I totally understand. Its been a tough time for you.
Manuang reached out and is sending me some.
Mike
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When grafting over a lot of Callery do you think the cleft graft is also more desirable to avoid limbs breaking in the future from things like ice and heavy bearing years… I guess my question is does the reputation of Bradford for its week limbs follow t’s callery cousins reverted back to the wild that some are using for rootstocks… I also should ask would a bud graft possibl develop a better Union with less scar tissue and less tendency to break in the future thank you 
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You can’t top work a large tree. Best to cut it off so you have a couple limbs at the bottom. What I found works good is bark grafting on a lateral limb. When you do the graft do it on the up side and be sure to make the cut on the Scion so the first bud faces up. If it takes cut all the buds but the one growing up. You can put two on one limb bit If they both take I usually cut the limb off and just leave one. You will get suckers and other limbs shooting out. Either graft on them or cut them off.dont let them grow and continue into the next season as they can blossom and produce viable seeds. You can graft every year and add varieties. Once your satisfied with it just keep.cuttimg off suckers and prune it like any other pear tree.
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@yarg
I would leave 3-5 foot of the tree and the best limbs like i did above and yes use cleft grafts. If the tree trunk diameter is greater than 5 inches i would use rind grafts.
@Beeman is correct if a tree is to large 12+" branches its difficult to work with.
Since you guys have been doing this a long time do you notice any inherent weakness@the graph Union on callery specifically, as compared to other under stocks…(ie, breaking from ice or heavy Bearing years.
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No wild callery and bet are actually much stronger than many other pears. The bradford callery pear has weak brittle wood which is where that comes from. They are trashy trees and break in every storm.
My brother has several “Cleveland select” which is an improved variety as you know of Bradford and he wants me to graph them over… I presume that wood is week as well?.. they are about in the 2" caliper. What graph would you recommend… or should I pull them out and bring in some wild cousins lol
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So you might be wondering what happened with the grafts in the top picture and the tree? Here is a picture of the trunk but the tree is very large now. It’s hard to photograph because all those pears are large now. Rabbits etc. do not bother a tree like this.
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Everyone has their tricks growing fruit. Some tricks growing pears I don’t even realize I use I’ve done them so much. My goal is always to get fruit which can be challenging with pears so tricks like top working can get you fruit years before you should have it. These trees have produced fruit for years now. I thought I would bump this topic for those who might need this.
So sometimes someone asks me what happened to that old pear anyway? This pear needs pruned but the tree has been producing lots of fruit for years now.
That’s way too tall, going to smaller trees more sooner than later.
Keep checking for my little battery powered saw to find some more work for it.
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I’ve been eating these Douglas pears for years now from this old callery tree I top worked. Highly recommend if you have a tree like this you do the same. I’ve top worked lots of large callery pears through the years. For the small amount of time it takes to top work a tree it’s worth it 1000x over.
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I’ll need some Douglas scions if I’m going to “do the same” 
Is it an excellent cultivar?
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My opinion is Douglas is a good pear. The flavor is good enough but not complex it tastes more like an apple than a pear. This year I had some that lacked flavor of any kind for the first time Douglas Pear
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Some rootstocks got away from me a little bit so you know what I will be doing this spring again. That may sound like a long time but it’s 2 or 3 months away. It happens quickly with BET and callery. Like to graft them when they are about 5 feet tall. It’s like picking strawberries 
or green beans! Get them off the ground in elevated beds to save yourself a soar back. In addition I graft pears higher because rabbits don’t like the taste of callery and BET rootstocks but they love the grafted pear taste.
Just when I start researching topworking pears, I see this thread at the top of the forum! I am always amazed by the useful information I find in this forum, and am so grateful to people (like Clarkinks) who share their knowledge. Especially with pictures!
At my parents’ house (zone 7A NJ) is a random wild callery pear volunteer that’s approximately 15-20 feet tall, and grows about 15 feet away from a saltwater bay, right next to the fence that separates my parents’ yard from their neighbor. Neither my parents nor their neighbors planted the tree, so I think a bird was sitting on the fence and “deposited” the seed that eventually grew into the callery pear. Neither my parents nor their neighbors care much about the tree, so I was hoping to top-work it to edible pears.
I have set up trades for harrow sweet, harrow delight, and potomac. Do you think those varieties would work? I was worried that edible pears might fail because they’re so close to saltwater. And I have to make sure that the tree is completely spray free, because it is so close to the bay (my parents actually aren’t allowed to use any fertilizers or other gardening chemicals in their yard).
I have never grafted anything before. But I’ve been internet-researching, and my plan is to essentially chop the whole tree off about 1 or 2 feet above the fence, and bark-graft onto the two “main” trunks (which are about 4" across), with 2 scions per trunk (to increase likelihood of healing/taking), and then also cleft graft onto the remaining few smaller twigs/branches that are coming out of the two main trunks and the third tinier trunk. Does that seem like it would work?
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Not allowed fertilizers…yet I bet there’s ducks on the water…and they are notorious for depositing ‘fertilizer’…
so maybe the
‘authorities’ should ban that fertilizer source too? 
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They actually get surprisingly few ducks there! I think maybe because it’s salt water, and ducks prefer fresh?
Seagulls, on the other hand, are ALL OVER. And yes, their “deposits” are numerous 
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Don’t think you will have any problems growing pears as long as the salt mist isn’t hitting them directly. They can take some salt I’ve used ocean salt on my trees before which is great in small amounts. Cleft grafting might be best. Harrow delight is the most compatible wood of the 3 you mentioned. Old Home is a famous pear as a rootstock and it’s one of its parents. Now you may wonder how it became so famous and there are 2 reasons 1.) It’s highly disease resistant 2.) It’s excessively compatible when grafting with other pears
"This is a high-quality hybrid pear tree (Old Home x ‘Early Sweet’) x ‘Bartlett’ with an early bearing character. It is very resistant to Blight and Pear Scab.
Although The Harrow Delight Pear tree is a heavy fruit bearing tree, it will take 2 to 3 years before your young tree will begin to produce fruits. Its highest fruit production will occur every 2 years.
Proper placement of this tree can have a bearing on its successful fruit production. Avoid low-lying areas where cold pockets of air can form. A spot receiving full sun is required during the growing season in order for the fruits to succeed.
When ripening is left to occur naturally, the fruits will not ripen evenly. Remove the fruit from the tree before they are fully ripened and allow to ripen in storage for 5 to 7 days. If they are left on the tree until they are soft to the touch, they will become a soft brown gritty mush.
For the best production of fruits, prune your tree on an annual basis. For the highest quality fruits, thin your tree in late spring or early summer. The white flesh is juicy and sweet." Pyrus communis 'Harrow Delight' (Harrow Delight Pear) | North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox
What about Harrow sweet and potomac? Well they are exceedingly good choices. Honestly those 3 pear choices are exactly what I would choose in your situation. Harrow sweet will produce fruit in 2 years on that. Harrow delight will take 3 years. Potomac 3-4 years. Leave as much of the parent tree structure as you can. Another words if it’s OK for the bottom 4 feet to be callery leave 4 feet as they bear pears faster the more you leave. You are taking years off your waiting time for fruit. Every one of those 3 fruits are good quality. The first year they will seem like good pears but that’s deceptive because in 2 or 3 years of fruiting the pears double in quality on all 3 varities at my location. The reason why is the trees get better established and it makes a huge difference. Harrow sweet will try to over produce which makes the pears smaller.
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