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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Dogwood Grafting??

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  • From: Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Dogwood Grafting??
  • Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 09:03:16 -0500

At 09:13 AM 05/21/2002 -0400, you wrote:
I have located a double-flowered dogwood, Cornus floridus, that gets
red-purple berries in the Fall. Anyone know the best way to propagate a
dogwood? I have many conventional dogwood seedlings that I could use as a
rootstock. Is rooting better? Can they be air-layered?

Jim,
I'm just starting to attempt grafting some ornamentals - grafted a couple of C.florida seedlings to a double-flowered white and a variegated cultivar this spring - did just a simple whip & tongue graft. The grafts are not growing very vigorously, so the jury is still out on how well, if at all they're going to do. I think most of the commercial propagators bud them in the summer.

Some dogwood species root fairly readily from semi-hardwood cuttings, and I've seen recommendations for rooting hard-to-root species by choosing vigorous branches, then in early August, making a stab incision through the limb, in the previous year's growth, just below where growth initiated this year, inserting a toothpick into the incision to hold it open, then cutting just below the incision in Oct-January, dipping in rooting hormone and lining out in a cold-frame. *Supposedly* this will work for almost any hardwood or evergreen, with relatively high success rates. Based on the idea that cuttings must callus before they will root - the wound you create in August has a chance to begin callusing before the tree shuts down for the winter, and then the cuttings get a chance to initiate root formation before spring. I wouldn't want to disturb the cuttings until they'd gone through at least one growing season. I'll have to say that I haven't attempted it, but I'm tempted to try it on some pecan, walnut, and chestnut this fall, just to see if it really works.
Lucky Pittman
USDA Zone 6
Hopkinsville, KY





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