MSc

The present study was carried out to analyse the effect of rate of growth on the wood quality of teak from samples collected from trees which were grown within the country as well as from outside. The work involved collection of samples from saw mills and major timber importing ports in South India (Mangalore, Tuticorin etc.) and wood property analysis that was carried out in the wood science laboratory, Department of wood science, College of forestry, Kerala Agricultural University, vellanikkara. Teak samples (basal discs) from 14 different locations viz. Nilambur, Malayattoor , Konni, Ranni, Vadayar (TN) and Betul (MP) within India and Myanmar, Thailand, Ghana, Benin, Cameroon, Sudan, Tanzania and Trinidad outside India were included in the study.
To study the effect of growth rate on wood quality, the collected samples were classified as fast grown and slow grown based on their average ring width. Those samples having an average ring width 5mm and those having an average ring width <5mm were categorised in to fast grown and slow grown respectively. The analysis on variation in wood physical, anatomical and biochemical properties between the two categories revealed that, fast grown samples were characterised with higher specific gravity, moisture content (air dry) and shrinkage compared to the slow grown, but properties like vessel diameter, vessel area, ray height, ray width and extractive content (%) was found to be showed uniformity with regard to other properties such as coefficient of anisotropy (wood stability), heartwood content(%), heartwood colour and bark thickness.
Investigation on the wood properties between the samples from 14 different locations revealed higher degree of variation. Ring width analysis showed that, samples from Afric(except Sudan) had higher growth rate and was comparable with that of fast grown Nilambur teak, Asian teak (especially the teak samples from India) showed high variability with regard to growth rate/ring width. Maximum growth rate was showed by Vadavar teak (Tamil Nadu). The sample from Asia also showed superiority over the samples from Africa in the properties. Viz. specific gravity, wood stability, heartwood colour and extractive content (%).Among the samples form Asia, Myanmar possessed the highest vessel dimensions and the sample from Konni had the largest ray height and raywidth. Samples from Konni (11.13%) and Betul (MadhyaPradesh) (10.44%) possessed higher amount of extractives and more darker heartwood. Wood quality parameters like specific gravity (Vadavar (TN) and Nilambur), resistance to deformation (Nilambur, Vadavar (TN) and Betul (MP), heartwood colour and total extractive content (Konni and Betul (MP) were found to be higher for Indian teak. Based on the present study, it can be concluded that, rate of growth has only a little effect on the wood quality of teak, whereas, location – wise, Indian teak irrespective of their growth rate, was found to be superior over rest of the samples with regard to wood physical, anatomical and biochemical properties.