2018 ASHS Annual Conference

A major limitation in a species or cultivar being sold to consumers is the initial propagation required to produce genetically identical plants. Cornus mas (L.) is a dogwood native to eastern Europe where it has historically been used in foods such as preserves and pies. It has promising aspects for edible landscaping (ediscaping) and is an overall quality plant. With its high disease and pest resistance, it makes for a great species to include in a landscape for diversity. However, C. mas is an underutilized species in the U.S. and therefore information on propagation techniques is lacking. Many woody plant species are propagated using grafting or budding onto a rootstock to maintain genetic homogeneity. The only available research on grafting for C. mas was performed in a nursery field rather than in a greenhouse (Bijelić et al., 2016). While Bijelić tested two different graft types (bud and whip) at separate times of the year (spring whip grafting in April and bud grafting in August), this study tested two graft types in a factorial of different times of the year. Two selections were used for this study; ‘Pyramidalis’ and an individual (TS79239) from the NDSU Research Arboretum (near Absaraka, North Dakota, USA; Lat: 46.9859, Long: -97.3549). The graft types used were the side graft and the chip bud graft. Two runs were conducted on 13 April 2017 and 19 April 2017. The experiment was a CRD factorial consisting of graft type by selection. Each treatment had five replicates. The side graft had a significantly higher success rate (100%) as compared to chip bud graft (40%). The side graft had a significantly higher grafting success rate as reported by either methods by Bijelić et al. (2016). There was no significant difference between germplasm selections with respect to grafting success. The experiment was attempted again in late August with no success in either type of graft or selection. It is unclear whether or not the failure of the late summer runs was caused by the rootstocks going dormant. It can be concluded from this study that grafting is an effective way of propagating C. mas using the side graft method on rootstocks in the spring