The PINUS Center discloses in a new informative video the new generation of maritime pines that is being born with the genetic improvement program applied to the resin.
The RN21 project – Innovation in the Natural Resin Sector to Strengthen the National Bioeconomy – marks a turning point in the history of resin in Portugal.
From forest production to transformation, the purpose of this consortium, integrated by the PINUS Centre, is to make this ancestral practice, inseparable from maritime pine, more efficient, innovative, and attractive for the management and enhancement of maritime pine.
This PINUS TV followed the first stages of the national genetic improvement program that promises maritime pines to be more productive in resin.
The filming follows the grafts started in 2024 for the installation of the clonal assay. This takes place in a 6-hectare maritime pine plantation located in the Alva de Pataias Forest Perimeter, an area provided by the ICNF.
The glaciers that reach the field contain the forks (branches) for grafting. These arrive from various regions of maritime pine origin, where more than 400 trees were previously identified and selected by an ESAC team.
Researcher Isabel Carrasquinho explains how the multiplication of these trees selected by grafting will make it possible to test the performance of the clones under well-defined conditions and evaluate the genetic gain of resin production.
The report also interviews one of APFCAN’s experienced grafting technicians, who demonstrates in the video the “art” of grafting maritime pine, unusual in this forest species and different from that carried out in stone pine.
This spring the grafting continued, involved in a complex logistical operation coordinated by the PINUS Center in conjunction with partners, in addition to the continuous dissemination of the activities and evolution of this genetic improvement program.
In parallel with the test in Alva de Pataias, the DNA extracted from the needles of the selected trees was analyzed in the laboratory by UTAD researchers.
The next updates on this promising topic for the Pine Sector will continue to be disseminated on the communication channels of the PINUS Centre, along with the maritime pine genetic improvement programme for volume and form, also under development, and with the participation of this association.