I was hoping to get it out with a root ball of soil still attached… but it came out pretty much bare root even though the soil was damp from recent rains.
My guess will be @TNHunter will have 3 callery pop up where he plucked this one from the ground. They are all genetically unique so not all of them grow from roots like that. There is one i grow that will come up by the roots the others do not. The one that does was one of my nearly impossible strains of callery to graft. It is very genetically different from all the others i have seen. When i dig them up 6 more will pop up. That would be very hard to eradicate.
A friend from here on the board and I are trading scions… i am sending him apple and he is sending me pear.
I am getting improved keiffer and orient scions. He is from the south east a little south of me and said they have done well for him.
I was thinking about grafting that tree like this…
It comes up about 3.5 ft then forks.
Why not just graft imp keiffer on one fork and orient on the other ?
And keep all growth below that rubbed off.
I have done whip/tounge successfully on 4 apples so far… but have not tried cleft graft yet.
Thought i might try cleft graft on there pears.
Or would you recommend something else ? Like whacking it off much lower … down below that fork somewhere and grafting on down low ???
This is my first time grafting pear so can use any tips you folks can offer.
PS… i am transplanting one more callery and will plant it about 30 ft from this one. So i could simply graft over one with imp keiffer and the other all orient.
That fork is a potential weakness many years from now it would be better to reduce to 1 main trunk. They can split in storms later. Like the idea of you grafting 2 pears on there but would advice against it. Kansas is different so in TN you can likely graft it this year. In Kansas you lost enough roots where i would let it establish a year before grafting it or graft only 2 buds to the tip of it. Leave the main stem for sure and dont cut it clear to the ground. You would lose your rabbit resistance. In TN i think grafting the tip of it and cutting it back a ways would be ok since you get plenty of rain there. Callery are very tough trees. Have had the dirt fall off myself but when i do usually those fine root hairs are all lost.
That is correct kieffer are not resistant to fireblight really but they dont die from it either. Give your pears a good copper spray in the spring and fall they will do great.
i can offer little advise except for to look to clarkinks. He knows way more than me.
Only thing i would add.
Since you have quite a bit of real estate on that large rootstock and cally sometimes can be hard to graft. You could do multiple chip bud grafts on the wood below your cleft or whip and tongue graft. That way, if 1 graft does not take, you have backups.
in my experience failed chip bud grafts leave a small wound that usually is healed within 1 growing season. But I’m in a different climate with different disease pressure. So if clarkinks would recommend otherwise, ignore me and listen to him or others that are in a more similar situation as you.
That is a good idea but i do it just slightly different with callery. What i do now is graft over the callery first as he has planned. If that graft fails by early July then the tree could be tbudded or chipped this year. That is if it looks good to attempt grafting again or wait until next year. Sometimes a tree just doesn’t recover quickly after transplanting. Lets say the callery winds up being really hard to graft which i doubt but it’s possible. Then you know my small yellow pear, harrow delight etc. Will graft to that tree easily. You dont ever have to keep the small yellow pear or harrow delight but you can use those as an interstem to graft on any pear you want. Those type of pears i use for compatability now.
Right; probably more correct to say Kieffer is fireblight ‘tolerant’
There’s no telling how many ancient old Kieffer trees I’ve seen with numerous fireblight strikes all throughout their canopy…they just shrug them off and keep right on producing branch-breaking loads of fruit.
