Clonal Solutions Australia is licensed to produce Saltgrow™ eucalypt clones for distribution throughout Australia and the world.

Saltgrow™ eucalypt clones are eucalypt hybrids which have been specially bred for planting on saline land:

• Bred for high growth and timber quality.
• Hybrids selected from trials on saline land.
• Suitable for farm forestry.
• Hybrid growth rates superior to pure species parents.
• Potential for irrigation with saline water.
• Clonal mix available to allow tailoring of subsequent plantings to individual sites.
• Defined and repeatable performance from clonal selections providing reduced management costs.
• Drought tolerant.
• Rehabilitation of salt-degraded land.

Saltgrow™ eucalypt hybrids are the first release from the XylonovA™ breeding programme, which is a collaboration of private companies and investors and several leading Australian Universities and State Government Forestry Research groups.

By creating novel eucalypt hybrids, the XylonovA™ programme combines the salt and stress tolerance of E. camaldulensis with the growth and wood property traits of E. grandis and E. globulus.

There are three varieties of Saltgrow™ clones:

• Eucalyptus grandis x E. camaldulensis (‘grandis’ clones)
• Eucalyptus globulus x E. camaldulensis (‘globulus’ clones)
• Eucalyptus camaldulensis (‘camaldulensis’ clones)

The ‘grandis’ clones are the most popular due to their suitability for a wide range of climatic zones throughout Australia (including Tasmania).

Technical Information

Two trials have been established on saline land at Kyabram, Victoria (1998) and Caldwell, NSW (1999). Soil salinity at Kyabram is 8 dSm-1, and at Caldwell is up to 25 dSm-1 at a depth of 30 to 50 cm. The Kyabram trial is being irrigated with water up to 10 dSm-3, while the Caldwell trial presents a highly sodic soil (ESP 30 to 35) near the surface. A further 30 trials were established across Australia in 2000 in collaboration with key plantation growers. Additional trials have continued to be established.

Saltgrow™ hybrids have achieved mean heights of up to 6.8m and diameters of over 7cm in 2 years on the Kyabram, Victoria site where the saline watertable (equivalent to 15% seawater) is 50 to 100cm below the surface, soil is a medium to heavy clay and 450mm of rainfall is supplemented with saline irrigation equivalent to 10 to 20% seawater. On non-saline sites, heights of 3m in just 4 months have been achieved.

Figure 1: Frequency distribution at two years for individual stem volume (dm³) of one E. camaldulensis x grandis hybrid family, illustrating the superior average performance of the hybrid over both parents, and the potential for significant gain through selection of elite hybrid clones. The average of the top 10% of hybrid clones represents a gain of 47% over the family mean, and 106% over the top parent(E. grandis) mean. (Bars in the figure represent the average for hybrid clones only.)

Saltgrow™: Productive Solutions for Saline Land