Aboveground Biomass of 4 Bamboo Plantations in Different Culm Ages at Royal Agricultural Station Angkhang, Chiang Mai Province

Abstract

The aboveground biomass of various aged bamboo plantations were studied at the Royal Agricultural Station Angkhang, Chiang Mai Province. Four bamboo plantation species were Bambusa longispatha, Dendrocalamus brandisii, Dendrocalamus hamiltonii and Dendrocalamus latiflorus with culm aged 1, 2, 3 and 4 years or more. Randomized complete block design (RCBD) was applied. Two sampled plots of 20 m x 20 m size each were laid out in each bamboo plantation species.

The results showed that diameter at breast height of the four age classes were 3.43-3.85 cm for B. longispatha, 12.73-13.84 cm for D. brandisii, 8.86-9.62 cm for D. hamiltonii and 7.13-8.74 cm for D. latiflorus, the height growths were 8.75-10.11 m for B. longispatha, 20.80-23.34 m for D. brandisii, 20.02-21.31 m for D. hamiltonii and 10.07-15.13 m for D. latiflorus. The highest aboveground biomass of totally four age classes was D. brandisii and followed by D. hamiltonii, B. longispatha and D. latiflorus with the values of 87.83, 84.58, 27.39 and 20.82 t ha^-1, respectively. The aboveground biomass were consisted of culm, branch and leaf with percentages of 80-87, 7-16 and 3-6 respectively.