In February '24 we cleared a small field in southern Ohio overrun by those invasive ornamental bradford/callery pear trees , and I decided to keep several stumps to practice grafting for my very first time.
[P.s. I am a new poster, so I can only attach 1 image per post, and will try to post them in the threads below]
I utilized a handful of ~8" day-old scion harvested from a edible pear tree we planted when I was a child. I don’t know the variety but it looks similar to a comice pear. Several lower limbs were left on each host rootstock to encourage “sap flow” and not overly shock the trees (I think they appreciated this, and they handled the topping very well)
Anyways, I utilized the bark graft and a single cleft graft .
The single cleft graft failed and slid out of its slit several days after grafting, I believe due to poor structural connection.
I used flexible grafting tape and pulled electrical tape tightly to anchor the joints; and Bonide Garden Rich Pruning Sealer to seal the grafts and most stump tops.
(1: See photo in next posts)
All trees were caged, scions where bagged, and small plastic caging was adding to some for structural support and facilitate bagging. I removed the bagging once I saw small leaves emerge from the buds. All but maybe one or two scions took.
(2.1: See photo in next posts)
(2.2: See photo in next posts)
Over the months, these grafts grew very quickly and tall. I lost some big branches to wind and some pesky deer reaching over the cages and pulling on the branches. In the future, I’d like to do more to prevent wind damage by either splinting the branches or perhaps limiting growth via summer pruning so that they don’t catch so much wind.
I did some light hand pruning to the roostock branch growth and suckers, but saved the major pruning of these branches until the following winter 12/24. I suppose I could have done a more extreme pruning over the summer but the grafts were growing great so I saw no reason to disrupt that.
I removed the tape later in the seasons once I was confident the joint was secure. The grafts had actually grown through the tight tape, making it hard to remove some wraps — hopefully this doesn’t cause issues in the future.
(3: See photo in next posts)
Fast forward to 12/24, I did a drastic pruning of the roostock vegetation (not the scions), and in the photos you can see how much growth occurred on this in just 10 months. I don’t know if this is typical or not, but I was very impressed by this growth. Below you can see what these grafts look like now.
(4.1: See photo in next posts)
(4.2: See photo in next posts)
(4.3: See photo in next posts)
BUT, now I need pruning advice please! I’m not sure what shape to try to encourage for each of these grafts. I’d like to keep the pear tree low if possible, but I know this will likely be a full size tree because of the bradford/callery rootstock. I was planning to prune late winter / early spring. Below you can see the scions with their outlined profiles. Any ideas and advice would be appreciated!
(5.1: See photo in next posts)
(5.2: See photo in next posts)
(5.3: See photo in next posts)
Thanks
