A comparison of different tending variants in beech stands by the crown thinning and from the view of their quantitative and qualitative development

Impact of tending on dvelopment of beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) pole timber stands was analysed using different variants of the free crown thinning, i.e. the original method developed in Slovakia at the end of 1950s. Four variants of this method were compared: (i) - the free crown thinning on the whole area, the method of promising trees, later the method of target trees at stand age of 58 years. (ii) - the free crown thinning on non-whole area, tending realised inside of growth space of target trees only, the method of target trees, salvage cutting on the whole area. (iii) - the free crown thinning on non-whole area, the method of promising trees (the method of target trees at stand age of 58 years) realised on circular plots with diameter 4 m and spacing 8 m (distance between centre of circular plots). (iv) - combined selective method, thinning from below and the free crown thinning by method of target trees was used by the first thinning, in next thinning only the free crown thinning on whole-area was used, method of target trees. The structure (diameter and height) of the stand, the quantitative production parameters had been observed for a period of 30 years. Small differences were found in diameter and height structure between the variant (iv) and other three ones. Comparison of quantitative production pointed out minimum differences in favour of the variant (iv) compared to the other ones. The same results were also obtained in the qualitative production, especially for selective quality (target trees).