Most nurseries tend to recommend 87 or 97 because of the vigor issue 333 sometimes exhibits with Asian pears.
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That explains it, thank you.
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Thank you.
I decided I’m going to use 97 across the board on Euros & Asians.
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97’s work well for me here. They just get taller than what I like. Some fruit is higher than a fruit picker pole can get. Pears have different growing patterns than apples. Apples grow upwards and outwards. Pears seem to prefer growing straight up.
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Yes, there is a long held misrepresentation that one shouldnt use 333 for Asian pears. That type of poor information is passed along over time until everyone just believes it.
It actually used to be that no OhxF stocks were recommended for Asian pears. This fear of OhxF is rooted solely in the basics of complications that arise from using dwarfing rootstock.
333 is not very dwarfing but it is much more so than 97. So its the same old story of heavy fruiting on a smaller tree with a smaller root system which im thinking that common sense will tell us that more attention needs to be paid to nutrition, irrigation, thinning and support.
I started a rootstock trial using OhxF and 7 varieties of Asian pears back in 1999. A report on this can be viewed from our website.
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Yes that line about 333 has been around for a long time… I heard it many years ago when I started my pear planting but I decided to use 333 anyways. I read your report (here it is for anyone looking) and think your remark about under-thinning makes sense why people were complaining about undersized fruit. My 333 Asian Pears set ridiculous amounts of fruit and I sometimes still don’t thin them enough as I just run out of gas on the thinning operation. The trees are still producing well 20+ years after planting.
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So I am new and don’t say this for it to be emulated, but I did exactly what you are suggesting. If you want some comfort in the crazy, I’ll confess what I did: I couldn’t find the tree I wanted or the scion to buy and didn’t want to search for the few members who have it and hound them, so I ordered it on the “wrong” rootstock for a temporary container, and I plan to use it to graft to the “right” one. Then, I’ll rehome it. Given how many times I’ve changed my planting plans, I also ended up with 3 “donor” container trees that I’ll graft to in ground trees next spring and then rehome. I also am impatient, so I’ve ordered scions that I want, but likely won’t be able to graft yet, so I also got rootstock for them to grow out as donor trees for the following year…and, then, rehome. My purchasing of trees seems inextricably linked to the giving away of trees…but then, I really want grafting practice, like pushing plants on people (i know to whom they’ll each go), and I have no space!!
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It is like my wife. She does not know a lot about fruit trees. But she knows a deal on fruit trees when she sees them. So she surprises me with trees I did not plan for.
But it is ok. Looks like I will be grafting a lot of Dorset Golden next year. And Fuji. And Royal Gala. I did not want grocery store types; but I got them. Might as well use them.
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We who live in British Columbia have difficulty finding nurseries selling anything but common varieties of fruit trees and even more difficulty finding where to buy fruit tree scions. I wanted scions of Dapple Dandy plumcot but couldn’t find a source in Canada for them; so, I bought a tree from an Ontario nursery and took scions to graft onto my only plum tree. I also planted the Dapple Dandy tree right next to the plum tree as a potential replacement in a few years because the plum tree was infected with Turkey Tail fungus.
A couple of years after I bought the plumcot from Ontario, I was informed that the nursery was no longer shipping fruit trees to BC; so, the situation regarding variety choice has gotten even worse.
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I bought a nice AU Rosa tree from TSC a few years back… it had several nice branches below 4 ft… that I did not need… because of deer pressure I only let my trees establish scaffolds above 4.5 ft.
I pruned those off as others had asked for them as scion.
I have never bought a tree just for scion though.
I bought 4 apple rootstocks a few years back… and provided my own scion for 2 of those… and bought novamac scions for the other 2.
All 4 were successful. I gave 2 to a friend.
TNHunter
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I have. Sometimes no one sells the wood I want. Usually I can’t even use the tree, because it’s almost always on rootstock that won’t survive in interior Alaska.
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If I find a variety I want and can’t obtain scionwood, I don’t hesitate to purchase a tree. If others want scions of that variety, happy me, I trade for something else I want or even just give them away.
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A buddy of mine wanted a few apple trees to put on his deer hunting property. I picked out a couple varieties that have decent disease resistance and that would pollinate eachother.
One of the varieties I was too late to get scions, everyone was sold out. I ended up buying a whole tree from Fedco and cut scions off it and then planted it in my own yard.
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Thanks everyone.
I totally understand buying scions from here or there. But then I end up paying for shipping (often more than the item in question) from numerous places depending on what I find where. I did end up buy a cheap tree w/ “free shipping” & just added a few rootstocks to another order I was placing that didn’t increase the shipping cost at all.
When I tried piece-mealing my situation, I was spending a lot more. Maybe next time I’ll try contacting members here to do a trade or buy from them.
Thanks again!