Initial planting density is probably one of the most important silvicultural decisions affecting forest productivity and value. Although lower planting densities generate less total volume, a larger number of final crop trees reach larger diameters at a younger age for sawtimber. However, low densities may result in larger branches due to individual tree crown expansion and reduced stem quality, and require modelling branch growth to adjust the time of pruning to obtain better quality wood products. The objective of this research was to evaluate the annual growth and branch diameter growth of Pinus radiata until the onset of canopy closure for three initial planting densities. This study was established in July 2016, on a well-drained sandy soil site, with a mean temperature of 13.2 °C and precipitation of 851 mm, in the central valley of Chile. The experimental design consisted of a complete randomized block design with three replicates, comparing 1242, 816 and 649 tree ha^-1 initial planting density treatments. Each year since establishment, individual tree measurements of diameter at breast height (DBH) and total height (HT) were completed. In each plot, three trees were selected considering site treatment diameter distribution, and all branch diameters (BDs) were measured along the stem until 5 m height. At age 7, there were no differences betweenplanting densities in terms of HT and survival (p>0.05). The best DBH was 10.4 cm for 649 tree ha^-1 and the lowest DBH was 9.1 cm for 1242 tree ha^-1. However, the best volume response was at the highest density, with 29.4 for 649 trees ha^-1, versus 20.2 m³ ha^-1 for 1242 trees ha^-1. Interestingly, a linear relationship was observed between DBH and mean BD (r²=0.89), with the highest BD in the lowest planting density with 5% of branches >3 cm; contrastingly, the highest density showed only 0.9% of branches >3 cm.