The Swelling Response of Loblolly Pine (Pinus Taeda) Juvenile Wood to Water Submersion

Juvenile and transitional-juvenile wood samples from loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) were immersed in water to investigate longitudinal and tangential swelling properties. Increment cores from twenty-six loblolly pine trees were sampled at breast height (1.37 m). Earlywood rings 5 and 9 were separated from the core, extracted, oven-dried and immersed in water at room temperature. The variance in longitudinal swell was significant for ring 5 compared to ring 9 (p = 0.001). It was found that tangential swell might predict longitudinal swelling of juvenile wood at ring 9 but not at ring 5. Poor correlation in ring 5 suggests that swelling response in younger juvenile wood may differ. The swell response at ring 5 did not follow the shrinkage models discussed in the literature while ring 9 adhered to the expected curve.