NO? I bet you’ve heard of “Bradford” Pears!
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Yes, as I said above. Are they one and the same? The ones at my office have the tiniest fruit, smaller than a dime I’d say.
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Yep…Bradfords are callery. (Not all callery are “Bradford” of course, just like all apples aren’t Red Delicious.)
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That makes a lot of sense. For some reason I didn’t put two and two together until now. Sounds like I might need to convince some friends with Bradford’s to let me do some grafting too.
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Not a bad idea…they produce much faster than OHXF87 for sure!
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They can also be called calleryana rootstock. Think you might like this thread Planting out pear rootstock on a large scale
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Thanks for sharing Clark! I’ve used a dibble bar at work for a couple thousand trees and shrubs in wetland plantings. They are very nice (and very efficient) once you get used to the method. Successive smaller holes to fill the first is important. How did those mass plantings turn out versus your Callery pears?
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That is the best way to speed up the process of getting scion wood to bear fruit. Your seedling scions should bear within a year or three when grafted on a mature tree. That is an old breeders trick.
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Now that I have started to look for them, I just noticed the entire property beside a tractor supply nearby is loaded with 5-10ft tall Callery pears. Some larger fruit than others. Easily in the hundreds if I started to count
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Loaded
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Not surprised. They are particularly thick around mile 108 in KY on I-75…but actually they’re just about in all areas as the birds and animals have distributed the seeds…and they germinate readily, apparently.
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They are pretty easy to spot in the spring time when they are loaded with white flowers.
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Purplish leaves hanging after many trees have become bare in November is another good ID-ing method.
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I drove by an area recently with hundreds of relatively large callery seedlings, most 10-20 ft tall. There were many with several dead shoots from fire blight, but I did not see a single fruit. Maybe they were so tiny I missed them, but I really don’t think there were any. Since these are obviously seedlings that grew up along a cleared area next to the entrance to a parkway, you would think most would be cross-compatible. The lack of fruit on a non-native, invasive tree is not really a bad thing, but it does seem a bit weird.
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Aaaaa…but the birds may already have scattered them in the next clearing long the road! 
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Mine produces fruits about the size of a Hass avocado seed.
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Clark, this may be a silly question, but could Callery pears be used as a disease resistant semi-dwarf rootstock for apples?
This post seems to infer it has been done before with Bartlett/seedlings on a large scale. Apples grafted onto pear rootstock for cider in old days
If so is there a good reason why this practice has ceased and apple rootstocks are more prevalent? I could see a happy disease free Callery being a superior option for both apples and pears in most circumstances.
An additional question - has anyone tried rooting cuttings from Callery?
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No, haven’t. But I’d try “root cuttings” before “rooting cuttings” if I didn’t plan to do grafting or seed planting.
Your question can be answered easily but it may not be the answers you want to hear. Many have thought as you of grafting apples to pears. Many more have believed they were successful. There are what are known as interspecific hybrids some of one tree and another. There are some apples such as winter banana more compatible with pears than other apples. There are many who have tried to graft apples to pears with success @Auburn @39thparallel and many others. All of this said in my opinion I’m not sure it should be done. I question if such as orchard even if grafted using interstems could ever be fully productive. It’s my opinion it would be difficult to find a working combination which would take time. Many times I’ve grafted winter banana and many times it’s died of fireblight. Perhaps others will have suggestions and experience different from mine. After all consider I’m partial to pears so my opinion is biased for that reason as well. You can easily take cuttings and root them. Most times when apples are grafted to pears they grow poorly and die after several years. You might like this topic Interstem aka interstock Pear Grafting and this one Compatibility grafting? - #3 by clarkinks
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