Jelonek, T., Pazdrowski ,W. and Tomczak, A. 2008. Biometric Traits of Wood and Quality of Timber Produced in Former Farmland.  Baltic Forestry 14(2):138-148

Investigations were conducted on 48 Scots pines grown on former farmland and under typical forest conditions in northern Poland. It was attempted in the study to determine wood quality of pines coming from former farmland and typical forest conditions, based on the relationship between biometric traits of trees and the share of sapwood and heartwood in tree stems. Moreover, the analysis included the dynamics of heartwood formation and the dependence between crown volume of trees, breast height diameter and height, and volume and share of heartwood and sapwood in tree stems. Results show that pines growing on former farmland exhibit higher dynamics of heartwood formation and a higher share of heartwood and a lower share of sapwood in stems than pines growing on typical forest soils. High values of coefficients of determination obtained for analyzed dependencies facilitate estimation of sapwood and heartwood volumes in stems of pines on the basis of their breast height diameter or crown volume.

Key words: Scots pine, former farmland, biometric traits, sapwood, heartwood