolly pine by nature (unimproved) is a crooked, big limbed, rust susceptible tree. But, it has tremendous genetic variability. After multiple cycles of purposeful breeding, improved families and crosses have greatly improved straightness, improved limb characteristics, and greatly decreased fusiform rust susceptibility. Very narrow crowns, very small branches, and extreme height allocation (for the given stem diameter) are still fairly rare genetic combinations though. With purposeful controlled crossing of unique and advanced forward and continued selections, control mass pollinated (known pollen applied to the flowers of known mother trees) seedlings with these rare and stacked traits can be purposefully produced. These traits are even rarer in open pollinated stands (known orchard tree selections but uncontrolled pollen). The picture trees from an operational planting in Meriwether County, Georgia show these extreme traits from an elite open pollinated GenTreeXT LLC family. Note the ratio of the height for the controlled diameter, i.e. a low DBH/HT ratio. Also note the very small branches and great straightness.
 
My friend Jonathan was working on a construction building project onsite and agreed to serve as a reference for the tree size. Jonathan is 6’2”. The pictured (September 2, 2022) seedlings are still 2 months away from finishing up their 2nd growing season and are getting adequate rainfall for continued growth. They have just started their 5th flush of height growth for the year. End of year two dominant and codominant heights will range between 4.5 and 9 feet across the tract.
 

Unique trees have unique niches and methods for use, and often, situations where they also should not be used.  Here, the narrow crown is matched to a rich sandy loam soil and planted at moderate density. This is the right site and density assignment for this particular genotype and crown ideotype, and the product produced will be quality lumber with very controlled knot size.  The trees will maintain moderate to long crown lengths, have limited taper, and allow for light thinnings to maintain strong mean annual increment growth.  This will be a fun operational stand to watch develop; it has great investment potential.
 
Contact me for more information about quality nurseries where you can obtain your GenTreeXT OP and CMP seedlings for the next planting season.