I am doing some planning for next year. I have a fence on the west end of the yard and I would like to plant some pear trees down it. I wouldn’t mind if the made a fairly dense screen but I want them to have room to grow. I was thinking about purchasing some ohxf 87 rootstock as I think seedling rootstock would be bigger than I would want in this location. I see rain tree has it for sale on line. Has anyone purchased ohxf87 from them or can recommend a nursery? Also, how close together could I plant ohxf87?
Derby,
OHxF 333 is a lower vigor rootstock and is my first choice for espalier plantings. On my 6’ three wire trellis plantings, I plant the OHxF 87 every 20’ and the OHxF 333 every 15’ to 18’. There are allot of variables in spacing tree but I favor ease of maintenance over maximum production and allow a little extra space. I order form http://copenhavenfarms.com/ good luck.
Thanks for the info I will check out their site.
I went out and stepped it off and I have 45 feet. I think I could fit three, one at each end and one in the middle.
OHF.87 is supposed to get about 14 feet tall at maturity east of the Rockies. I have two multi-budded pears on OHF.87. I have them planted about 5.5 feet apart in rows spaced 7 feet apart. I have them planted at the eastern edge of my orchard, near a fence as well.
Here’s what the trees looked like in the spring.
Foreground is Worden when it was newly transplanted. Background is Harrow Sweet which was planted the fall prior. Both trees have since been multi-budded and grew a bit bigger despited all the grafting and pruning I subjected them to this year. Magness and Winter Nelis have been budded onto the Worden. Gorham and Fondante de Moulin-Lille have been budded onto the Harrow Sweet.
Both trees were bareroot stock on OHF.87 from White Oak.
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I like the disease resistance of the ohxf rootstocks. Cummins nursery is excellent if you just need a few trees http://shop.cumminsnursery.com/shop/rootstocks
3 or 4 trees sounds about right to me if you are only going up 6 feet. Most of my ideas about spacing trees came form the book Apples for the 21st century. I adapted those ideas for pears. You definitely can plant them closer but might have to do more pruning. I was reading an article in Goodfruit where they had greatly increase production in a high wall pear orchard by planting standard trees 2 or 3 feet apart. Of course they, were also using a hormone to control growth.
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Sorry maybe I misunderstood you,
I was thinking you wanted to train the trees on the fence using wires. A south facing fence would be best for that (north side of your property) Free standing trees could be planted closer. 12 to 15 foot spacing would be a good screen and give you some room to work with them. So maybe 4 or 5 trees
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Yes, I did not explain very well. I do not plan to espilar them , just let them grow. I live in the country, the “fence” is actually a barb wire fence that seperates my back yard from a cattle pasture. I really enjoy eating pears, Asian and European and I think a row of ohxf 87 down that fence would give me plenty of tree to multi graft all the verities I want.
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I asked cummins nursery recently about rootstock and tree size and he let me know it’s very site specific even within a certain region. In Kansas a mature pear reaches 30’ on my property whereas elsewhere it could be 50-100’. The 333 rootstock may get 8-15’ here is my hope so pears in theory will bear fruit faster and be easier to manage. I will let you know when they start bearing and how grafts etc do on them. Let us know how the 87 rootstock do in your area if you would. I’m curious but I suspect in some areas they will get 25’.
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I looked a cummins web page today , looks like they have just what I am looking for. Thanks for the link and I will let you know how it goes.
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I am finding some conflicting information About the size of OHxF 87 trees. Copenhaven is stating on their site that 87 is More dwarfing than the OHxF 333. Would like to hear if anyone has experience with mature 87 & 333 trees grown side by side.
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My trees are fairly young, but I have a couple of producing Forelle on OHxf 333 that took off quicker than the OHxf 87 and are about the same height as my biggest producing parker and flemish beauty on OHxf 87 of the same age. The parker and flemish beauty have a much wider spread thus far.
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I am planning to espalier a Flemish Beauty on OHxf 87 this spring with Paton as a pollinator. How is your Flemish Beauty doing 5 years on? I’m in a fairly cold zone (3) but apparently this root stock is hardy here!
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Flemish Beauty is very productive for me with fairly big pears. Turns out Flemish Beauty and Parker are identical so I have two side by side. My most productive pear variety, although it’s on the most fertile soil. No problems to report. I cut out something that looked a bit like fire blight on a wound a few years ago. My trees developed a very nice identical form on their own rather than reaching for the sky.
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Wonderful! Thanks for sharing an update. Hopefully I’ll have success with the Flemish Beauty too.
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