Red Dogwood Trees Care & Propagation Guide

Red dogwood trees like to grow in neutral or slightly acidic sandy loam with fertile soil, deep soil layer, loose soil and good drainage. For the growth environment, it is best to plant on flat land or slow land with leeward and sunny, and it is best to plant red dogwood trees near the water source.

Red Dogwood Trees Quick Info

Botanical/Scientific Name	Cornus Florida
Common Name	Red Dogwood Trees
Varieties	Flowering Dogwood，Kousa Dogwood，Pacific Dogwood，Cornelian Cherry Dogwood
Uses	Traditional medicine
Origin	Eastern North America and northern Mexico
Light Care	Partial sun
Soil Care	Nutrient-rich, well-drained soil
Temperature Care	Moderate Climates
Humidity Care	Moisture
Watering	Regular watering once a week to a depth of 6 inches
Pruning Care	Remove damaged, diseased or dead branches
Fertilizer Care	12-4-8 fertilizer ratio
Propagation	Softwood or hardwood cuttings
Toxic	Not toxic when eaten

Red Dogwood Trees Care in Detail

Red Dogwood Trees Watering

Red dogwood trees are usually planted in the ground, so they do not need to be watered frequently. They are usually watered three times a year. For the first time, replenish water before flowering. The second time after the results, it helps red dogwood trees recover. The third time is to help red dogwood trees survive the winter better before winter. For potted plants, we should water according to the dryness and wetness of the pot soil. When the soil is dry, we need to water, and the water should be poured at the root.

Red Dogwood Trees Soil

Red dogwood trees are generally suitable for planting in weak acid soil with sufficient soil fertility, convenient drainage and 
Red dogwood soil shall be loose, fertile, moist and well drained sandy loam, close to water source and convenient for irrigation, and the soil pH shall be neutral or slightly acidic. Continuous cropping is not suitable. The planting forest of red dogwood should be neutral and acidic, with granular structure, good permeability, good drainage, rich in humus and a variety of mineral nutrients, and more fertile soil. It is a leeward and sunny hillside with an altitude of 200 ~ 1200m, and the slope shall not exceed 20 ° ~ 30 °. Red dogwood should not be cultivated in high mountains, shady slopes, insufficient light, heavy soil viscosity and poor drainage.

Red Dogwood Trees Light

Red dogwood trees are more shade tolerant but like sufficient light. They usually grow well in the middle and lower parts of the hillside, shady slope, sunny slope, valley and both banks of the river. However, red dogwood trees should avoid direct sunlight in summer.
Red dogwood trees are positive tree species in warm temperate zone. The suitable growth temperature is between 20 ~ 30 ℃, and it will grow poorly if it exceeds 35 ℃. It has strong cold resistance and can withstand short-term low temperature of - 18 ℃.

Red Dogwood Trees Temperature

Although the planting of red dogwood trees is simple, it also needs our attention. Red dogwood trees is a warm zone positive plant, so the suitable temperature for its growth is between 20 and 30 degrees, and the temperature cannot exceed 35 degrees, otherwise it will develop poorly. Therefore, we should pay attention to the regulation of temperature in the process of planting. Although red dogwood trees like light, they should pay attention to shade in summer and should not be exposed to direct sunlight. It is better to scatter light.

Red Dogwood Trees Humidity

Red dogwood trees are suitable for growing in the substrate with sufficient water. During normal maintenance, we should keep the basin soil moist. During spring and summer, we should shorten the watering interval. We should also keep the air humidity at about 70 ~ 80%. After autumn, we should reduce the watering amount. We should maintain the principle of seeing dry and seeing wet, and avoid ponding.

Red Dogwood Trees Fertilizer

Due to the large amount of fertilizer required by red dogwood trees, the base fertilizer needs to be re applied during land preparation. We can dig deep, cultivate carefully, level the ground, and then apply fertilizer according to the required organic fertilizer of 3000 kg per mu. We can dig ditches for borders. The borders are about 1.5 meters wide and about 10 centimeters high. The ditches and the back blend with each other.

Red Dogwood Trees Pruning

Red dogwood trees pruning is crucial. After we planted red dogwood trees, if we let them grow naturally, it often leads to too many main branches, overlapping with each other, disordered branches and stems, poor ventilation and light transmittance in the crown, so that the results are mostly limited to the periphery and upper part of the crown, which is an important reason for the low single plant yield and large and small years of red dogwood trees. Through red dogwood trees pruning, we can adjust the tree shape, improve the utilization rate of space and light energy, and adjust the balance between Cornus growth and fruit, aging and renewal and various parts of the tree, so as to achieve the purpose of early fruit, multi fruit, stable yield and high quality and increase economic benefits.

Red Dogwood Trees Repotting

Spring and autumn are good times for red dogwood trees repotting. Don't change too early in spring and too late in autumn. Generally, the pots can be changed when the temperature is stable at 15 ~ 25 degrees. In spring, the pots should be changed before germination. In this way, red dogwood trees repotting will soon enter the high-speed germination period after the end, with relatively fast growth and good growth.
We must not conduct red dogwood trees repotting during flowering or dormancy of plants, unless there are problems of rotten roots and black rot!
We can stop watering a few days before red dogwood trees repotting and change it after the basin soil is half dry. Why? Because if the flowerpot is too wet, the stickiness between the pot and the soil is very large, so it is not easy to separate.
It is necessary to prune roots and leaves. After taking off the pot, you will find that there are many old roots and empty roots wrapped together. Cut these roots and remove rotten and rotten roots, which can stimulate new root germination and accelerate plant growth.
After red dogwood trees repotting, the roots were cut. The roots were damaged and needed time to recover, so we couldn't provide too much nutrients to the leaves, so we still need to cut some leaves.
In my opinion, large pots are not well controlled and watered, and they are easy to grow in vain or even rot. in red dogwood trees repotting, we only need to change the larger one based on the original flowerpot. Large pots raise large seedlings and small pots raise small seedlings.
We must put a layer of gauze or linen on the bottom of the basin to prevent soil leakage and dirty the floor; Then lay a layer of ceramsite or granular stone as the drainage layer, so that the watering can quickly seep down and prevent the root system from ponding and decay.
We should pour the fixed root water after changing the pot in red dogwood trees repating. The so-called fixed root water is to pour the water through the pot for the first time, and then put it in a shady, warm and ventilated place for maintenance for 2 weeks. The pot soil should be kept dry and watered thoroughly to avoid ponding. The flower pot can see the light slowly and can not be exposed to the sun at once.

Red Dogwood Trees Pest & Disease Control

Anthrax:
The main disease of red dogwood trees is anthrax. The peak of red dogwood trees disease is generally in September of each year, and the initial stage of disease is generally around early June of each year. The method of prevention and treatment of red dogwood trees is to spray Bordeaux liquid, usually two to three times, about once a week. The most common pests of red dogwood trees are fruit moth and wood wiping inchworm, which can generally be sprayed with deltamethrin EC.
Hornspot:
This red dogwood trees disease damages leaves and fruits. In the early stage of leaf onset, dark purplish red spots appeared on the front of the leaf, the edge of the spots was not obvious, only the epidermal cells changed color, and the back of the leaf was asymptomatic; The fruit is rusty brown round dots with a diameter of about 1mm. When there are a large number of disease spots, they are connected into pieces, making the top part of the fruit rusty brown, only infringing on the peel, and the disease spots do not go deep into the pulp. From May to the end of October, July is the peak of the disease.
We can strengthen seedling management and interplant legumes to strengthen plants and reduce damage; Remove diseased leaves, ventilate and transmit light, and reduce the source of infection; Increase the application of phosphorus, potassium and farm fertilizer to improve the disease resistance of plants; In May, the tree crown shall be sprayed with 1 ∶ 2 ∶ 200 Bordeaux solution protective agent, once every 10 ~ 15 days, three times continuously, or 800 ~ 1000 times of 50% wettable Mycobacterium.
Gray Plaster Disease:
This red dogwood trees disease generally occurs on the trunk or branches of old trees over 20 years. The disease spots stick to the branches to form an irregular thick film, like plaster, so it is called plaster disease. The disease is serious when the soil is poor, the drainage is poor, the soil humidity is high, the ventilation and light transmittance are poor, and the plant growth is weak. Prevention and control measures: strengthen maintenance and management and adjust the density of trees. If the density is too large, remove the weak, retain the strong, remove the small and retain the large, so as to adjust the light conditions and improve the disease resistance of plants. We should reasonably trim the old diseased plants of red dogwood trees, remove the old diseased branches, renew the plants, retain the growing branches from the inner chamber, gradually replace the seriously diseased branches and reduce the source of bacteria; Scrape off the mycelial membrane with a knife, apply Bomei 5 degree stone sulfur mixture or lime milk on the diseased part, and spray 1000 times of dichlorvos EC on the tree crown during the occurrence of scale insects of associated bacteria for control; In the early stage of onset, it was protected by spraying 1 ∶ 1 ∶ 100 Bordeaux solution once every 10 ~ 14 days.

Red Dogwood Trees Propagation

Red Dogwood Trees Sowing Propagation

We should select middle-aged trees with strong tree potential, full crown, vigorous growth and strong stress resistance as the seed collection mother plant of red dogwood trees. In the mature season, collect fruits with large flesh, full grains and no diseases and insect pests, dry them for 3 ~ 4 days, peel off the flesh after the peel is soft, then mix 15g bleaching powder per kilogram of seeds in clean water, dissolve and put in the seeds. We can add water according to the number of red dogwood trees seeds. The water is about 12cm higher than the seeds. Stir it with a stick 4 ~ 5 times a day to corrode the oil of the shell and rot the shell. Soak it until the third day, take out the seeds and mix them with plant ash to raise seedlings or direct seeding.
Red dogwood trees singing propagation is generally carried out before and after the spring equinox. We can sow the germinated seeds into the seedbed. Open the ditch according to the row spacing of 25cm and the depth of the ditch is 5cm. We should spread the seeds evenly in the ditch and cover it with 3 ~ 4cm thick soil and miscellaneous fertilizer. 40 ~ 60kg seeds are required per mu of seedling land. Pay attention to maintaining soil moisture after sowing, and generally germinate and excavate in 40 ~ 50 days. Keep the soil moist after emergence. When 3 ~ 4 pairs of true leaves appear, weed the seedlings for 2 ~ 3 times, and keep the plant spacing of 7cm. Topdressing twice from June to July, combined with intercropping, apply 4kg urea per mu in the evening or after rain. When the seedling height is 10 ~ 20cm, in case of drought and strong light weather, pay attention to drought prevention and shading. Before winter, pour frozen water once and cultivate soil and miscellaneous fertilizer at the root to ensure the safe overwintering of seedlings. If the water and fertilizer management is timely, the annual seedling height can reach more than 70cm. Transplanting and planting around the "spring equinox" the next year.

Red Dogwood Trees Grafting Propagation

Red dogwood trees are intraspecific grafts with close genetic relationship and strong affinity. The survival rate of red dogwood trees grafting propagation can reach more than 70%, and the seedlings grow well. Bud grafting and branch grafting are the main methods in production.
We usually use the "t" shaped shield bud embedding method. The experiment was conducted from July to September, and the seedlings of excellent varieties were used as rootstocks. The scion of red dogwood trees adopts the branches on the strong mother tree that have bloomed and fruited, grow healthily, have large fruit and thick flesh, and are free of diseases and pests. The method is as follows: cut a knife horizontally at about 0.5cm above the scion bud, go deep into the xylem, then cut the bud upward about 1cm below the bud (with a little xylem), connect it to the grafting part of the rootstock, select the smooth surface, preferably in the north, cut a knife horizontally, and then cut a knife vertically down the incision to make it into a "t" shape, deep into the xylem, gently peel off the bark, and we can insert the bud skin into the "t" In the zigzag incision, finally, wrap it with film from bottom to top to expose the bud eyes, make loose knots, untie it immediately when it sprouts in the second year, then strengthen management, timely carry out intercropping, weeding and topdressing, and promote the growth of seedlings. When the seedling height is more than 30cm, it can be transplanted out of the nursery.

Red Dogwood Trees Care FAQs

Do dogwood trees bleed red?

Red dogwood trees are deciduous trees or shrubs, 4-10m high; The bark is grayish brown. Red dogwood trees branchlets slender cylindrical, glabrous or sparsely appressed pubescent, winter buds terminal and axillary, ovate to lanceolate, covered with yellowish brown pubescence.
The leaves of red dogwood trees are opposite, papery, ovate lanceolate or ovate elliptic, 5.5-10 cm long and 2.5-4.5 cm wide, apex acuminate, base broadly cuneate or nearly circular, entire, green above, glabrous, light green below, sparsely white appressed pubescent, vein axils densely covered with light brown tufts, midvein obvious above, convex below, nearly glabrous, 6-7 pairs of lateral veins, Bow inward. The petiole of red dogwood trees is thin cylindrical, 0.6-1.2 cm long, with shallow grooves on the top and circular below, slightly pasted with sparse pilose.
Red dogwood trees are umbels, born on the side of branches, with involucral bracts 4, oval, thick paper to leathery, about 8mm long, purplish, slightly pubescent on both sides, falling off after flowering. The total pedicel of red dogwood trees is stout, about 2 mm long, slightly gray pubescent; Flowers small, bisexual, leaves open first; Calyx lobes 4, broadly triangular, as long as or slightly longer than the disk, about 0.6 mm long, glabrous. Red dogwood trees petals 3.3 mm long, yellow, reflexed outward; Stamens 4, alternate with petals, 1.8 mm long, filaments subulate, anthers elliptic, 2-loculed; Disk cushioned, glabrous. The ovary of red dogwood trees is inferior, the receptacle is obovate, about 1 mm long, densely adherent, sparsely pilose, the style is cylindrical, 1.5 mm long, and the stigma is truncated. The pedicel of red dogwood trees is slender, 0.5-1 cm long, densely sparsely pilose.

Do dogwood trees have red berries?

Dogwood trees have red berries. Red berry is long oval, 1.2-1.7 cm long, 5-7 mm in diameter, red to purplish red; Nuclear bone, narrow oval, about 12 mm long, with several irregular ribs.