A big tree starts with a seed, and researchers cultivate the offspring of excellent acacia trees to develop Taiwan's forestry hope in the face of adversity.

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If you want to promote the cultivation of Acacia wood, you must rely on straight, tall, fine Acacia mother trees. In recent years, the Forest Research Institute has searched the mountains all over Taiwan and successively found more than 200 handsome, tall and straight Acacia trees as mother trees. To find out the fine Acacia tree genes. However, how can these fine genes be passed on and become competitive tree species in artificial economic forests? A group of forest experts from the Forest Research Institute have launched a long challenge in acacia breeding, aiming to anchor Taiwan's forestry and sail to the world.

Pick ear strips from the mother tree to cultivate offspring from six turtles.

Five years ago, after the Forest Test Institute found excellent Acacia mother trees in Danda and other places, 5820 panicles were collected from 106. after they were collected, they were immediately sent to the nursery of the six Turtle Research Center of the Forest Test Institute for grafting.

When you Hanming, head of the Forest Research Institute, mentioned this, his impression was still fresh. Every place they went to collect seeds and spikes, no matter how remote and high the mountains and forests were, as soon as they returned to civilized society, they immediately reported to their homes and sent them out in cold storage. About 3-6 parcels were sent from each seed collection place, each carrying dozens of spikes and ardent expectations that they would have the opportunity to grow seedlings.

Cai Jiabin, associate researcher of six Turtles Research Center, is responsible for cultivating small mother trees of Acacia trees (Photography / Liao Jinghui)

The ear strips collected at the six Turtles Research Center were handed over to Cai Jiabin, an associate researcher, to be responsible for the cultivation of grafted seedlings, which is not only an important work in the initial stage of the Acacia breeding program, but also the basis for the subsequent establishment of seed orchards and their descendants. Before that, Cai Jiabin carried out eucalyptus breeding, and with the encouragement of you Hanming, Cai Jiabin took over the research work of collecting seeds and raising seedlings of native Acacia trees.

Connect the ear to the rootstock to replicate the good gene

When the spikes of these Acacia trees collected in the wild poured into the six Turtles Research Center, the nursery immediately became busy, and Tsai Chia-bin's right-hand assistant, Lan Chun-Yu, played an important role. Most of these spikes are "picked up" by him one by one to the rootstock of the two-year-old Acacia tree. This work is no stranger to him, who runs orchards and tea gardens at home, and he is good at it.

It is just that these spikes collected from the mother trees of Acacia trees, because the mother trees are old, the old branches are not fit enough, and the success rate of grafting is less than 10%. Blue magnesium Yu has to replace new spikes for rootstocks from time to time, and the process must also observe and record its growth.

Why do these great mother trees in the wild pick ear strips from them to grow grafted seedlings instead of sowing them directly? Forestry expert Xu Yuanrui says that the character of picking ear strips is relatively stable, and when planted, it is exactly the same as the mother tree. if you pick seeds, it is like a child born to a human being. after genetic recombination, although each child has the genes of his parents, his or her performance is different.

"if you are sure to be a good mother tree, you only need to pick twigs and graft them on the rootstock of Acacia wood. After a year of successful grafting and seedling cultivation, you will be able to grow trees with the same characteristics as the mother tree." Xu Yuanrui said.