I grafted this Chojuro on along with a few others this year but this graft is black especially in the rain. The piece I cut to graft it was also turning dark and I only cut a few inches under it but now the whole graft is black.
The rest of the tree looks great and it wasn’t the best place for a graft anyways. I just had the extra piece annd wanted that type.
I’m thinking I need to just cut it off to the tree. This is my first AP tree so any recommendations what you would do here?
I guess after looking at the wood some time this week I’ll cut it back to the main stalk and use some sealer to keep rain off of it.
Hopefully if that is Fireblight which I think it is it won’t keep on.
What say you? @clarkinks
I cut the piece off today. It’s cold but no rain here. The graft died too. @clarkinks I’m a little concerned about the wood after cutting it off. Is the FB going to continue to spread and kill the tree? It grew so nice and healthy besides that one piece but it’s basically no where left to cut without removing all the upper branches. Wondering if I should retract and start over or replace it with a stone fruit and not worry about fb.
Piece I removed below.Take that branch down a little further into the collar so it can heal. Fireblight is a challenging disease and it is true that you have a limited time to save the tree. I certainly have had it kill plenty of trees to the roots. It typically does not go that far. Unfortunately you need to keep going until you hit green healthy wood. The fireblight may have killed the entire tree.
Thanks for the info @clarkinks I notice it doesn’t appear to have much life under the live bark or the cambium layers. Plus that weird diseased looking part. That center branch is of course the main and apical which really made a nice shape this year. About 8 feet I’ll be sad to cut it off but even sadder losing my first and only pear tree so chop more it will be.
If I leave a few inches up the crotch of the other two main branches would you think I could take a piece from the upper tree if it looks clean and graft it back on the middle? Would it eventually grow and catch up with the other branches with pruning them?
I also cut them back to green tissue and then graft them again if needed. I never regret doing it that way. Warren, potomac, and others are pretty resistant. It is discouraging to lose 1 -7 years of growth. I like to grow mostly fireblight resistant typess of pears.
Clark is there a best graft method for that large of rootstock? Normally my go to is modified cleft graft for smaller scions to large rootstock.
