As many of you are aware there are many pears that might be best not to grow in Kansas but we would still like to grow here. Some trees we can easily grow here such as kieffer cork off fireblight strikes. My current plan to grow pears such as concord , abate fetel, Comice, forelle is to use a large interstem of fireblight resistant wood I let grow out at least a year or two that I will graft these difficult to grow varieties on. Anyone tried this approach? If the non resistant variety gets a fireblight strike I’m assuming it will hit the kieffer interstem and cork off. I made no direct grafts to the main trunk rather only grafts to kieffer branches. I’ll let you know how it works out here.
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Worth a try. Good luck.
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Hope it works, been thinking about the same thing but with apples.
I’d like to try to graft Bosc to my Frankenkieffer for that reason
That will be better than having a FB-susceptible trunk. If its a bad strike the whole tree can go though, I lost a tree that way a few years ago when a newly grafted scion got infected. If the grafts are far enough away from the main trunk it will be much better, every foot is more insurance. So, letting the Keiffer branch out before grafting will be better.
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Scott,
One improved kieffer I used is 10’ tall and I grafted every top branch on a ladder. On that tree I added about 5+ cultivars that I’m usure how they will perform in my area. I’ve been grafting to large callery this year as well. Hopefully it will turn out well.