Tree nursery owners across the Prairies are eagerly awaiting the release of a new poplar variety developed by researchers at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). The AC-Sundancer, a new hybrid poplar variety developed through AAFC’s Agroforestry Development Centre is expected to garner new commercial opportunities for the Canadian nursery sector.
“We’ve found a real gem with the AC-Sundancer,” said Henry de Gooijer, manager at the Agroforestry Development Centre in Indian Head, Saskatchewan. “While developing a suite of hybrid poplars, we came up with one that has a lot of potential for the ornamental and nursery trade in Canada.”
Originally developed for environmental purposes, the AC-Sundancer has taken on a life of its own – the tree is now being released as a commercial cultivar for the landscape industry and is in high demand from rural land owners.
“What’s great about the AC-Sundancer is that it is not particularly big or broad, so it can easily fit on smaller properties,” said Bill Schroeder, researcher at the Agroforestry Development Centre. “It’s a very clean tree in that it doesn’t suffer from diseases usually associated with other hybrid poplars, such as bronze leaf and rust disease. Its root systems are controlled and don’t spread; it’s male so it doesn’t have seeding problems. And, unlike other hybrid poplars, the AC-Sundancer doesn’t grow very fast and systematically die too early.”
The AC-Sundancer came from the Poplar Breeding Program at the Agroforestry Development Centre, which has been developing hybrids since the 1940s. The mandate is to grow hybrid poplar varieties for ecological purposes – environmental applications on the farm for the interception of nutrients, protection from wind erosion, carbon sequestration and biodiversity enhancement. The program is all about developing highly adapted, resilient poplar trees that work on the landscape. These poplars are then delivered to producers through the Prairie Shelterbelt Program.
“We’ve developed 17 hybrid poplar clones for Prairie farmers to plant since the 1940s,” said de Gooijer. “Virtually every hybrid poplar tree growing on Prairie farms originated from our program.”
Every once in a while a new poplar will come along through the program and have a different kind of potential, as in the case of the AC-Sundancer, for the commercial landscape industry.
“It’s not necessarily the sort of hybrid variety that one would put into a riparian buffer that will intercept nitrogen runoff moving from a potato field into a stream,” said de Gooijer. “But it might be the type of tree that a strawberry grower would put on the west side of his strawberry patch to provide some microclimate modification and wind control, because it is extremely narrow and doesn’t take up a lot of space.”
The AC-Sundancer also provides a source of revenue for the Agroforestry Development Centre because every poplar grown and sold through the commercial nursery trade results in a royalty for the Centre.
The AC-Sundancer is just one innovation among many at the Agroforestry Development Centre, which has been planting trees in agricultural landscapes for 110 years. The centre promotes the environmental and economic benefits of integrating trees with agricultural systems through research, extension and provision of seedlings to Prairie farmers and other eligible clients.
