Effects of girdling on wood properties and drying characteristics of Acacia mangium

Basic properties and drying quality of 9-year-old acacia mangium wood from plantation of the forest research and development agency in bogor,indonesia were studied in order to evaluate effects of girdling periods (0,4 and 8 months) applied before cutting the trees. results showed that 8 months of girdling resulted in 50.8% reduction in initial (green) moisture content of wood i.e. from 122 to 60% with no occurrence of end splitting in logs during felling. in general,wood quality of girdled tree is better than that of non-girdled tree. wood density and holocellulose content increased,while tangential and radial shrinkage ratio,ash,silica,lignin,wood pentose and extractive contents decreased. based on drying characteristics,basic drying schedule for 8-month-girdled wood was at temperature of 50-80 °c and relative humidity of 80-28%,while that for 4-month-girdled wood and control,temperature of 40-65 °c and relative humidity of 83-38%. the longer girdling period also decreased the percentage of honeycombing and degree of deformation during drying. © forest research institute malaysia.