Rooting Dogwood Microshoots

• Published in: HortScience Vol. 35; no. 4; pp. 551 - 551c
• Main Authors: Sharma, Anjana R, Trigiano, Robert N, Witte, Willard T, Schwarz, Otto J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.07.2000
• ISSN: 0018-5345; 2327-9834
• DOI: 10.21273/HORTSCI.35.4.551D

Cultivars of flowering dogwood ( Cornus florida L.) are commercially propagated by vegetative methods such as rooting cuttings or grafting. The results of these methods can be unpredictable. A reliable method of producing dogwoods through tissue culture would be very useful to rapidly produce many copies of important genotypes with horticulturally important characters such as resistance to diseases. One of the primary difficulties of propagating dogwoods (seedlings only) by axillary bud multiplication has been the low rooting efficiency of the microshoots. Various treatments were tried in order to enhance rooting. Eighty-three percent of microshoots harvested between 5 and 7 weeks and treated continuously with 4.9 micromolar IBA rooted after 4 weeks, whereas <20% of microshoots harvested before 5 weeks and after 7 weeks rooted after 4 weeks of continuous exposure to IBA. Differences were also observed in rooting potentials of microshoots that had reddish brown stems rooting at a higher frequency compared to those that had green stems. We hope to translate this method to the propagation of cultivars and potential new releases.