No fireblight problems here
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Never had Firebligt issue on DH here
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@clarkinks - can you describe the proper form/pruning for the young drippin’ honey? Based on the pic I saw of your trees, they almost look to be multi-leader… not a typical central or modified leader. I have two (one ground, one container) that will be entering their second leaf, and don’t know what to do with them. Perhaps I should not have spread their branches! Also curious if that one in the container is likely to sprout more branches?
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What kind of rootstock is it? What do you want the height to be? As an example, this tree is on a central leader until it gets to 5 feet, then i allowed 2 branches. The crotch angles on pears can be very narrow, which can cause breakage in storms.
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Hi - Rootstock is whatever Gurney’s uses. It is unlisted, however, when I called prior to order, the person I spoke with seemed to think they were OHxF 87.
Height… would be nice to keep the one in-ground to to 8 or 9’, if that is practical. On the shorter side 7-8’ for the 30gal container, would be ideal.
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Remove the small branches for now and begin to let them grow at 36 " - 48". Would use a central leader for now. Here is a pear i grafted last year. Dont pay attention to the branches in the background.
This is the thread i grafted this pear in start to finish. Notice the dog leg in the trunk so it is easy to recognize Grafting large Callery and BET pear rootstocks in 2022 - 2023
This is the start
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Thanks for sharing. Seems like given their verticality, you don’t keep many branches. How many should I aim to keep, and aim for traditional 6" spacing?
If I could stay lower in the container, it is probably better. Still best to whack off those existing branches and aim for 36+" container-to-first-branch?
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That graft turned out real nice
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It is the one in the middle. There is another pear on each side. Those are on ohxf333 rootstock. They are magness, korean giant, and lazy j pear on the sides. On 333 those trees are at about 12 -15 feet full grown in clay. They can stay at 10 feet easily if i want. You will want room in your container to handle it. Let it get its height first. It will fruit in 4-6 years. On ohxf87 if you get it taller first, it will likely fruit closer to the 4 years. The wood the fruit sets on is 2 -3 years old. That means this year you want it to gain a lot of height. Thank you for your compliment on the graft. That new tree is on callery so it will be more like 20 feet. Drippin honey are as big as grapefruit if kept thinned out.
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Ok, thanks - that is very helpful. It sounds like I should trim everything below 3’, and let it go vertical. It looks like you did get some spreading on some of the grafted tree’s branches for better crotch angle, so it seems that is an OK thing to do. Based on the full grown tree pics I’ve seen around, seems like only 2-4 of those branches will ultimately be kept (in addition to the leader).
A bit of threadjacking here, since I have the pearmaster 
I also have these two Harrow Sweet’s on OHxF87. The one in-ground, I just topped because some sort of blight had attacked it. If keeping these two to similar heights (8-9’ in-ground, 7-8’ in-container), should I also be whacking the stubs below 36", then train to central or modified leader?
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I can’t wait!
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Harrow sweet will try to runt out on you and produce fruit too fast. Definitely keep it at as a central leader a while. Some trees around here i prune later than intended.
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AKA Clark is lazy.
Keeping a pear tree under 16 feet tall is difficult. It might be possible on dwarf rootstock using heavy yearly pruning. It won’t be easy. I worked years ago for a local farmer. We harvested potatoes from a field that had an 80 foot tall pear tree. No idea what variety, but it was loaded with fruit… all the way up.
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I usually get them under control, see the various squirrel threads here. I am now using three types of traps: tube, Kania, and Squirrelinator. I have a dozen traps and am trapping from March to September.
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Have never been accused of being lazy before though it made me smile when you put it that way.
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It was intended as humor. Growing fruit trees and being lazy tend to be mutually exclusive.
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For those with drippin honey, is it completely self-infertile from your experience? It seems like the design is for self-fertilization. That is, the flowers bloom with the stigma in contact with and has pollen from the anthers already.
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@clarkinks does it seem like dripping honey can be pollinated with euro pears? I read generally asian and Euro pears can cross pollinate as long as they’re blooming simultaneously.
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