I’m getting a lot of information for you guys, so thank you very much. I’ve decided that I am going to graft the Warren and Kieffer. I don’t plan on ever moving again, so I have time.
@k8tpayaso thank you for the offer, but I am going to hold out and see if I can get a confimed Kieffer. The Kieffer is one that my wife remembers as a child, so at a minimum I want to have that for her.
Great topic!
I have had horrible results grafting onto Cleveland but I believe after I read all the above mentioned articles I will try again. Both times I’ve tried the scions have pushed leaves and even two to three inches of growth and then they wither and die!
I’ll definitely try again.
Some of my grafting attempts were Leona, Orient, Olton Broussard, Pineapple, Southern Bartlett and about eight others I can’t remember right now. Further information. The Cleveland is alive and well. Three people two of which are very experienced grafting pears made the grafts which were mostly cleft but some whip and tongue. Done after bud break and full leaf in active growth.
Thanks for the post.
@Darkman
Florida can be hot so I would recommend you tbud if your first attempts fail like I did the pear trees in this tutorial T-budding tutorial - #41 by BobVance by @fruitnut . Once it gets hot traditional grafting will not work. At that link provided I attempted grafting using the tbud method 2 pear trees and both were successful. Another trick you can use is graft on a piece of rootstock first since it’s more compatible with callery than the other varities you mentioned. You might also be very interested in this post Interstem aka interstock Pear Grafting
Heat definitely pushes down the success rate, but it is very possible to cleft and bark graft during the summer. At least, I’ve had it work OK for apples, grapes, and plums, and even once in a while a peach (more rarely). I don’t remember if I’ve done it for pears, but from what I’ve seen, they are easier than most of the others (similar to apples).
On the other hand, I’ve had a lot of trouble with budding, though I’ve finally gotten to the point where I get some successes (similar to summer grafting). But others have very high rates of success. So if one way doesn’t work for you, trying more is a good idea.
One other thought- if you are getting initial growth, then death, you may want to make sure you have good cambium match-up between the scion and the host tree.
I grew pears just north of Austin for several years. For me the best were Moonglo and Leconte. Orient was very productive but to me it has a kind of odd flavor profile and the others were better. Ayers doesn’t get enough chill and wont bear much at all. Warren is a dog also. I suspect Dabney would a great pear for that area, maybe one of the best if you can find one. Raintree has them I think. There are several out of the Houston area that look promising too. I had several of them planted in the later years but all were too young to give fruit yet when I moved. I doubt Korean Giant will get the chill it needs also but Chojuro and Hosui do well. As Marcus mentioned there may be two versions of pears called Leconte so it may be best to get scion from someone who has the good one. I grew Golden Boy for several years too and it bloomed pretty early which made me nervous but most years it would do fine I bet. I never got to try one as the Damn squirrels ate them all when it started fruiting.
Drew