A Comparison of Grafting Methods for the Production of Quality Planting Material of Promising Cornelian Cherry Selections (Cornus mas L.) in Serbia

The Cornelian cherry is one of those less common but, nevertheless, interesting fruit species found in Serbia which can be used both for food and medicine. Due to a great importance of Cornelian cherry fruits as safe food and a wide interest in growing this fruit species, this research was focused on examining the production technique of quality planting material of particularly large-fruit selections of Cornelian cherry in Serbia. In the region and even beyond, there are no Cornelian cherry plantations due to a lack of planting material. To that end, the best Cornelian cherry selections selected in Serbia were grafted onto generative rootstocks of a Cornelian cherry in two periods: I (bud grafting in August) and II (spring whip grafting in April), and the success of grafting, the effect of grafting period, and quality of produced nursery stock were assessed. The study of five large-fruit genotypes (CPC16, APRANI, BACKA, R1 and PPC1) during two years (2011 and 2012) showed that, on average, bud grafting in August (69.38%) was statistically significantly more successful than whip grafting in April (25.33%). The greatest grafting success was achieved in the period I with APRANI (83.62%) and BACKA (76.42%), while the poorest success was with CPC16 (21.67%) in the period II. On average, other examined parameters of young tree quality (height, diameter of plants, number and length of formed roots) did not indicate any statistically significant differences between the grafting periods. In this research, a technology was established for producing quality young trees of the Cornelian cherry.