Enhancing wood production through appropriate combinations of tree species and silvicultural practices is a major challenge in tropical forestry. Initial survival rate is a key determinant of long-term wood production and depends on species identity, planting methods, and their interactions. Species traits (physiological and morphological characteristics) may mechanistically predict initial survival under given environmental conditions, thereby facilitating rapid identification of suitable species and optimal planting methods. However, the extent to which traits predict initial survival across different planting methods remains unclear for Southeast Asian timber species. Here, we examined whether traits closely related to key physiological processes predict initial survival of dipterocarp species, a dominant timber group in Southeast Asia, across enrichment planting methods at plantation sites at Chikus Forest Reserve, Peninsular Malaysia. Under these planting methods, mature Acacia mangium plantations (serving as shade trees) were strip-cleared at varying widths to plant dipterocarp seedlings, and five planting rows (1, 2, 4, 8, and 16) with different light conditions were established. We found that greater leaf-level tolerance to high irradiance was associated with higher survival under a given planting method. Our results suggest that leaf-level stress tolerance traits can serve as rapid indicators of species’ initial survival, potentially accelerating species selection for highly productive tropical forestry.