Analysis of Early Growth of 22 Camellia oleifera Varieties in Meizhou

To understand the growth adaptability of Camellia oleifera varieties selected from different producing areas in Meizhou, Guangdong, a total of 22 varieties of C.oleifera from Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangxi, and Guangdong were selected as the experiment materials to investigate and analyze their early growth traits such as afforestation survival rate, growth rate, disease occurrence, flowering, and initial fruit setting, and to preliminarily evaluate the growth adaptability of the tested varieties in Meizhou.The results showed that after 1.9 years of afforestation, the preservation rates of different varieties ranged from 40.0% to 100%.Among them, the afforestation preservation rates of Xianglin 210-T, Huajin, Changlin 53, Yueshao 75-2, Ganzhouyou 1, Ganzhouyou 7, and Ganwu 2 were all above 95%.The differences in tree height, ground diameter, and crown diameter among varieties in the 2.8-year-old forest stand reached extremely significant levels.Mei-1 showed the best performance in tree height growth, followed by Xianglin 210-T; Changlin 40, Ganzhou You 7, Huajin, Huaxin, and Xianglin 210-T showed better ground diameter growth; the growth of crown diameter is best performed by Mei-1, followed by Xianglin 210-T, Changlin 4, and Cenruan 2.In terms of early flowering and fruiting, Xianglin 210-T showed the best performance.All plants in the 3.3-year-old forest had already bloomed and fruited, with an average fruiting quantity of 13.3 per plant and a maximum fruiting quantity of 52 per plant; the second is Mei 1.In terms of disease and pest resistance, the disease situation of the tested C.oleifera varieties in the young forest stage is relatively light, and the resistance grade is mainly high resistance and medium resistance, among which:Huajin, Xianglin 210-t, Changlin 4, Changlin 53, Xianglin 1, Xianglin 210-c, Mei 3 are all high resistance varieties.The comprehensive average method shows that Xianglin 210-t, Mei 1, Ganzhou you 7, Changlin 4 and Huaxin have excellent early growth performance in Meizhou, which are more suitable for Meizhou.