most likely.. the first thing you are going to have to figure out...

are the plants you are referring to actually CEDARS .... or are they not related to cedar at all .. and the common name you are using is leading you to improper conclusions .....

i am not enough of a tree scientist .. to answer that specifically .... hopefully others will chime in ...

good luck

ken

I'm with ya though. You commonly as people do refer to Juniperus virginiana as a cedar when in fact it is a Juniper that was commonly thought of as a cedar by early Americans because of it's aromatic wood. That Cedar reference should be stricken... however it's tough when nurseries also refer to them as cedars. You do list however 'Skyrocket' which is not species virginiana but it is a Juniper... it's actually of species scopulorum. Any of the scopulorums, omit them. They are disease magnets in humid climates. Then again you may live at a higher altitude. You probably do or you just made a simple error adding 'Skyrocket' to your list.

The other cultivars you added, if virginiana I may have heard of 'Pyramidalis' otherwise, I don't know anything about the rest of those, and I am pretty aware of cultivars.

I can tell you that a blue form called 'Taylor' is resistant. It was developed by the university of Kansas I believe.... 'Caneaertii' is very desirable. There's a photo on the American Conifer Society website 'Conifer Database'. 'Blue Arrow' is another that's very disease resistant and can be purchased through Monrovia as I recall. It's known in form as a hardy version of what an Italian Cypress looks like.

I don't know much more about this.

Grafting though, I can help you with. Generally speaking we don't graft conifers in the field except some people on the west coast, but I only say that because they have the ability weather-wise to be able to. However, the conifer grafters use hoophouses and greenhouses, heated. You need a chamber with near 100% humidity, can be a shelf structure covered and wrapped in "lightweight clear poly only" within a heated greenhouse I'll emphasize again with temps in the greenhouse between 50 and 70 degrees F. 60 being perfect.

Your grafts are done on pushing bud break rootstocks only and your scions must be 100% dormant, so that means you must warm up the rootstocks for about three to five weeks until you see either white roots growing out of the bottoms of the pots or if the buds are swelling and breaking. The buds must be breaking. It is safe to graft all your scions and rootstocks when 2/3 of the understocks in a "block" are either pushing or showing white root growth.

Usually pencil thick seedlings are used as rootstocks but if you know how to graft large scions to large rootstocks, then of course it does not matter. I've bought some conifer whips that were pretty big grafts but I have no experience working with wood of these calipers.

The graft should be rubber banded but MI>ultimately sealed with paraphin grafting tape. The grafts are sealed into your shelves, with the clear lightweight poly using furring strips and are initially watered but the furring strip(s) is/are left in place (using screws) until you see signs of scions pushing bud break (commonly called "pushing.") This should take approximately 5-6 weeks. Once a majority are pushing, then remove the furring strips while still allowing the lightweight poly to rest and cover the entire structure to continue helping with maintaining humidity. 90-100% humidity is your range. Acutally 95% and up is what you really are trying to achieve.

Never allow the plants to reach past 85-90 degrees F or they'll cook...for an extended period of time... however it does happen that some sunny days may bring temps into the 80's in a fairly large greenhouse and that is fine/OK. Just be aware.

Seedlings/Understocks are purchased now and are sent to you for spring delivery where you will pot them up into 5" tree band containters or 12-16 oz. styrofoam cups, etc- although I do realize you'll be using seedlings right from the wild.

All grafters find their way that works. This is pretty good information I'm typing here. It should help you immensely.

Remember it's controlling three things no matter how you achieve them:
Temperature
Humidity
Sunlight (the more the better without making things too hot). When Spruce push, they need more light than any other conifer so put them in the best place you have for available light... say for instance at the front of your shelves.

As to your "pines" you mention above. Pinus virginaina. That's "scrub pine" and is a "hard pine".

Pinus koraiensis is a "soft pine" such as a similar other commonly known soft pine because the needles are soft and also because the needles are in pairs of five. Anything with pairs of five needles can be grafted to one another (remember to try to match vigor as well) and anything that is a hard pine which has needles in bundles/groupings of two are graftable onto one another.

All spruce are compatible. Same with Abies, same with Larch, etc-

All Junipers are compatible. Most do root from cuttings however, virginiana must be grafted. You might get 1 in 1000 to root. They just don't root.

Are you in the mountains or the lower valleys with heat and humidity?

Dax

Oh thank you for the advice! Actually I only do field grafting, as I find that having my (fruit tree) rootstock well established and growing makes a tremendous difference in my percentage of takes. It's very close to 100% in those circumstances. I do a lot of bark grafts, which require that the rootstock be actively growing for the bark to slip. I do chip buds too. I don't know if conifer bark ever slips, the books I have consulted mostly show veneer grafts, which I haven't done before. It hadn't dawned on me to wonder how to keep a conifer scion from drying out, as Parafilm will only be useful for wrapping the graft union, not the needles. For large grafts I often just put some damp newspaper in a white plastic grocery bag and tie it over the graft. It seems to work really well for fruit trees.
I'm disappointed about the Korean pine. Guess I didn't read that part closely enough in Dirr's book. I do have a list of 2 needle pines, guess I'd better memorize it and not wander down the wrong path again. The pines would be luxury items, but the junipers are very important. They are present in large numbers, and making trouble. If I graft a bunch of them to CHR res vars, we will be able to enjoy even better scenery with less rust trouble.
You list these others: a blue form called 'Taylor' is resistant.'Caneaertii' is very desirable. 'Blue Arrow' is another that's very disease resistant.

I will have to check and see if it is specifically CHR they are resistant to, not some other common diseases. While you are warning me about species and cultivars, here's more of the list:
Some chinensis, some Communis, some horizontalis (which Dirr says don't like Georgia), some sabina, some squamata, plus ashei, conferta, procumbens, rigida. More on selections later. We are on the Highland Rim at about 1,000 ft, so it's hot and humid, but not as bad as the Central Basin or along the Mississippi. Acid clay soil. Donna

For Dax: For grafting deciduous trees, the scions are cut in winter and stored in the fridge. The grafts can be made outside later when the weather favors it. You are saying that standard practice with conifers is to warm up the rootstock artificially, then go out and cut the scions, no storage of scions. Can I store scions? This is a bit baffling to me, because in a way I can see that storage in the fridge for a conifer might be no different from storage outstide in the cold only without any light. Not a good idea perhaps. Can it be done? Thanks again. Donna