My neighbor has about 1/2 acre of wild callery pears growing in their back yard. I asked them if they like pears, and of course they said yes. I told them I could graft some of wild pears trees so they could have pears. I have done some research from this website on the subject, and thought it would be a good idea.
I noticed that the trees were growing in a low area with a lot of water. (swamp zone) I examined the trees, and I wanted to pick out 3 trees to prune out for next springs grafting season. I wanted to cut out the central leader, and shape them for grafting. It helps me graft, by looking at the structure of the trees. Their is some smaller trees that I can graft, I can use as rootstock. I will just put one graft on the main leader of the tree.
When pruning I noticed some small reddish balls attached to the limbs. (I am not sure I know what they are, but I sprayed the trees with copper and a soap mixture.)
I am all ready working on making my pear scion wish list from 39th Parallel, and I have some pear seedings that I have started. I am hoping my seedlings will get big enough to use as scions for next spring.
I really do not think this project will cost that much, since I already have all the grafting supplies on hand. I think these trees are almost bullet proof. I have read that you can cut them down, and they will sprout back up again. You have to put a chemical on the stump to kill them.
I tried to pick out the best trees to graft to. Some of the trees have heavy thorns, and a real black trunks.
Seedling can take up to 20 years t produce fruit and the fruit is often worthless
Can’t be that bad. I notice that Vaughn’s, a commrercial nursery favored by Cityman uses Callery as its rootstock.
I will get my good varieties of pear scions from 39th parallel, and I will put my seeding scions on some of the trees, their is plenty of trees to graft to, so why not take the chance of grafting some seedling scions to some branches. No risk, no reward. It is not costing me no money, or any space, so why not?
I understand now.
True that some take that long and many are inferior in quality. But, one of the seedlings might bear in 3 years and be the next “Bartlett”…you never know.
Some
folks are adventurous, others not so much.
I use Callery for all my pear rootstock. If I were doing a large planting I would still go with Callery. If you want quick to fruit pears graft in Harow Sweet. There are probably more varieties that fruit quick but I don’t have any experience with them.
I cut a callery seedling for my neighbor having a caliper over 3" last year…grafted on 5 varieties.
Four varieties have pears, including Ayers. And this year I added Maxine and Pineapple.
All grafts 5 to 8 feet off ground, amazing to see 5 + feet of growth in one season!
It can be done take a look at these two threads
Nice pictures!
Today I decided to dig up some wild callery pear trees(for rootstock) I will graft them next spring and make some new pear trees. As I was digging I came across a wild pear, with some fruit on it. This is the first wild pear I have found with fruit on it that was bigger than a quarter. The pears look like miniature Asain pears. I thought, I would take some pictures and share.
I have a calary pear that produce halfar size fruit. It is quite taste with a lot of seeds and a verh bitter skin
Probably a Bradford seedling. Or cross.
Yes that’s a genetic mutation I’m familiar with them. You might like this thread below.
Observe the size of the wild callery fruit. I really wish I had another lifetime I would get scions of all these large fruit callery seedlings and cross them to improve the variety. Callery will do it on it’s own eventually. Thanks for posting this! The next step in pear rootstocks is clearly callery or gmo
Want to really make some people think with this thread! Do any of you think callery fruit getting larger is any different from how apples started out? Callery are not as far along as apples. The genetics are going to make larger pears preferred by deer which will eat the larger fruit over non large fruit. Those seeds will be spread everywhere.
NO! The calary pear has gone backwards.
Thanks for the nice picture and information. I was thinking of going back and collecting some of the fruit. I will get some of the seeds out of the fruit, and try to grow my own rootstock. (just for fun) I would be a lot easier than all that digging. This tree was very close to the road, it has nice color, and I did not see any thorns on it. Another thing I noticed, It must be resistant to salt and brime from the road? Most trees can’t survive next to the road from the salt they apply to the roads. The snow plows throw that snow and salt a good distance. I have noticed people who plant pine trees close to the road, they always seem to die after the snow melts in the spring.
I have found one Callery pear with larger fruit than average. I thought this was a persimmon when I drove by because of how the fruit load is bending the branches.
Nice Pictures!
Crab-pears night make good cider
I found one along the side of the road with larger fruit like that. I assume it’s from callery crossed with a larger pear. I tasted one and it was surprisingly good with a sweet, juicy fruit gum flavor…for a couple of seconds, but that good flavor was suddenly replaced with an intense mouth puckering astringency like an unripe persimmon. It may be interesting if added to a batch of cider, but definitely not for fresh eating.