Author Topic: grafting onto california native prunus ilicifolia?  (Read 537 times)

Epiphyte

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grafting onto california native prunus ilicifolia?
« on: March 10, 2023, 03:02:13 AM »
anyone ever try grafting anything onto hollyleaf cherry or catalina cherry?  i'm especially curious if the capulin cherry (prunus salicifolia or prunus serotina var. salicifolia) is compatible.  they are both in the same subgenus, but in different sections.

on a related note, could these two species be crossed?  i think that they bloom around the same time.

David Kipps

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Re: grafting onto california native prunus ilicifolia?
« Reply #1 on: March 10, 2023, 03:53:06 PM »
I don't have an answer to your question, but I too have wondered about graft compatibility, wondering if any edible cherries (or any stone fruit) can be grafted onto P. serotina.  We have many wild P. serotina volunteering around here.  One time I grafted a sweet cherry onto it, but it only lived about three years, and then the graft failed.

Galatians522

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Re: grafting onto california native prunus ilicifolia?
« Reply #2 on: March 26, 2023, 10:02:59 PM »
anyone ever try grafting anything onto hollyleaf cherry or catalina cherry?  i'm especially curious if the capulin cherry (prunus salicifolia or prunus serotina var. salicifolia) is compatible.  they are both in the same subgenus, but in different sections.

on a related note, could these two species be crossed?  i think that they bloom around the same time.

Go for it! I read everything I could find on a similar topic a number of years ago. Here is a summary of what I found. Capulin is not cross or graft compatible with any of the other cultivated stone fruit. It will cross with Black cherry (P. serotina) and many say its just a sub-species of that tree. Similarly, P. caroliniana, the Laurel Cherry, is not graft compatible with any cultivated stone fruit. Knowing that the "other side" of the prunus genus has wide compatibility has led me to believe that laurel cherries and bird cherries (Capulin etc.) would be compatible--although I have no proof of this. Getting them to hybridize would likely proove more difficult.