The goal of this study was to determine the relative contribution of habitat differentiation on the radial growth of forest trees and to understand some underlying ecological mechanisms that may affect these relationships. Forest growth data for the period 2009 to 2014 were collected in a 21.12 hm² stem-mapped temperate coniferous and broadleaved forest in Jiaohe, Jilin Province. Based on habitat type classifications, three ecological null models, Habitat Complete Spatial Randomness (CSR) Process, Species Complete Spatial Randomness Process and Species Thomas Process were employed to test the significance of radial growth-habitat associations. Furthermore, Pearson correlation analysis was used to explore the influence of topographical variables on radial growth. A total of 36 species were included in the analysis. The following results were obtained: (1) Sixty one percent of radial growth exhibited significant associations with habitat types based on the Species Thomas Process; whereas for the Species CSR Process and the Habitat CSR Process the corresponding percentages were 94.4% and 86.1%, respectively. (2) Comparing the discrepancies among species of different life forms, we found that the habitat preferences of shrubs and small trees were similar, whereas trees had significantly different habitat preferences. The radial growth of shrubs and small trees were positively associated with habitat type 1 at a relatively low altitude and on flat terrain, but were negatively associated with habitat types 2 and 4, which had a relatively high elevation and on steep slopes. Conversely, trees were positively associated with habitat type 4, but negatively associated with habitat type 1. Furthermore, the radial growth of trees was highly sensitive to habitat heterogeneity when compared with that of shrubs and small trees. (3) Pearson correlation analysis indicated that up to 86.1 percent of growth rates were significantly correlated with one or more topographical variables. Among the four topographical variables evaluated, elevation turned out to be the most influential factor for radial growth, followed by slope and convexity, whereas aspect was the least influential. The results of this study suggest that habitat heterogeneity and niche differentiation have a considerable effect on radial growth in the temperate coniferous and broadleaved forest.