Derby,
Yes it will but it takes a few years. Callery push less growth to the trunk and more to the scions every year and eventually the trunk will be covered with hard bark. If you prune them they push growth from the trunk again. Pears when they get older rarely sprout from the trunk and become less vigorous once they start setting fruit. If they break a branch or you take off a limb you pay the next year by getting a bunch of water sprouts. When I took the top 3/4 of the tree off I knew it would happen but it was an ugly mess and I wanted to fix it right the first time. I left that much trunk on purpose because fireblight will not kill these callery rootstocks. Worse case scenario I graft over the trunk again and I’m back in pears in two years. I should mention rabbits hate the taste of these callery so no girdling of my new grafts either. These callery are a little different than other rootstocks and my methods are adapted to the environment here in Kansas. I graft with rabbits and winter on my mind.
Clark
You get fruit in two years after grafting pears?
Yes I can if they are a full grown top worked tree. At first the harvest is light only a couple of pears. I had about 50 blossoms on a 3 year old duchess this year that I thinned down to a dozen fruitlets because the pears get so big. A quicker bearing tree such as duchess, douglas, harrow may get pears in 2-3 years because the roots already have grown the 5-7 years. I picked the blossoms off an ayers this year. Asian pears are another that are fast to bear fruit. I use the bench bending technique. The duchess is on a 20 year old callery. The trick is leave as much of your rootstock as possible but to the main trunk. So don’t take out the scaffold branches unless you need to. Then if you grow 4-6’ of growth the first year you have fruit on 2 year old wood. Cleft grafts I found to be better. The rind grafts I did I waited 3-5 years for because the graft is more fragile than cleft the first couple of years so I could not let them grow as fast. The downside is you will need to fight the undergrowth from the rootstock.
I topworked half of my mature Kieffer 5 years or so ago - the growth is healthy but I’ve never seen a bloom.
Ltilton,
What variety did you add to the kieffer? You may need to bend the branches down you might be getting to much vertical growth and not enough horizontal growth by the sounds of it. Can you post a picture? Some of my pears from bare root trees are bearing by the time they are 5 years old. I have some pears I planted this year I got from a friend that are two year old hosui that will have fruit next year or the following. My friend owns an orchard close to here and grows a lot of Asian pears. Rind grafting takes longer for the tree to recover from in my experience and they take longer to fruit. Did you use rind grafts?
I used cleft grafts. Doyenne Gris and Superfin were the ones that took.
I bent the branches down a couple of years ago.
Pears seem to take so long to bear that I’m not planning to acquire or graft any more.
Ltilton,
Some pears are unbearable they take so long to fruit. I had one that took 12 years but it’s a winner now. Pears for your heirs is a true saying in a lot of ways. I do a lot of my growth using rootstocks since they grow faster and then graft over to a good variety. I grafted a warren this year and I know I’m in that for the long haul but I used a 3 year old tree to start with.
Tip of the day from me:
Don’t leave tree shelters on apples with M7 rootstock all year round. While I think this is common advice for most trees, I think there might be an addition problem for rootstocks that produce burr knots.
My 3rd leaf M7 trees have burr knots already. My Enterprise is particularly bad.
very sensitive rootstock M106 make burr knots too
I know burr knots are potential sites of insect attack but they’ve never been an issue or required attention on the hundreds of apple trees I manage on that rootstock here in SE NY. However, I still believe in removing the coils every season and putting them back on the tree in the fall for other reasons- woolly apple aphids and borers among them.
This is another reason to avoid Starks and other vendors that don’t specify the rootstocks they’re selling you.
Yes, I mostly agree. Though for me, getting scions of interest with a rootstock that is of the same class has been the mostly what I’ve done. I do like that mine are known rootstocks and were from Orange Pippin Trees or Cummins (Cummins is/was the supplier for that website for the year I got my trees). Both G.11(interstem)/M.111 and G.935 treated the same way don’t have burr knots.
G.935 has put on vigorous growth (= M7) and appears to be self-supporting in my soil. It is a winner. It is also widely available. I think if I do more apple planting it will be my go-to.
Safe bending small limbs with recycled fruit bags. There are several ways to bend limbs but this one is focusing on reducing breaks and recycling dropped bags for one more use. My bags look underwhelming but they are available and they work. Just attach a gem clip and bag then slowly add a few gravel. If you think the limb might break only add enough to get a little bend then add more in a few days. Works even better than I thought for sensitive limbs. Bill
I like it!
Very handy, Bill.
My newest trick is using twist ties to attach a few nuts (chrome plated 1/2" do the job and look pretty) to my new young apricot. Little thing looks all bejeweled.
I thought about that but I didn’t have any chrome nuts in my garage. I really did think about adding weights but again I took the easy way out. Bill
I taped little rocks with electrical tape to flagging tape then to the tree. After I was done my tree looked all stoned!
“Everybody must get stoned …”
(Bob Dylan said that)>
:-)M
Huge stockpile of aluminum plant labels. $2 aluminum window blind and $3 for three cans of paint can supply most people a lifetime of labels. Paint before cutting and etching the name creates a less noticeable ID tag but is easy to read.
001
002
003
Tip for an early treat for some and a turn off to others. When I walk through my orchard this time of the year I see several varieties of apples that are unripe so I fantasize about how good they will taste when they ripen. Then out of the corner of my eyes I see an apple that has fallen. I think surely the birds didn’t knock it down after all it is not even close to the time it should ripen. I picked it up and it was undersized with a blemish that appeared from some unknown insect. After washing it I carefully cut off the good looking parts and had a very early treat that appeared to be fully ripe (no worm found). Just wondering if others try out the drops this time of the year. An early treat for some and a turn off to others.