Steve, I’ve never bark grafted before. I’ve watched the YouTube videos - especially the Italian(?) man’s bark grafting demos - and just never had the urge to try. Maybe I’ll have my first try this spring.
Won’t the original variety - like Bartlett, for instance - contaminate the grafted variety?
I have several other healthy pear trees. A Potomac. A Magness. A Moonglow. There’s a lot to take care of . . . and I’m winding down these days. Just can’t keep up. So - I’ll decide if I want to save the two trouble makers.
As it turns out, summer pruning is definitely not good in the South of France. It creates too much sap on the limbs, as this is our rainy season, betwee Sept. and Oct. November pruning and planting is good.
im probably outside of the “summer pruning” window but i have a couple container pears that im curious about. each branch is its own variety. i have no plans to remove it from container. its probably 10’ tall now. the pot should limit its height or should i top it and the tallest branches? maybe spread them out some? they are growing basically straight up. any advice is welcome:
Pears like to grow straight up. Are you trying to make a Christmas tree shape?
When my pears had grafts that were really long like that, I cut the top couple feet off of them in late winter (Feb 2025). In spring and summer, they developed a lot of branches below the cuts (many of which are also growing straight up =)).
I added some branch spreaders which have worked, just not as well as they did on my apples. The pear ones need to be longer because the branch just starts to grow straight up after the spreader. The pears really really want to grow straight up. But at least there is an angle there now.
Even though they’re not perfect, I wish I’d done more of the branch spreaders. I got some of the plastic ones last year and they kept falling off, so I kind of gave up for a while. This year, I cut some pieces of wood with Vs in each end, and drove a narrow finishing nail through at an angle. Then I “nailed” the spreader on.
If I had fewer trees and was able to check on them more often - I might not have poked holes in them like that but so far it’s worked for me.
i probably thought i was going to do them open center. not sure if thats a thing with pears but i know i want them small because they are in a container. whatever is best for the fastest and most quality fruit. maybe ill top all of them this later winter.
I only have a few pear trees so the way I spread the limbs might not be practical for everyone. When the buds first emerge from the trunk (1-2") I mostly use clothes pins to open up the angle. My intent is to get the first growth going straight out. Then as it grows I let the limb grow slightly upward. My older pear trees look like a modified leader style.
Things we know for fruiting faster: Qunice rootstock (or OHxF87 if too cold for quince), Harrow Sweet pears, don’t prune or prune only the very smallest amount. In the second year, bend branches below horizontal. MAKE SURE TREE IS STAKED and branches are supported.
I would love to hear from others if there are other pears known to be especially precocious. For me, Dutchess was very quick to develop fruiting spurs and flowers (but I pulled the flowers off so have no idea if it would have actually developed fruit). Sekel, Douglas, and Dana Hovey followed a year later (but I also pulled the flowers off these).
For pruning:
Pears don’t really like open vase very much… Here’s a picture of what might happen: How do I prune this pear tree?
I would try modified central leader like @Auburn . Growing in a pot will help keep it small. I don’t know much about growing in pots - but I know people do!
That said, I’m not sure how modified central leader would work with a different variety on each of those branches. It looks like there are 5-6 coming out of a very short piece of trunk? that makes me worried that if those branches get loaded they will split.
I don’t actually know what would work in your situation but here are some ideas:
Get some more rootstock and espalier to the fence with 1-2 varieties per plant. If you can’t do the fence, then you can put a rebar or similar structure that gets put in the ground.
Pick one of those varieties on the tree and let it become the central leader. Pick one that is most fireblight resistant and vigorous. As it develops scaffolds, move the grafted varieties to the scaffolds.
Think I saved the tree! I cut off the obvious nasty limbs - to the trunk. All wood I saw was clean at the cuts. No sign of disease. Some limbs were fine All in all - the tree looks a lot better.
