Cultivation and grafting of Chinese hickory plants were carried
out in the Tianmu mountain regions of Zhejiang and
Anhui provinces in China. Grafting was done according to
the whip and tongue grafting method (described in Lewis
and Alexander 2008). The rootstocks used were 2 years old
and the scions were 1 year old. For the hormonal application,
the tips of the scion and rootstock were dipped in IAA
(4 mg/l) or NPA (0.3 μg/l) solution for 10 min, and then,
grafting was carried out. Grafting was also performed on
scions and root stocks which were not treated with IAA or
NPA. These grafts are referred to as the control samples. For
each treatment, approximately 30 diferent clonal samples of
rootstock and scion from the graft unions were collected at
0, 3, 7, and 14 days after grafting.