Hey guys. We have an old pear (planted well before 1977 when the land was bought) tree that started to die and ive been removing the dead branches over the past two years. This spring the little branches did flower! However, today I noticed some sprouts coming from the ground around it, as well as a sprout coming from the broken trunk. With that being said, what are the odds of this new growth from the ground and the growth from the trunk being an actual pear tree? Or rootstock growth? I dont know if it was grafted or what. It is in an orchard that had trees over 100 years ago.
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You won’t know until and unless it fruits. I grafted a scion from a similarly damaged tree 4 years ago and finally have a tree large enough to fruit next year. With a bit of pruning and some damage control, the parent tree fruited this year. It is consistent with Winter Nelis which is what was expected.
IMO, most of the time, you will be better served to find a really good modern pear and graft on a compatible rootstock. I would rather have Warren and Potomac by far than most of the typical older varieties. Kieffer, Seckel, and Bartlett are typical older trees in this area.
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@nathanstrecker44 @Fusion_power
Many old pears in Kansas were kieffer, others were never grafted, they were grown from seed. Most are of inferior quality though some are incredible.
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Thank you for your responses! When it grew fruit in the 90s it was excellent. The way it grew though it looks like it had died and grew back a couple times is why i was wondering if it’s making its third or fourth comeback.
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Modern pear rootstocks have superior disease resistance. There are some bad pear diseases lurking out there. If I were to start a tree from scratch I would put it on something like OH x F87.