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.
Just went through your thread. Looks like you did mostly clefts. I went a mix of cleft/bark. Think I’m going to go with your machete/hammer clefts on bigger items next time. Cleft locks the scion in and I think is stronger in the long run. I’ve already lost some bark grafts due to birds, wind, ?
There is Callery everywhere here, but it never sets foot on my property. Have to admit I’m jealous.
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Yes cleft and whip and tongue mostly. Getting reading to start tbud grafting. Had a 100% take rate with no damage yet. We have not had any 80 mph wind storms yet either. Most people don’t like cleft I’m not sure why but noone can argue with great results! Had the same problem as you on bark grafts aka rind grafts where I had to build bird perches to keep them off my grafts or leave one taller limb above graft height.
Bark grafts are easily broken off if they are not securely attached. I use wire nails 5/8 inch long with 2 or 3 in each graft and securing the bark flap. Even then, a heavy bird or strong wind can damage a graft. More important, a rapidly growing scion will flop over after it gets a few feet tall. I attach a scrub tree to the stock with tape and tie the scions to it to prevent blow out, knock out, and fall over. It takes only a minute to properly protect a graft. Please note that cleft grafts are still susceptible to scions that fall over so a support stick benefits them too.
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Your right an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure on taking care of fruit tree grafts.
There are many benefits to all types of grafts. A friend asked me to graft his tree over and frustrated he said Noone will have scions so late and I assured him I did. When I arrived that year again he was frustrated all branches were dime sized off the main trunk or very tiny. Cleft grafted the main trunk one size fits all with cleft. If someone sends pencil lead scions great we can bark or cleft graft them or perfect pencils whip and tongue graft those. The methods I use are based on what I’m working with. On a mature orchard I do mostly bark grafts. On a brand new orchard planted last year I will do whip and tongue. On a bunch of 3-4 year old trees I will cleft. When it’s to late in the year and I can’t dormant graft anymore I will tbud graft which is the easiest of all.
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So fast forward what do they look like in another year or two? This one is still a baby it’s a 3 year old pear I think. This callery is carrying a load of Asian pears. These are proably pai li or kosui.
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The value of cleft grafts is very apparent after the first deer browse. The deer pruned up some leaves on some of these and others they left alone. Apparently the deer used the cover of the storms to get this close. No long term harm done in my opinion.
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Question- I have a lot of Euro pears on Callery. Looking at a few of them today I noticed they are pushing 25 foot or more. These things are huge and don’t look like they will ever slow down. What happens? Will they slow down? How big will they get?
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Yes they are almost grown they get about 30 feet tall normally. The heavier they fruit they more under control they will be. What type of pears are the European pears?
The ones I was looking at were Ayers, but I have a lot of pear trees. Several of the other monsters were grafted over to Harrow varieties this year. So far on Callery I’m seeing an average of 5-6 year wait time on fruit. Still far quicker than apple on standard rootstock. I’m still waiting on many of them.
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Ayers have been a slow to fruit pear for me in Kansas like ten another pear from the Tennesse breeding program. Harrow on the other hand will only take 2 or 3 years to produce. The Harrow breeding station pears all produce very quickly. Some Harrow pears may produce as fast as the next year after planting them.
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