Some of you have seen my drastic versions of top working pears Top working Pears weather permitting with rind or cleft grafts but i use whip grafts with small trees. I have to many harrow delight pear trees so im converting several over to other things. This one im changing over to joeys red flesh. Pears do not require the best grafting techniques so im not doing whip and tongue or other better methods. Harrow delight makes a great interstem for many pears! The scion wood came from here https://www.ars-grin.gov/cor/catalogs/pyrredflesh.html . Anyone else changing varities?
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Dont like that we dropped in the 30’s right after days of 80’s! Around 70 for a long period is ideal. We cannot control the weather!
Not unusual to see those kinds of low temps here during grafting season, but I don’t think it ever affects the apple and pear grafts that I have noticed. Good luck!
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@marknmt
Yes the lows dont bother me as much as the flips from 80’s to 30’s because its cooking my graft one day and the next day slowing it down from callusing over. Pears are tough but sometimes even those grafts fail here when it flips to 90’s and drops like this. Think im ok so far but really need some steady weather. Hopefully we will stay out of the 90’s for awhile.
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Every graft took on this tree! Looks great now! Not a lot of info from ARS Grin on this one " Scions received in 1992 from Clarence Barker, then of Albany, Oregon. Mr. Barker had obtained this cultivar from his nephew Joey. The original tree was in a 100 year old orchard on Joey’s Farm in McGraw, New York. The fruit ripens in the fall, unlike other NCGR red flesh pears which all ripen in the summer. This may be the old German ‘Blutbirne’."
https://npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/accessiondetail.aspx?id=1020885
Anyone else growing this pear? I pruned it down to about 1/4 the growth it had from last year. Concerned spring winds could break graft unions so i reduced the size of this pear drastically. Dont want to lose this one so i removed flowers as well.
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Did you all notice I grafted to Harrow delight? Why do you all suppose I have so many Harrow delight? Harrow delight Pyrus communis 'Harrow Delight' (Harrow Delight Pear) | North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox description says
"This is a high-quality hybrid pear tree (Old Home x ‘Early Sweet’) x ‘Bartlett’ with an early bearing character. It is very resistant to Blight and Pear Scab.
Although The Harrow Delight Pear tree is a heavy fruit bearing tree, it will take 2 to 3 years before your young tree will begin to produce fruits. Its highest fruit production will occur every 2 years."
Did you notice that old home in that description? Old Home is a rootstock so you can see why I grafted a pear I wanted to Harrow delight. When I say I got 100% take rate consider it wasn’t my skills as a grafter I was in a hurry it was rather my selection of what I was grafting to that made it work.
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Still, brilliant.
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Glad you mentioned Harrow Delight. I need to add a couple more limbs of it.
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Wanted to remind everyone pears are easy to graft but I still take the time to do some extra things sometimes like wrap the entire scion when I feel it’s necessary.
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