Hybrid poplar in Ontario
(A grower's guide to Hybrid poplar)
(Ontario -Ministry of Natural Ressources)

Countries - Conseil du Peuplier - Peuplier du Canada (1951) - Clonal material

Hybrid poplar has been produced and planted in eastern Ontario since the early 1970s; initially in trials and demonstration areas and then in commercial plantations.

The different hybrid poplar clones are the products of year of breeding and testing, both in Ontario and abroad. The methods used to produce, plant, tend and harvest hybrid poplar are the results of years of technology development, primarily by the Fast Growing Forests Technology Development Unit of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources in partner-ship with District staff, as well as by other agencies in Ontario and around the world.

What is Hybrid Poplar ?

A hybrid is produced by crossing two parents of different species, for example, an eastern cottonwood female tree with a European black cottonwood male tree.

Some of the seedlings produced from such a cross will perform substancially better than the average individual performance of the two parents, revealing traits which are of interest to the hybrid poplar grower such as high yield, disease resistance and superior climatic adaption capabilities. Once the seedlings which exhibit the desired traits have been selected, they can be propagated as clones.

The origin of Hybrid Poplar

Poplar culture has had a long history in Europe. Early French explorers visiting the North America continent returned to Europe with plant specimens, including eastern cottonwood. Fast growing hybrids occured naturally as the imported eastern cottonwoods crossed with the native European black poplar.

French farmers subsequently selected the faster growing, straighter hybrids for planting windbreaks around their fields. This natural hybridization must have been extensive; for instance, in Belgium they have never found a naturally-regenerated, pure North American eastern cottonwood.

The first artificial hybrid was produced in 1912 in England and since then European countries have been very active in breeding and selecting clones. Poplar cultivation in monoclonal blocks was introduced in the late 1940s after the second World War when wood shortages were severe throughout Europe.

Hybrid Poplar in Eastern Ontario

Some of the European cultivars of hybrid poplar were later introduced to North America. The earliest planting in Ontario (1925) were with one clone, Carolina poplar (Populus euramericana cv. "Eugenei"), a natural hybrid originally selected in France.

Commercial plantations of hybrid poplar were not established until the mid-1970s when a dwindling wood supply in Eastern Ontario led to the development of a cooperative program between the Ontario Ministry of Naturel Ressources and Domtar Incorporated, for the establishement and management of hybrid poplar plantations.

To date, approximately 2,200 hectares of hybrid poplar have been planted within a 32 km radius of the Cornwall fine paper mill. Each year approximately 100 ha of new plantations are established.

Since 1989, operational harvests of hybrid poplar have taken place in Eastern Ontario and by 1991, 136 ha have been harvested.

Advantages to growing hybrid poplar

There are many advantages to growing hybrid poplar such as:

Alternative crop

Hybrid poplar can be grow as an alternative to agricultural crops on marginal or surplus agricultural land.

Conventional equipment

The operations of establishing and harvesting a hybride poplar plantation can be done with conventional farm equipment (i.e. little or no investment in specialized machinery is required).

Versatile crop

Hybrid poplar is a flexible crop whuch can be grown to produce a large range of wood products, from firewood to pulpwood to sawlogs or veneer.

Easy to establish

Hybrid poplar cuttings are easy to plant. After your first harvest, subsequent crop may be established at lower costs if the poplar stumps are left to sprout again.

Aesthetic and environmental benefits

You may be more interested in planting hybrid poplar for aesthetics or environmental purposes than for profit. However, the financial benefits of growing hybrid poplar need not be totally disregarded. For example, a farmer may be interested in planting hybrid poplar along a stream to protect the bank from erosion, but this does not prevent the harvest of the wood several years later for fuelwood. The environmental benefits of the planting continue as the poplar stumps sprout agai the following year.