Pear rootstocks influence on Fruit size

@Poncho65
The downside is ofcourse the height but that is a positive in my area. They grow very quickly.

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I will try to keep them as low as I can with pruning. If I have to use a ladder in several years then I guess I will :grin: Summer pruning should help keep them smaller, yes? @clarkinks

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No but you can runt them out with certain scion wood eg. Harrow sweet , asian pears etc… Pears despise pruning as discussed here Reduced fruit set = heavy growth! and here Pear trees that produce bushels of fruit and avoid disease . Many do not agree with my pruning methods.

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I have Harrow Sweet, Korean Giant, Orient, Hood, Harrow Delight, and Moonglow. Hopefully some of these can help runt them out some then :+1: So only winter pruning then? @clarkinks

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3 of those Harrow Sweet, Korean Giant (one of the largest asians) Harrow Delight will reduce growth yes. Try bending branches instead of pruning it will help get them fruiting faster.

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I will try bending for sure :+1: I may also put 1 of those 3 varieties as a branch on all of them that I can and would it be good to use them later on after I get more wood as an interstem?

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The problem is korean giant as an example far out grows harrow sweet. The larger type shades out the other.

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I will try to keep all that in mind when I am deciding where to plant these :+1:

Just hoping I make correct choices and am able to manage all these trees :blush:

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Fascinating concepts regarding plants https://growingfruit.org/t/the-intelligence-of-plants/24268/6. I have brought up these concepts many times Pear Rootstock influence on pears fruit size, tree growth, nutrition etc . This just means we have a great deal to learn. My concern is what substances does a pear tree contain and how do they use them? What effect do animals have on pear fruit? Why does nearly every animal have a tendency to leave my fruit alone but they pick on others mercilessly. Can they smell my rootstocks and recognize them as a wild native now or do my pears emmit a toxin for them? Callery and bet are my rootstocks of choice and i suspect my fruit is higher in nutrients due to how much deeper their roots go. I leave all windfalls for animals and they seem satisfied with those but they never pick fruit from my trees. By the way if the animals picked a pear i would not know anyway but if they picked 100 i would know.

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On OHxF333, one nursery site said that the supposed smaller fruit size was due to too much fruit set and without thinning the fruit size will be smaller.

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My experience so far is the fruit is smaller at first but not long term. The tree pulls from the dirt higher up and in some cases does not reach the water table. If it cant go deep enough in kansas its doomed. So far i think its roots are just deep enough. Long term maybe not the best idea we know the droughts can be extreme your better off with callery or bet rootstocks in Kansas than 333

This year I’m experimenting growing delayed fruiting pears and other pears on these experimental rootstocks I have. Pai li is covered with fruit as expected. If I’m right I think I can force pears to fruit in a year to three years. That will greatly change things. I’m trying red Bartlett and others with promising results so far. I’m using my yellow pear as the interstem. Those delayed fruiting pears bloomed this year.

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This is an experimental callery cross. It’s high incompatible with almost everything. So far only my small yellow pear has been able to graft it. Keep a few shoots alive in case I want something to fruit early. That incompatibility forces a tree to fruit quickly.


Red Bartlett was also forced into early fruiting as were several others. This pear is going to be very useful long term.