Density, extractives and decay resistance variabilities within branch wood from four agroforestry hardwood species

Agroforestry practices like pruning trees to control the light flux crops produce every year a large volume of branches which is valorized by farmers as mulching or energy fuel. However, according literature, wood shows higher rates polyphenols than stem and this can open some new perspectives for branch exploitation. In study, properties (density, mechanical properties, extractive content decay resistance) were determined on different sizes from oak, chestnut, poplar walnut collected in two agroforestry systems. These evaluated age sampling position along radial longitudinal axes branch. All samples analyzed NIR-Spectroscopy predicting model aimed assess has been developed. Wood characteristics largely vary between species do not exactly follow same trends one another. Overall, hardwood density similar that trunks, extractives follows evolutions, resistance does seem be really impacted its Reliable NIRS models built easily predict branches. The appear substantially lower those suggests non-suitability developing high-valued green chemistry.