Very true. Just the conundrum of if I wait and they don’t send out new growth it will likely be to late to order a replacement this year. If I order a replacement now and they start sending out new growth then I’ll have to find a place for a new tree (not the worst problem to have).
Seeing the green on the scratch test does give me hope though.
As long as there’s life in the rootstock, I personally would be keeping it. If things don’t look good come summer, you could t-bud it to something else (assuming you could get a hold of your desired variety anyway)
That’s a good point. I didn’t think about summer grafting. Thanks for your input.
Badger…small weird world but guess where I live…
(Also belleville)
Ha, from a town of only 2000. I know we were seeing similar issues in our pears from this thread. I thought it was disease related at first but now I’m thinking it’s cold injury. Could still be either I suppose.
Are your Asian pears showing any life yet this spring?
The ones that arent mystery-dying have leaves, some over an inch long. We are down just off 92 and X…
I think we are in the same boat. My European pears are leafing out and my Korean giant too. The three above are dead"ish". We are in town. Drive down Bowlavard and it’s the one with all the fruit trees/bushes everywhere.
Hah…We used to live on Albert circle. Left behind a couple currants and gooseberries, a pretty nice nijiseiki, a lapins, and a beauty j plum and a few other odds and ends i believe are now thoroughly neglected, near the end of the cul de sac
Badger, do you know what rootstock your Asian pears are on?
The chojuro and hosui I do not. I bought them from Stark bros before I knew Rootstock importance.
The yoinashi which I just looked up is actually shenseiki (don’t know why I thought it was the other) and the Korean giant are on OHxF87.
I had young Shinseiki, Hosui, and Shinsui Asian pears that all died this winter on OHxF87 with low temps about -12 F. About 15 European pears also on 87 sailed through with ease, making me suspicious that the Asian pears aren’t really happy with that rootstock. Anyone else have observations on this?
That could be it. With my trees it looks like any year old wood is dead but the older wood looks alive for now.
According to this pryus betulefolia is only hardy to -10 but pryus communis is hardy to -40. They don’t list OHxF87 for Asian pears.
https://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1990/V1-304.html#WINTER%20HARDINESS
I’m tempted to get some communis Rootstock and grafting Asian pears on it. Burnt ridge still had Rootstock and scionwood.
Does anybody know how tall an Asian pear on communis Rootstock will get?
I found this write up on grafting compatibility from the Deveon Fruit Growers website. Interesting.
d. Graft pears onto saskatoons and cotoneasters and some hawthorns (especially Japanese) and mountain ash. Note the need to keep some of the original foliage below the graft on saskatoons and cotoneasters. Compatible mountain ash rootstocks do not have this requirement and usually do not need staking. If using seedlings for pear rootstocks, use seeds from hybrid hardy pears rather than seeds from pure Ussurian pear lines.
Yes, I have a pear growing happily on mountain ash for a couple years now. I’m going to see if the Asian pears can survive on it too, plus graft several more European types. I had been wondering if they needed nurse limbs of the mountain ash to keep feeding the roots…
Does the emerald ash borer go for mountain ash? Might be something to think about.
i was interested in the fact they listed Saskatoons.
I was surprised that my multigrafted pluot from Raintree survived. So did my Arctic Glo white nectarine. Both are listed as Zone 6 plants, and we are supposed to be zone 5A here. We also had a terrible freeze where we were at -40 for days. I planted these trees in a sunny, sheltered area however, and they are leafing out now.
that really bites! my neighbor had a lot of vole damage this year but none here. i guess the poison bait stations got them before they got to my plants. i have plenty young plants they could have got to.
thats strange as wolf river is commonly grown here and never shows damage to cold.
mother#%#%……
lost my H118 and Prok, both of them I cut green scions in Feb, scions are STILL green, but it looks like the trunk froze and split.
Not awesome.