I successfully pears on hawthorws.
The problem is that pear is much more vigourous than kawthorn.
I also grafted loquat on it.
For an update, 2 of my pear grafts (an Asian and Euro) took and are growing nicely. Of course, winter will be the real test.
Winter Banana (Apple), also took, but is growing pretty slowly. I don’t expect it to last.
Medlar is merrily chugging along, and has lots of fruits growing.
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interesting thread. I actually want to do other way around, graft Hawthorne on pear rootstock. Did anyone experience that, any inputs are welcome
Your right it was Cononeaster I was thinking of. Only of interest for people trying to grow in some extreme zones 3 though.
did it take？you might accidentally discovered something new:grinning:
I grafted cherry on apricot this year, it didn’t take. I also grafted mulberry on fig, don’t know the result yet. Just experiment, see what happens
And then you can graft pears and apples to the quinces! Quinces are excellent interstems for apples and pears.
They died during dormancy. The stems were completely dry.
How is your loquat grow on Hawthorn now?
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Development is slow, still alive. What is normal on this rootstock
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Updating for posterity.
I’m going to declare pear on hawthorn "long-term incompatible.’ The last of the sticks I put on back in 2018 failed to wake up this spring, and is all fully dried out and shriveled. They grew ok, but never gave me any fruit.
Medlar on hawthorn, however, grows like gangbusters, and fruits consistently. My compatibility worry there is that is now twice as big as what it is grafted on (see attached, these grafts were done in 2017).
These are just spare branches on a much larger tree, which is still mostly hawthorn. If you want to do a full medlar tree with hawthorn roots, I recommend burying the graft so that it eventually grows its own roots as it outgrows the hawthorn.
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thanks for the update.
Here it is quite common to put medlar on hawthorn. (or quince)
I have made such a tree for family a few years back. There isn’t much caliper difference between rootstock and scion on that tree though.
The hawthorn rootstock deals a lot better with drought than the quince though. A lot of tree’s i planted in the yard of my family didn’t grow as fast as expected. But the medlar went gangbusters. Even with full neglect.
What might complicate it though is, that there are many different hawthorn species. I grafted on Crataegus monogyna.
And btw a caliper difference in rootstock and scion doesn’t necessarily means incompatibility problems. Some cherry rootstocks (i forgot which) commonly have it. And SO4 grape rootstock has it really strong. But those can all get quite old.
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I’ve had quince on hawthorn a number of years. My verdict is don’t do it (even as an interstem. The quince do very well, but end up acting like a parasite on the hawthorn. It almost killed the hawthorn tree, and the hawthorn branches with quince grafted on almost ground to a hault in increasing diameter while the quince portions quickly girthed up and half became so heavy they snapped off. The remaining quince grafts I had to cut back to reduce their weight, but they are now growing much slower because the rootstock was so weakened by them.
The hawthorn I used was C. monogyna.
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Photo of graft union of a pear (Mooers or Hoskins) I grafted onto C. crus-galli, back in 2001. Pear is markedly dwarfed, and rarely fruits, but otherwise seems ‘happy’ on hawthorn, and there has been no suckering
from rootstock.
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Wow, Lucky-,yours seem to at least have SOME vigor. These would have been grafted maybe in 2014: one is a ‘seckel’ and the other an ‘Atlantic queen’. If you wanted to start a fruit tree freak show, these could be on exhibit.
The tree guard is 2 ft tall, for perspective. Note that only spurs are produced, nearly no vegetative growth. These actually formed a nice union without much swelling or overgrowth. I took a picture of it, but the graft is almost indistinguishable.
I did lots more. Most have died while some persist. I don’t see any suckering, but the hawthorn does try to push growth from below the graft for the first few years.
I actually wonder if hawthorn interstems might be worth trying out. In “the grafter’s handbook” I remember there are some pics of trees grafted with a ring of bark only 1/4” wide or less. It describes also some details about how the dwarfing effect of the interstem is somewhat proportional. I wonder if there are similar effects at play with compatibility, I.e. sizing the interstem to provide dwarfing (through “incompatibility”) in degrees. I may have to play around with it someday…
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Out of all of my pear on hawthorn grafts- I easily did 20 of them- I did net at least some useful info. It looks like the perry variety ‘Thorn’ is compatible to the point of producing a serviceable tree. It’s putting on good growth. All other varieties I trialed exhibited almost no vigor. I may have to try it as an interstem
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