hopefully the 4th time is the charm. thanks.
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The temperatures are warming up I think it’s almost tbud time. Have lots of pears that need tbud grafted. Would you go ahead and start if it was you?
well Clark, im seeing growth on both scions on my mulbery. 1st time doing bark grafts and they took on a tree that 4 attempts at cleft grafts have failed. I may go though my property next spring and graft a bunch of mtn. ash to pears this way. i don’t have critters here so i can cut closer to the ground then graft. i got to say bark grafting is even easier that cleft and is less invasive to the tree. might not be as sturdy as a cleft at 1st. though. certainly can do a bunch quick. how long should i leave the elect. tape on there before removing it? got wrapped in parafilm then elect. tape over the wound then wrapped around the edge to hold it tight. i should be ok to let both those scions grow right?
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Yes bark grafts aka rind grafts are very easy. It takes a big tree a long time to heal over. I’ve done many rind grafts. Mtn ash would be good rootstock for pears. Yes you can let all the scions grow but later you will pick a dominant one. The sooner the top of the tree heals over the better and two scions heals faster than one. Your not out of the woods yet on mulberry rub off all growth besides the scions. Get ready to stake it they can have 10 feet of growth on a graft in a season on mulberry. Leave the tape on until it starts to cause a problem. Another words let them heal 6 weeks or so but as they start to heal over don’t let the tape become part of the graft.
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I grafted some pear and shipova scions in April, just about two months ago (my first ever grafts!). I top worked a large callery at my parents house, and also top worked a large aronia bush in my back yard.
The pears/shipovas on aronia rootstock shot up like a rocket! I had to remove the electrical tape about a week ago because there were bulges around the tapes indicating girdling. The grafts looked nice and strong and have survived a bit of rain and wind. But, the scion grew so much (between one and two feet of growth so far) that the new growth is flopping over, and I’m nervous they’ll break the grafts.
- Should I prune the new growth back at all, or just try to support it with some stakes and twine?
- The bush is getting super crowded and overgrown, cause I grafted two sticks per trunk, and the bush probably had 6 or 7 trunks. When should I pick the stronger scion and cut out the spare? Should I leave both per trunk for a little longer, or is it okay to cut one out now? The trunks are between 1" and 2" across.
The pears on callery rootstock have had slower, but steadier growth. Based on the pictures my dad sends me, I’d say probably about 6 to 12 inches or so per scion? I did three scions each around the two bigger trunks (about 4"across), and two scions on the one smaller trunk (about 2"across). All bark grafts.
- Assuming there’s no girdling (it’s hard to tell in the photos my dad sends me), how long should I leave the electrical tape on?
- Should I leave all the scions on to help heal over the old big cut surfaces? Or should I just pick one scion per trunk? Or leave them all for now, and pick one later?
- Should I prune the new growth at all, it just let it go?
I’ll be visiting me parents the last week of June, so I can do some maintenance on the tree then.
If it were me I would cut the grafts off at about a foot. Most people will tell you to stake them. The bottom line I have more trees so cutting the graft off prevents breaking until it has a chance to get stronger. Here is an example Leona Pear
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i agree. i had to cut back all my pear scions on my mtn. ash because they were starting to split the branch off the tree. i cut them 12in and reinforced the branch crotch until it heals. im hoping it gets strong enough again to support the branch and fruit when it comes. pear is very vigorous on m. ash.
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i have a shipova on aronia that is a very slow grower for me. its in a raised bed and has barely put on any new growth in 2 years. i suspect it has root issues because you can easily move the tree back in forth. so much so i staked it.
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Pears on aronia don’t seem to grow much for me. They are alive after several years but that’s about it. They grew some but I’m not impressed either.
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ill probably pull it next season. its the only tree/ bush that didnt react to being watered with agrothrive. the rest perked right up and put on new growth in a week. great stuff!
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Callery are great rootstocks! Both of these wild ones i photographed above are doing great. These are follow up photos just to update how the grafts are doing. These trees will likely be producing in 2-4 years so it’s always a huge accomplishment to graft them.
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Clark do you ever go back and prune to control height or you just let them grow naturally?
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I don’t prune to control height because that’s a benefit not an issue for me with pears. Deer might decide to eat all my pears if they are to low and I can’t fence off everything. Can grow more pears if I go up in the same amount of space. If my pear is 30 feet tall and someone else’s is 10 feet tall I raise the same amount of pears in 1 space that they get from 3 trees. Personally I think a taller tree yields more pears than a shorter pear in general because it has more nutrients from sunshine and other things. Pears that are bigger withstand droughts better. Quince just don’t have the root system callery does. Why prune all the time? Many people say they just cut their tree down to size. Think about this they are producing pear wood but I’m producing pear fruit. Year after year they prune off wood but unless your selling wood that’s wasteful. If your selling scions or smoker wood I can see that but why do all that work for less benefit? I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t bend the top down if you don’t like climbing so high or don’t have a large pole to pick higher branches. If growth control is the plan there is girdling and branch bending that might be ideas. There are many other reasons I like bigger trees. Everytime someone tells me they have 5 acres and it’s not large enough for a good fruit orchard i do grin inside. Think to myself they need to quit keeping their trees 7 feet tall! Don’t worry about big trees myself just let them grow. There for awhile when i was real sick I was concerned because I didn’t want to risk climbing the ladder so I planted tons of ohxf333. Great trees but then I discovered a longer picking pole that reaches over 30 feet. Weigh out and consider what I said I hope the answer for you is in there. Tree height is an individual decision which is different for every person who has a unique location. By the way i do still use ohxf333 on very disease prone trees. Maybe I should not grow those non fireblight resistant trees! All of what I said could change by next year but that’s my opinion for now.
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Smartest thing i did was using no grafting sealant or soft wax compounds. I believe wax can overheat get into the graft union and prevent the graft success. The heat this year I felt would cause big problems if I tried that based on past experience. Used plastic tape, Parafilm, clay.
Here are my pear-to-callery grafts, that I grafted around easter weekend. They were my first ever grafts, and I feel SO PROUD, like my babies are all grown up and going off to college. I know it’s small potatoes for some people who graft dozens of trees every year, but it feels very exciting to me!
Grafted with harrow sweet, harrow delight, and potomac pears.
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Those are looking really good! Congratulations on your successful grafts! It will only get better from here because now you can graft whatever you want!
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Congratulations! That’s a beautifully looking tree. I would only suggest you remove the sprouts from the original tree and also the grafting tapes. The grafts should be all healed now.
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This one grew like a weed! Callery really push growth fast so you see why i encourage everyone to graft them over. This is where weather near 100s in Kansas starts to demonstrate its benefits. We may not like it but pears love it. See if you recognize the graft shown below from just weeks ago. Think of these photos as a way for you to plan out your progress in advance. Kansas is really ideal climate this time of year for pears and its where we make up for what the other weather cost us.
Grabbed one more (shown below) because it’s likely the last time you can still barely see the grafting tape. Mark the date June 18th 2022.
Remember 13 days ago (shown below)? There is a reason why I used that tree with the crooked trunk in 6 months!
What about 24 days ago? (Shown below)
Hopefully this thread encourages more people to graft these wild callery over like this one. Use the daylillies that are more or less wild here as a reference. That daylilly was the old timers version of flowers.