which method would be better for planting pears for a very low maintenance IE taken care of 1-2 times a year routine. Multi grafted trees or planting the trees close (as in 2 ft apart.) My soil is very poor and my rootstock is pyrus calleryana.
Two feet apart is close.If those were the only options,I’d go with multi-grafting. Brady
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Either method requires more maintenance than usual because you have to balance growth from competing trees or grafts. Emma Prusch Park in San Jose has a high density orchard and they have pears 3 to 4 in one hole it’s quite successful. They are grown as one tree though so decent space from the next tree in the row.
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I will be planting several apple trees on B9, M27 and G41 2ft apart. But this is considered normal for tall spindle/fruiting wall. But these root stocks are also very much dwarfs. Which What I have read about high density Pears is that they are using OHxF and some newer rootstocks and are planting the trees @ 4ft apart. A Pear dwarf is not the same as an apple dwarfs, so these trees are getting intensive training like you would an espalier wall or fan. I for one bought a few quence and OHxF root stocks and will be planting them further apart and doing multi graphs in the years to come.
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I agree the 3 or 4 in 1 hole require the most maintenance. Even with apple, dwarf or not you still have to keep half the tree from growing, so even with good dwarf rootstock you’re going to do a lot of pruning. having said that they look super cool. Still I too went with grafting.
assuming your growing pears in dirt poor soil (and yes our soil is lacking in dirt it is mainly sand and roots with very little nutrients ) what would be the method that has least amount of maintenance possible ? I know multigrafted trees require pruning to keep the varieties in check with each other so one doesn’t out grow the others and they are hard to keep labeled, and that close plantings require some good amounts pruning as well.
Maybe something like they are doing here. Brady
http://www.davewilson.com/home-gardens/growing-fruits-and-nuts/planting-your-backyard-orchard/how-build-raised-bed
Well another reason i went with grafting is that scion is cheap compared to whole trees. I think pruning is less on grafted trees. I’m not having much of a problem keeping them balanced it’s hardly ever an issue. One reason is the aggressive growers are all on the north side, this has worked well at slowing growth. And the slow growers are on the south or west side and seem to grow faster with all the light.
I only have one mature tree with grafts, I have others with new grafts so no work yet. Not for years. I can see 4 in one holes being a total pain after five years, whereas my
grafted tree is behaving just fine. I have heard of people having problems, but it is easy enough to prune, and with 4 scaffolds and room their is never an issues of crowding. Heck I had room for more grafts on it.
If you do graft an aggressive grower in a sunny position, you could always move it, unlike if it was a whole tree. Well you could, I have seen these holes where the roots to all the trees tangle up, so digging one out you may dig half the roots to the others out just to get it out.