Olpea,
My experience is callery like all rootstocks like some pears better than others. Duchess, Kieffer, seckel. Clapps favorite, Douglas, Clara frijs all take without issues. Duchess will be delayed and look like it did not take because it will be a month or two until it leafs out. Ayers was hit and miss as were many others so maybe 50-60% takes. Chojuro on my trees was 100% fail 100% of the time as an example. A friend mentioned similar experience with ohxf rootstocks with certain pears. Scott mentioned his experience is bet may be to vigourous for certain European pears but perfect for Asian pears. Harbin pesr rootstocks will not work many times due to decline for European pears but are used for Asian pears sometimes. Certain euro pears, I would even say 3/4 of the European pears callery are wonderful rootstocks for them. I have a 20 year old callery I have top worked twice never had a disease such as fireblight or scab etc. They are very hardy , very rodent resistant etc. Callery are great euro rootstocks but remember some wild trees graft easier than others. If you get a rootstock that rejects everything try Clara frijs or Douglas they have 100% takes for me.
Don’t chop it out Barry another variety like Douglas or Clara frijs will take. Try several varities if you need to and then cut off the branches that fail and leave the ones that make it.
City,
I strongly suspect you are growing a
Hybrid of betulifolia x callery. Sometimes people think they are growing callery when its actually not. This is what makes callery great http://m.bioscience.oxfordjournals.org/content/57/11/956.full .The department of agriculture was who brought callery in during the early 1900s. What makes it great rootstock is what makes it invasive in some areas. This is a link discussing hybridization with bet http://homeguides.sfgate.com/identification-pear-invasives-105018.html
Orient, Moonglow, and Ayers for me have been compatible with my seedling Callery. The other varieties on Callery go through an inter-stem. As you know my seedling Callery might react differently than another seedling Callery. Bill
Interesting link, Clark, and of course you may be right. Whatever the callery-looking pear tress is (we call them all Bradford around here!), it was here before I bought the place. I can’t imagine why the last owner would have planted them, but lots of people do. Believe it or not, another reason I may have been lucky is that I just happened to use Moonglow and Ayers fir Euro pears, so from what Bill just said it sounds like I got lucky there. (I wish I could say it was by design, but it wasn’t). The asians were Kikusui and 20th century. They didn’t do as well but were still alive and well at fall leaf-drop.
City,
I your asians did not do great they may be normal callery. The callery has not been invasive in our area for several reasons. Mostly because the climate here is non conducive but I have saw new trees recently that make me believe someday it could happen. More people bring in ornamentals every year that make new flowering pear species. Your using your trees for their intended purpose which was as rootstock as do most of us who grow fruit. Plenty of nurseries still sell all the trees mentioned FRUIT TREE SEEDLINGS | Willamette Nurseries rootstock clonal seedling fruit tree ornamental seedlings . We need to use something for rootstocks and BET is the best choice for asians. Callery is a great choice for euro pears. Callery may be the best choice. Eventually those who grow those rootstocks as ornamental flowering pears will develop seedlings. Those seedlings when they occur here and I see them I graft them over. Land owners should kill those seedlings or graft them over. There are no laws against people planting ornamental pears to my knowledge so with that said large subdivisions have thousands of those ornamental pears in an area… I ordered 300 bet rootstocks and 100 callery this year and will graft them over this year or next. Some.e nurseries plant thousands. Used for their purpose as rootstock they produce tons of fruit and feed lots of people. My point was with all of this is when the government brought the callery in they did good by solving the problem of our need for rootstock that didn’t get fireblight. Ohxf pear rootstocks were another major break through for agriculture because they don’t get FB . If fireblight resistance rootstocks were not developed there would not be a pear industry today.
This is great info. Here in Texas I have grafted euro Asian and hybrid on Callery with no problems. I have done hosui, nijiseki, and chojuro for sure. In fact my Dad has chojuro on Callery in his yard and it has been very productive for him. I’m told it’s good but he never shares any with me! Also almost all nurseries in Texas use Callery almost exclusively for pears or at least claim to. I don’t know what strain they use. I think I got mine from Willamette if I remember correctly.
I appreciate all of the input! In my area of Western PA, I have just been noticing wild callary pears for the past several years, but they seem to be suddenly showing up all over. My kids lived in the Cincinnati area for a number of years and I noted them all over starting on my first visits there and across the river in N. KY about 10y ago , very wide spread from highway border plantings.
I have had my Bradford pear for about 25 years and just noted the new saplings on my ‘wild’ hillside recently - makes me wonder if there is something that has changed - a new pollinator causing fertile fruit or something else that caused the change here (dare I say climate change?)
I think I will give some Asian pear grafts a try (I am very raw at grafting) on them this spring, see what happens.
Plenty of ‘volunteer’ callery seedlings here - and more appearing every year. I can’t graft 'em all - or cut & poison them all. But… I’ve had no issues grafting Asian, Euro, or hybrid pears onto any of them.
Initially, I was putting an 8-10" interstem of OHxF 513 (semi-dwarfing, compatible with Euro & Asian varieties, without the issue of Asian pear decline) … but recently have just been grafting the desired varieties directly ono callery.
Lots of my experience is what i’ve learned the hard way and the other experience is what I read. @scottfsmith , @alan , @Lucky_P and others taught me a lot of what I know now. Lucky knows plenty about Harbin and callery and I frequently use him for a resource. Scott grows so many types of pears he knows more what’s compatible with what than I do. He taught me how to get stubborn varities to produce faster and good varities that don’t need help. Alan manages so many orchards and trees when it comes to pruning, production etc he is a go to for me. I may fill in some gaps that are helpful on varities but the true experts are the people who helped me learn. Those are the people that like @fruitnut and others pointed me yo the resources and helped me and others wanting to learn. So why use Harbin? In colder climates it is all that will live and at one time many nurseries grafted many pears on it. All rootstocks have a practical application its just matching the rootstock to the pear type and conditions. Thank you @amadioranch
if lifespan/productive years is a vital aspect in one’s consideration, bradfords may not be topnotch, considering that some pears are the longest-lived among common pomes.
bradfords start declining at age 20…maybe other callery cultivars live longer
https://guilford.ces.ncsu.edu/2013/10/bradford-pear-a-mixed-blessing-in-the-landscape/
Eboone,
Yes a new pollinator is it exactly and likely aristocrat. Bradford had a problem with weak branches so sometimes storm damage would occur. Bradford was sterile so it was harmless. Many new varities such as aristocrat were developed to prevent branch breakage during storms. Sometimes Asian pears top would die due to fireblight etc. Leaving bet rootstock to grow in its place it was grafted to. In light of those changes a one in a million chance seed would be fertile and grow from some variation of those conditions. The result was a new variety 100% fertile and 70% of the seed is viable and a hybrid stronger than ever. Trees revert back a generation or two and with callery that is a wild thorny tree that’s very resilient. As those small fruits are eaten by birds the seeds are spread fertilized by bird poop. As with anything in nature the variety gets stronger by natural selection. They are resistant to fireblight and other diseases, rodents, bugs, and deer.
First Asian pears I planted were on Harbin rootstock.
I’m not in a particularly cold zone, so I’ve never sought out ussuriensis, and have just used whatever I had available - mostly volunteer seedling callery, with or without the OHxF 513 interstem.
Come to think of it. I grafted 20th century to my dads Bardford Pear last year and they grew well. Even though they were grafted low on the canopy and I did not top work the tree. They received very little sun. More of an experiment than anything else.
jujube,
The seedling callery i use as rootstock here are going on over 25 years now and highly vigorous. Your right though to mention this because you never know what your going to get. I’m not sure we will know it all in a lifetime. Scientist are well aware of many other influences the rootstocks have not just in size of fruit but mineral value http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0304423884900438. Things like lifespan, fruit size , quality, production etc are not well understood by those of us who grow fruit. I suspect what we know only scratches the surface.
first things first-- hope i didn’t sound like a naysayer when i posted it and apologize if it came off as that
and most definitely, am glad yours are are still vigorous! Maybe your callery is not a bradford and possibly a longer-lived cultivar. Or may in fact be a bradford and it just so happened that your locale is more conducive to longevity.
the link i posted was published by N. Carolina State U - and even if you are in N. Carolina, it is still a sizeable state where regional differences are to be expected. And that includes differences in the expertise in cultivating one’s trees. Some links even say bradfords may start declining at age 15, so evidently yours are very happy with the care they have been getting.
jujubemulberry ,
I think that’s a very good point you brought up and I’m glad you did. Your right that a true Bradford pear are very short lived. No one really knows how long callery rootstock like my oldest will live. These are some of the cultivated variants of callery listed below. Bradford typically are lost to storms but not all of the other ornamental pears have that flaw. The wild callery are durable and I actually have friends with some on their property that are very old. A nearby town a tree stands that a friend dug seedlings from 30 years ago and the tree is still there. What is it? I don’t know for sure but I suspect its a hybrid. The urbanforestnursery made these observations about callery varieties they posted to their website
" 'Aristocrat’ A wider form tree with branches at right angles to the central leader. The distinct characteristics of the leaf are its wavy edges. Fall color is not as reliable as others, but if you have the crown space, the Aristocrat is a fine selection. Older trees are reported to reach 40’ high by 25’ wide.
‘Autumn Blaze’ This tree is not recommended unless the site is very protected from wind. Although the form is round and the color is better than most of the pears, the limbs are incredibly brittle. Even if you get trees to the site undamaged during handling and shipping, winds will tear the tree apart for many years. From my experience, this one should be listed along with the original Bradford Pear.
Cleveland Select Flowering Pear’Chanticleer’ (same as ‘Select’, ‘Cleveland Select’, and ‘Stone Hill’). The most popular, as well it should be, with its upright pyramidal growth, relatively good branch structure, and consistent qualities listed above. This cultivar was reported to reach 35’ high by 16’ wide after 15 years.
‘Cambridge’ Appears to have cleaner, more regular ascending limbs, smooth bark, with orange fall color. It is narrow like "Chanticleer’.
‘Capital’ Even narrower than the ‘Chanticleer’, so for a narrow space, this is the better choice. I have found the branch structure not to be as consistent or attractive in its winter show. The tree is said to grow to 32’ high by 8’ wide in 15 years.
‘Jack’ This tree is the smallest pear cultivar I have seen, growing to no more than 15’ tall by 10’ wide. This tree has a dense branch structure and very slow growth. Call for it more as spaces for trees get shorter and tighter. Check out the Jack Pear tree profile here.
‘Redspire’ This tree has a moderately pyramidal form, less than Chanticleer. I have found it to have some brittleness, thus somewhat susceptible to wind breakage.
'Bradfords’ are known for their extremely tight crotches and severe splitting apart as they mature. This cultivar was the first selection of Pyrus calleryana. Most of the older Bradfords have literally split apart. Avoid this one along with the ‘Autumn Blaze’ " as found here Tree Profile for the Flowering Pear - Urban Forest Nursery, Inc.
In Kansas I frequently go observe wild callery and other types of pears. A friend mentioned a location with wild pears on his property and asked me to hike out there and determine what they were. The pears were as expected callery pears but that was when the surprises started. Typically the species has pea sized fruit. These trees for the most part were typical callery pears except for one tree which is shown in this photo. 
As mentioned the above tree is no Bradford nor is it short lived. It’s been there around 25 years they knew of. They bought the property then to deer hunt and the deer eat this fruit. Here is another wild pear with more typical fruit as a comparison below.
Oddly I found non producing and producing pears in this area well over 100 years old.
the pics show stark differences, no doubt.
and most certainly, there will also be differences in hybrid vigor and lifespans, since cross-breeding between cultivars occur quite readily. Also intriguing that callery pears seem to have more viable seeds when hybridized.
That larger pear is exactly what I have growing wild . Very astringent . Lots of pucker when tasted .