Examining site productivity and fertility when intercropping giant miscanthus and loblolly pine

Paper presented at the 12th North American Agroforesty Conference, which was held June 4-9, 2011 in Athens, Georgia.In Ashton, S. F., S.W. Workman, W.G. Hubbard and D.J. Moorhead, eds. Agroforestry: A Profitable Land Use. Proceedings, 12th North American Agroforestry Conference, Athens, GA, June 4-9, 2011.There is a growing interest in the production of dedicated biomass crops to be utilized as feedstock for bioenergy production. Perrennial grasses have been identified as attractive feedstock. Wide row spacing of loblolly pine plantations allows dedicated energy crops to be planted between tree rows through a practice known as intercropping. Utilizing between-row growing space for bioenergy feedstock production may maximize economic and biomass output from the land early in the rotation while still maintaining the long term production of traditional forest products.Ryan Heiderman (1), Jose Stape (1), Zakiya Leggett (2), Ron Gehl (3), and Eric Sucre (2) ; 1. Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC. 2. Weyerhaeuser Company (Southern Timberlands R&D), New Bern, NC. 3. Department of Soil Science, North Carolina State University, Mills River, NC.Includes bibliographical references