Alan,
Do you need to seal off the cuts/wounds with grafting tape or sealant? Do you have any accidental branch breakage due to these cuts during forming the intended position?
I don’t have any tree in my mind for such project yet but it’s very informative to know.
Tom
I was curious about the same thing. Was wondering if the cut area should be wraped with parafilm to reduce risk of disease affecting the cut. I’d assume it would heal quite quickly.
Thanks Alan I know its been a couple years ago when Scott mentioned it to me. Those were some stubborn trees I had and the next year was their first year to bear fruit.
I’m glad it worked for you Clark.
Wound dressings are not effective for trees in general as very compelling and voluminous research seems to indicate they don’t block out diseases, perhaps because the competing fungus is
already there and wound dressings create the moist environment that fungus thrive in. (you can google Shigo- wound sealants).
I never use wound dressings for this or any other pruning operations and wounds have never led to detrimental disease except perhaps with peaches where I manage some trees that in recent years have suffered from canker. Wound dressings are not the proscribed treatment for this either- mostly all you can do is wait until peaches are already in growth to prune them. Maybe doing so preceding a stretch of dry days is helpful also.
Yes, I have broken branches by trying to spread them. If it is a narrow crotch you can wrap the branches tightly with electric tape at the crotch so they spread above that point. Someone here posted guidelines recommending you manually bend branches above the crotch area to make it more limber for bending further up. In both of these approaches you would cut the hinge further up as well.
I rarely break branches now that I’ve quite a bit experience with this technique- the other thing that leads to breakage is pruning cuts or other wounds on the other side of a hinge. Leave a big stub if there are waterspouts that need removal in a stressed area.
I think the method your thinking of is espalier. Want to make sure I know what you guys are talking about. There is a gentleman in this area that uses that method. His trees are not old enough to fruit though. That method with wires and drip irrigation sure makes for some gorgeous apples.
Clark, espalier not only involves getting limbs horizontal, the entire espaliered tree is placed in a single plane with fixed tiers as well and a rigorous system of shoot pinching is employed. All we are talking about is the horizontal limbs aspect, they need not be in a plane or in tiers etc.
I see Scott I was invisioning spacing a little different than how it must be. My friend is growing his nearly on top of each other. I misunderstood what you and Alan meant. Keeping the branches wide crotched and horizontal makes more sense to me. That’s more in line with the system you explained to me. Basically you said get some of the branches horizontal and less that are vertical a couple of years and fruit started right away. You and Alan have great advice. Simple and effective
Alan are you thinking of Tall Spindle?
No, that one is prevalent on the internet and doesn’t actually call for pulling each branch below horizontal, although you will find pictures where this has happened from the weight of the apples in a tall spindle arrangement.
We’ve discussed the training system on this site and I submitted at least one video showing the method so it can likely be found with a bit of searching. I first learned of the method when another member remembered my suggestion that pruning apple trees to a weep can be a useful strategy and directed me to it.
My brain is not becoming a more efficient filing cabinet with age.
I think it is called Solaxe pruning on youtube.
Thanks, it is Solaxe. Maybe I can imbed in my memory this time. I knew there was an axe in there.
This year was another excellent year to grow pears in Kansas. Wish I could take credit as the pear grower but the pear tree actually deserves the recognition.
Hey Lucky,
Are you growing any European pears in Kentucky? Any successes? Any varieties doing well for you?
Matt,
Which ones did you have the best luck with this last year? Any must haves in your collection?
Clark,
All my pear grafts took last year, but did not grow much. My collection is listed on my profile page. I am most excited about the Harvest Queen graft, but it is only an inch long right now.
I’ve sampled the Harvest Queens from the local orchard for the past two years and have been amazed at their delicious flavor.
Harvest Queen:
I’m also really excited about the Gorham and Magness grafts. From past tastings, I can tell you that those are two more top-notch pears.
Magness:
Gorham is a funny little blight-resistant Bartlett-type. It’s appearance is strange because the stems are always cocked at a 90-degree angle. Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos of Gorham, but Boyer’s Nursery has what I consider the quintessential picture of what they look like here:
http://www.boyernurseries.com/fruit_trees/pear/gorham.html
In their catalog, Boyer also identifies Gorham as a good pollinator.
All my pear blossoms got zapped in last April’s freeze event-- no fruit.
In 2015, I got one fruit from my Harrow Sweet, but picked it too early, and it never ripened properly.
You know-- I am getting really good at tasting pears that other people grow, but am still a novice at growing my own! I hope 2017 is my orchard’s breakout year (fruit breakout… not fireblight breakout).
This year, I am hoping that Corvallis sends me Elliot, Belle Lucrative, and Docteur Desportes. Photos and descriptions of those guys are available if you search for them in the GRIN database.
Matt,
Harvest queen does not appear to be getting the credit it deserves. Neither do the harrow sweet, harrow delight, or magness for that matter. The world is focused on Harry and David’s royal riviera pears Pears | Royal Riviera Pears | Pear Gift Baskets | Harry & David. That’s not to say Comice is not an excellent pear because it’s very good. Some of the pears I grow are better than the royal riviera . Harry and David’s charge around $35 for 9 Comice pears.
The Endicott pear pre-dates the forming of the United States https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/28/oldest-fruit-tree-us-pears_n_3830443.html
"A celebrated pear tree in Danvers, Mass. still bears fruit at the ripe old age of 383, more or less — and biologists find its remarkable longevity a bit baffling.
“Generally, fruit trees don’t last very long, so it’s unusual,” Dr. Richard Primack, a professor of biology at Boston University, said of the so-called Endicott Pear Tree (named for John Endicott, the Massachusetts governor who planted it around 1630).
"The Endicott Pear Tree, Still Alive in Massachusetts After Nearly 400 Years
The Endicott Pear Tree
Sometime around 1630, John Endecott planted a pear tree with the hope it would live for generations. He got his wish with the Endicott Pear Tree, believed to be the oldest living cultivated fruit tree in North America.
The tree survived harsh winters, hurricanes, earthquakes, grazing by cows, suburban sprawl and vandals. It was declared a national landmark in 2011. Clones from the Endicott Pear Tree have been planted in at least 17 states.
The Endicott Pear Tree was featured in a 1919 biography of trees called The Historic Trees of Massachusetts. Author James Raymond Simmons called it ‘one of the most quaint and strangely impressive of all the historic trees.’
John Endecott
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John Endecott
Endecott (the name was changed later) scouted the New World with about 70 others who sailed aboard the Abigail in 1628, during the Great Migration of Puritans began. He established a small settlement and called it ‘Salem,’ the Hebrew word for peace.
On July 3, 1632, the General Court of Massachusetts Bay granted Endecott 300 acres of land on “a necke of land lying about three miles from Salem” now known as Danversport, a section of Danvers.
The tree was planted sometime between 1630 and 1649. Endecott may have planted it first on his farm in Salem and then moved it to Danvers. He began cultivating a farm, with a cow barn, house and outbuildings. He is credited with owning the first sundial in America and introducing the ox-eye daisy to the colonies.
He also served as the first governor of Massachusetts until his death in 1665. A descendant, Endicott ‘Chub” Peabody, also became governor of Massachusetts in 1963. The tree was also known as The Governor’s Tree.
The Endicott Pear Tree
William Endicott with the Endicott Pear Tree, 1925
William Endicott with the Endicott Pear Tree, 1925
John Endecott planted the tree in the presence of his children and workers and said, “I hope the tree will love the soil of the old world and no doubt when we have gone the tree will still be alive,” according to Danvers historian Harriet Tapley.
In 1809, Salem diarist William Bentley sent pears from the Endicott Pear Tree to former President John Adams. Adams planted the seeds and wrote, “I have several young Endicotts … in my garden. They are very flourishing and if I can guard them from accident I hope they will be an ornament to this farm and a comfort to some good citizens 200 years hence.”
In 1904, the Boston Globe reported the tree bore fruit last season, although the pears were hard and not of too pleasant flavor.
Lucy Larcom wrote a poem to commemorate the Endicott Pear Tree for Arbor Day in 1890:
Who would not be proud to say
Of the deed he does to-day,
If it be a worthy shoot
From an honorable root,
That, when centuries had passed,
Bloom an fruitage still would last,--
Still a growing, breathing thing--
Autumn, with the heart of spring.
In 1964, vandals ripped off the limbs and jumped up and down on them, leaving two trunks five to six feet high. Several weeks later, shoots appeared and the tree grew again. A chain-link fence topped with barbed wire was erected to protect the tree. Later, a more attractive fence was built.
The Endicott Pear Tree, 1920
The Endicott Pear Tree, 1920
The farm was owned by generations of Endicotts. William Endicott is pictured with the tree in 1925. Ultimately the farm was sold to Osram Sylvania. Today the land belongs to Massachusetts General Hospital/ North Shore Center for Outpatient Care.
Typically, fruit trees may survive around 100 years, Dr. Primack said, citing their vulnerability to fungal diseases, insects, and harsh weather.
The old “Endicott Pear Tree,” planted in Danvers, Mass. by Gov. John Endicott.
“It is in relatively open conditions,” Dr. Primack told HuffPost Science. “It’s getting good light… The reason it’s still bearing fruit is because people are pruning it, or it might be a naturally self-pruning tree.”
What’s more, the simple fact that the tree is so celebrated may be one factor in its longevity, Dr. Primack said. After all, a fence has been erected around it, and people continue to look after it after all these years.
“This pear has found a ‘niche’ in nature that has allowed it to live on and on, until the environment changes to create inhospitable conditions for survival,” horticulturist Dr. Ron Smith from North Dakota State University told HuffPost Science in an email. “It apparently has not been subject to the normal ravages of Mother Nature to cause it to decline or become susceptible to lethal insect or disease attacks.”
Until 2013, the oldest tree in the world was Methuselah, a 4,845-year-old Great Basin bristlecone pine in California’s White Mountains, LiveScience reported. But then researchers found a nearby tree that dates back a whopping 5,062 years."
In 2011 the Endicott pear became a national monument
"The Endicott Pear Tree, also known as the Endecott Pear, is a European Pear (Pyrus communis) tree,[1] located in Danvers, Essex County, Massachusetts. It is believed to be the oldest living cultivated fruit tree in North America.[2][3][4]
John Endecott, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was probably among the first to cultivate fruit in the Colony, and imported the Endecott Pear Tree from England.
The Endicott Pear Tree was planted in its current location between 1632[2] and 1649[3] (William Bentley reports dates of 1630, 1631, and 1639 in his diary)[3] by John Endecott—a governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, one of the Colony’s earliest settlers,[5] and ancestor of Endicott Peabody—and was probably brought from England on the Arbella in June 1630.[1][2] Various reports indicate an alternate import year of 1628.[6][7]
Tradition holds to the notion that the tree was planted by Endecott himself, according to Harriet Tapley in Chronicles of Danvers and to Judge Alden Perley White.[3] According to Charles S. Tapley, a President of the Bay State Historical League, White recounted that Endecott personally planted the pear tree in the presence of his children and farmworkers and reportedly declared: “I hope the tree will love the soil of the old world and no doubt when we have gone the tree will still be alive.”[3]
The 1925 USDA Agriculture Yearbook, citing the memoir of Samuel Endicott—a descendant of Endecott (the spelling of the family name changed in the 18th century)—suggests that the tree may have been transplanted from Endecott’s garden in Salem.[2] An article in the Salem Observer, written in 1852 by Samuel P. Fowler, lends further credence to this idea, noting that it was in Salem proper that Endecott “probably planted his famous pear tree”.[3] Flower also reports that Endecott was probably among the first to cultivate fruit in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.[3]
19th century
The diary of Rev. William Bentley, who visited the Endecott estate (at the time known as Collins Farm and owned by Capt. John Endicott) on several occasions, makes numerous mentions of the Endicott Pear Tree starting in 1800.[3] Bentley’s diary confirms that the tree regularly produced fruit.[3] In September 1809, Bentley passed along some pears harvested from the tree to former President John Adams; he received a letter from Adams concerning the pears the following month.[3] On April 11, 1810, Bentley visited Collins Farm to obtain twigs from the pear tree to send to Adams.[3] Thurl D. Brown, in a lecture before the Danvers Historical Society, suggested that “[t]he twigs must have taken hold”, citing a letter from Adams dated September 24, 1815 that noted: “The hurricane of yesterday has covered the ground about me with pears.”[3]
The Endicott Pear Tree was damaged by the Storm of October 1804, a late-season major hurricane in the 1804 Atlantic hurricane season, but recovered to “yield many bushels” of fruit.[2][3] The tree was damaged by hurricanes at least twice more in the 19th century: in 1815 and 1843.[2] By 1875, the Endicott Pear Tree stood at approximately 80 ft (24 m).[8] Sometime in the mid-to-late-19th century, a wooden fence was erected to protect the tree.[2]
20th century
In the early 20th century, Ulysses Prentiss Hedrick, a botanist and author of The Pears of New York—a 1921 monograph belonging to a series of publications on fruits, “all of which have become classic references on the fruit cultivars of the period”[9]—confirmed that the Endicott Pear Tree had not been grafted,[2] as was suggested in an 1837 article about the tree in Mr. Hovey’s Magazine.[3]
A 1919 account of the Endicott Pear Tree by James Raymond Simmons, author of The Historic Trees of Massachusetts, describes the tree as follows:[10]
Soil has gradually collected about the trunk until the two main branches appear to rise from the ground as separate trees. They evidently join under a heavy covering of sod. Surrounding them is a fence which acts as an effective protection. When the author photographed the tree it was covered in green fruit. It may be seen in a field near Endicott street at Davensport, and is worth turning aside to behold, for it is one of the most quaint and strangely impressive of all the historic trees.
— James Raymond Simmons, The Historic Trees of Massachusetts (1919)
The Endicott Pear Tree was damaged by a hurricane once more in 1934.[2] In the 1940s, The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry attempted to acquire possession of the tree from its then-owner, a Mr. Simard, who had acquired the property from George Endicott in 1941.[3] This move was prompted by the discovery that Simard had “stripped the soil near the tree”, leaving it exposed.[3][11] In 1946, at a town meeting, the town of Danvers passed a resolution to “accept a plot of land on which the so-called Endicott Pear Tree is located, subject to an agreement drawn by the owner and in form agreeable to the Town Counsel”; however, the town did not purchase the tree due to the inability of the Town Counsel, a James H. Sullivan, and Simard to agree on the terms of the acquisition.[3] On January 1, 1947, Sullivan was replaced as Town Counsel, and no further action was taken regarding acquisition of the Endicott Pear Tree.[3][12] Eventually, Simard deeded the property on which the tree is located to North Shore Industries; it was subsequently transferred to CBS-Hytron, which erected a wooden fence around the pear tree, Matchlett Laboratories, and finally Osram Sylvania.[3]
On July 27, 1964, vandals cut off the tree’s branches and all but 6 ft (1.8 m) of its trunk using hacksaws.[3][13] As of August 2002, it was surrounded by a chain-link fence and located near the headquarters of Osram Sylvania in Danvers.[2][14]
In 1997, scions were collected from the Endicott Pear Tree for the pear germplasm collection of the National Clonal Germplasm Repository in Corvallis, Oregon, and a fruit-bearing clone of the tree was grown.[2]
Cultural impacts
In 2011, the Endicott Pear Tree was named as a national monument of the United States.
According to a 2007 article in the Danvers Herald, the Endicott Pear Tree “holds a special place in the hearts of many Danversites”.[12] In 2004, the Danvers Preservation Commission sought to have the tree featured on a stamp of the United States Postal Service.[15]
Lucy Larcom composed a poem, titled “The Governor’s Tree”, about the Endicott Pear Tree in 1890 for Arbor Day.[3]"
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@Matt_in_Maryland let us know if you need scion wood to rebuild next year. We all remember your generousity! Pears are fairly tough so hopefully yours are doing ok.
It’s funny that Harvest Queen comes from Long Island but the one tree I used to manage didn’t get up enough sugar even though it was in a sunny location. Where it stood is now a Harrow Sweet.
Nearby Boscs, Bartletts and Seckels achieve fine quality.
I suspect that under a more intense sun it does get the sugar. We have the same problem here with early Asian pears.
Harvest Queen has not done well in Kansas either Alan but I remain hopeful it may bloom some day.
