Good luck.
2 Likes
Thanks @Auburn and @clarkinks ! I took off lots of stuff that looked troubled and also tried to prune it more open so it would get sun and air. I then sprayed it with copper and Mancozeb (because thatās what was in my sprayer).
I have no idea if the fruit is āqualityā but there were lots of fist sized apples on it last year. Also, it was quite a pretty tree last year. Hopefully, Iāll be able to spend time and taste some of the fruit this year and see whether I like it!
You can be sure I will update later with the status of all these trees youāve been helping with!
3 Likes
If you havenāt already done it, I would seal the top ends of the scions to prevent drying out. Can use Doc Farwellās, wood glue, elmerās glue, caulking, parafilm, Gashellās grafting putty, etc
1 Like
I did after the photo. Thank you for the assist anyhow.
FB is hitting me big time this year. The callery pears around are starting to melt. Lots of strikes on my pears and apples. So far no major wood has been infected, but I think thatās where this is heading. We had lots of early warm extended wet periods. Iām spraying strep but Iām starting to wonder if it has lost potency. The bag is several years old.
1 Like
I was actually ready to drag my strep out. Too many buds got hit with blight last year. The trees managed ok but I did lose a scaffold or two Worst was pink lady and red delicious. Two years ago was wolf river which is supposedly resistant. I try to get in there quick and start taking out wood aggressively. It has served me well except for my dwarf pears. They just canāt afford to lose any wood. No more dwarf Asian pears for me.
1 Like
Looks like fireblight just hit my Bartlett pear I bought from home Depot this year.
Iāve cut off the strikes I see, but I do not want to be dealing with fireblight prone variety. Is it possible for me to top the tree and graft more resistant varieties?
2 Likes
Bartlett is a notorious blight magnet, at least here in coastal plain Maryland. Try Potomac, Harrow Sweet, Maxine (Starking Delicious), Magness, Korean Giant. If you know how to graft I would graft it 100% over to the ones I list right away. IMO if you try to save it, youāll just have lots more trouble with it down the road. Big box stores donāt care that theyāre selling nightmare varieties.
2 Likes
I would graft it over to a more fb resistant variety or just replace the tree with a callery and graft it.
1 Like
Thanks! Yea Iām in Maryland so probably should have done some research before buying it. Learning to graft this year, with varied success.
I tried to graft varieties at the ends of branches. But likely I have to cut more of the branches back to the trunk and graft from there so there are no more Bartlett flowers and shoots.
Below is my tree now, wondering how much I can cut off the tree to graft so I do not deal with fireblight in the future.
I actually have a magness scion in the fridge, so would be great to put it to use!
From your picture, I canāt tell what part of the tree is Bartlett.
Is everything except the visible parafilmed scions Bartlett?
1 Like
If it were mine, Iād cut the trunk down to say 30 inches, cut off all branches, and do 2 bark grafts on the Bartlett stump. That will rebuild you a completely new Magness tree. Thereās no way to prune a Bartlett to prevent it remaining a blight nightmare in the future. Get rid of every last Bartlett leaf. Burn, bag or bury the blighted Bartlett remnants.
2 Likes
My Gold Rush had several hits of FB last yearā¦ it got warm and rained a lot when it had late blooms onā¦ and that is where the FB showed up.
This yearā¦ it was cooler and dryer during itās late bloom and no sign of FB so far this year.
Hope that remainsā¦
2 Likes
Thanks so much for the advice, I will do that once I get some grafting wax, or should I wait until the tree is dormant before cutting it down that short?
Yep all Bartlett except where thereās parafilm
I would do it now. You can get toilet bowl wax at a hardware store. Iād graft soon.
1 Like
I should warn Iām a grafting newbie.
Agree with @hambone if you donāt want Bartlett anymore. Too bad your already grafted work will be lost. You might be able to reuse those in a regraft (just recut to fresh wood on the scion), but it might be better to use new scions. I also read you donāt need such long pencil length scions. Smaller length is fine and may be better.
It looks like you could cut the tree at the locations where lowest red branch benders are. After the cut, your tree would look like a āYā. You could do 2 grafts into the main stem and one graft into the one side branch.
2 Likes
If you graft only the trunk then your scaffold branches that develop will all be same age, size, dominance. If you graft trunk plus one or two branches, those branches may out-compete future scaffolds, with an unbalanced tree resulting.
2 Likes
I would think the higher trunk scions would grow faster due to apical dominance.
Another factor is south facing branches also get boost from sun.
1 Like
Not the end of the world for those scions, just a little lost money, but scions are relatively cheap so I can try again next year after the magness grows.
Also helps that I can shape the tree to a more 2d shape on the guide wires that I wanted anyways.
Plan to do the graft next week once itās stops raining in Maryland
Thank you both for all the help and suggestions!
1 Like