I’ve got it in the top of a multi-graft callery…but no fruit this year. You never see it for sale at a big box store.
My only pears this time, a few Bartlett, a few of supposedly Korean Giant, a handfull of Ayers and an unknown Asian that has fruit despite it being in the teens once after it began blooming…and then a 8" snow in March.
Does Maxine not keep very well? There must be some reason it’s not found in commerce.
No on has heard of it so people want Bartlet instead. The store carries Bartlet.
You can find it at Cumberland Valley and Vaughns.
It’s one of the best pears I grow, but it’s slow to fruit.
Very slow for my Stark bros. tree. But my Maxine on Callery roots flowered in 2 years.
My Maxine (or Starking Delicious) is 5 years old, about ten feet tall, but no blooms this year.
But, my 6 year old Moonglow pear looks like it has set some fruit for the first time…
Maxine on callery flowers nicely in my experience just like you said. That’s not to say it doesn’t on other things like ohxf rootstocks but sometimes people think everything is slower on callery which is not true.
Where can you find it on calley?
My last year graft of Maxine on top of a callery…has one fruitl …but I probably better eliminate it.
I took a twig from my Maxine and grafted it to one of my seedling Callery pears that just popped up.
Where do you guys find calley root stock?
If you mean the free “volunteer” type seedlings- in early spring I look for “white lollipops” in field edges and hedgerows. They’re all over the place here in MD. Some have thorns, that help me ID it after bloom, but some don’t, not sure why.
I have 6 that popped up in my 50 foot by 100 foot yard. My house garage drive and walkway use half of that land
If they’re in the yards in your city, then they are along the roads and every fallow farm field probably.
I could have dug up a bunch yesterday…probably 1,000 in a one-mile stretch of I-75 if I hadn’t been busy. I doubt the Dept of Highways would have said anything.
This in an area disturbed 18 months ago in road widening…and callery seedlings about as numerous as dandelions.
Many nurseries recently stopped using callery. In some areas callery is now a problem. The ones who use ohx87 rootstock say they do. The ones that say Maxine pear and nothing else are still selling callery.
Cumberland Valley sells it on calley. I grafted Maxine onto an Ayers that I bought years ago from Johnsons, when they were still in business. Don’t know what the root stock is but the Ayers fruited in two years, but the Maxine grafts took 5 years to fruit. Go figure.
I’m not familiar with that nursery but I feel maxine does good on callery. 5 years ago everyone used callery for pears. Now you can barely buy them like that because callery is considered invasive in some places.
Hi Clark! Driving down the road the other day, happened to be by an ornamental tree nursery, when I noticed the lot next door, invaded by callery and thought of your approach. What ph are your wet soils?
All the soil here is over 8.
Good crop of maxine here with lots of large pears. Should have taken pictures but i sent them and Charles Harris home with my mother and she left me cooked green beans and tomatoes. We did not get all the ayers or grapes picked. Produce is doing very good. Picked the maxine green to avoid problems from insects. We lost none of the crop besides a few to spots of rot. Today is August 31st they should have been left a few days longer under normal conditions which its not.
If ripe it is melting, as I recall. Haven’t had one in a long time. Some resemblance to Bartlett, but better right from the tree certainly.