I have went to almost exclusively x87 on my nursery trees. I do not graft Asian pear varieties if I did I wouldnt put them on anything smaller than x97, some varieties seem to lag behind even on that. I have been very happy with the growth of trees on x87 and have even had some varieties bloom their 3rd leaf.
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All my euros are on OHF.87 except for one OHF.333 which is multi-budded with Magness and Potomac.
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Some years back, someone reputableā¦ Cummins Nursery, maybe?.. had posted info indicating that OHxF 513 was compatible with both Euro and Asian pearsā¦ with no āpear declineā issues with the Asians.
I bought a bundle of 513 and used them. Itās the suckeringest thing Iāve ever planted, hands-down. Have at least a couple of trees on the other side of the pond here that Iāve not kept up with pruning onā¦ Iām not convinced but that Iāve lost the graft in the rampant clump of rootstock shoots.
Butā¦ for the past 5-7 years, Iāve been using an 8-10 inch piece of OHxF 513 as an interstem between callery understock and all fruiting pears Iāve grafted - whether Euro or Asian. Is the interstem inducing dwarfing or early bearing? I dunnoā¦ I just graft and plant 'emā¦if they make it, fine, if they donātā¦ I rarely know the differenceā¦but the 513 interstem doesnāt sucker.
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All my pears have long 14-16" unknown dwarf interstems and are on Callery roots. My hopes were to get the full effect of dwarfing, early fruiting, and no long term support. All five are doing well and becoming fruitful early.
Editā¦ No suckering as of now.
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Very interesting reading through responses. I like the idea of interstems and may request a few more from ars grin next year to experiment further. I have some good things going with pears right now and hope to take that up a level by choosing the right rootstock for the right situation. Interesting reading what other people have done for rootstocks.