Advanced and conventional methods for vegetative propagation of selected lines of oak and cherry.

Abstract

Oak and wild cherry (Prunus avium) are important broadleaved species. We have identified superior trees and conserved them by grafting. Methods for the large scale propagation of selected trees was evaluated using the technology of micropropagation. For oak we could establish shoot cultures from mature oaks but their propagation rate was too low and difficult for practical application. With wild cherry micropropagation is a feasible option for large scale production of selected material. Genetic fingerprinting technology was developed and applied to oaks. We showed that all material propagated vegetatively from oak was genetically similar to the original donor tree. Furthermore we used genetic fingerprinting to analyse a unique stand of elite oaks in Co. Westmeath and determined that the selected trees were not closely related to each other. The analysis of genetic fingerprints of 16 elite oaks also showed that five of them had an unusual pattern of DNA and one tree was identified as a rare triploid tree.