Christmas trees represent a unique forest product that commands high prices for trees with desired characteristics. To increase the levels of improvement potential from tree improvement programmes, attention has turned to somatic embryogenesis (SE), which is a vegetative propagation method that potentially can produce clonal material that grows at a uniform rate, making management more predictable as well as producing a more uniform and higher quality product.

In Denmark, SE clones were achieved in Nordmann fir (Abies nordmanniana), which is the most popular used Christmas tree species in Europe. Several clonal field trials have been established at autumn 2014 and 2015 in Denmark. The seeds underlying the clonal material were originated from a direct import from 27 trees grown in the Ambrolauri/Tlugi region in Georgia. Furthermore, seeds harvested from Danish seed orchards (originated from Borshomi area in Georgia) were also used for producing SE clones. This study aims at evaluating the field performance of 255 Nordmann fir SE clones, a total of 3828 trees, with regards to Christmas tree production in three sites. Christmas tree quality and growth traits were measured in all three trials, and additive and non-additive genetic variances are partitioned in each site. The first results in general indicate a large family variance (additive), but also important clone variation (non-additive). Clonal performance stability was also explored by multi-sites analysis. Fairly high additive genetic correlations were seen across sites (range 0.56~0.99) for all traits except Christmas tree quality score (range from 0.11 to 0.79), indicating strong genotype by environment interaction for Christmas tree quality. Results and implication for breeding and production potential will be discussed in the presentation.