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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Washington, D.C. » National Arboretum » Floral and Nursery Plants Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #332443
Title: Response of container-grown flowering dogwood cultivars to powdery mildew under sun/shade production and different fertilizer regimes

Author
item BASYAL-GUREL, FULYA - Tennessee State University
item Fare, Donna

Submitted to: Southern Nursery Association Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/29/2016
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Flowering dogwood is an important ornamental tree in landscape and home gardens, but it has production challenges in container culture, and is susceptible to powdery mildew. Our research showed that shade exposure increased the severity of powdery mildew in container-grown plants of ‘Cloud 9’ and ‘Cherokee Princess’ dogwoods. Routine and thorough fungicide applications will be essential for disease management when dogwoods are grown under shade. Delayed fertilization after potting resulted in poor growth compared to plants that were fertilized with a controlled release fertilizer at potting.

Technical Abstract: Container-grown dogwoods are an important product in the nursery and landscape industry and rank third in the US in nursery sales of ornamental trees. Dogwoods are a challenging crop to produce in container culture mainly due to fertilizer, water, and shade management. Our experiments indicate that both ‘Cloud 9’ and ‘Cherokee Princess’ had more incidence of powdery mildew when grown under shade than in full sun. Plants that received fertilizer input at potting had more shoot growth but also a higher incidence of powdery mildew than plants that had a delayed fertilizer application. Regardless of fertilizer treatment, ‘Cloud 9’ and ‘Cherokee Princess’ grown in full sun were 25% and 24% smaller, respectively, than plants grown under shade.