Last year I transplanted callery pear in july, without watering at the time of transplant, or after, and they do fine. This year, a few months ago, I transplanted one next to a pear tree who’s rootstock isn’t doing well, with the intention of bridge grafting over to the existing tree. In my usual fashion, I didn’t water the callery pear. It looked like a goner for about a month but now it’s going gangbusters.
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Interesting idea, will you leave both rootstocks or cut out the original eventually?
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I found this while wandering around the local woods. Seemed to have a bit of…rust maybe?
Crotch angles seemed pretty wide and I wasn’t sure…the nodes seem pretty close together? I picked a couple of the largest fruit to try and start the seeds. No sign of FB on it that I noticed and it seems pretty healthy for probably being wet a lot of the time.
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Dug 4 callery pears in 20 minutes today. They were a decent size. Excited to go back and dig some more when i have time.
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Update: the grafted tree with the severe bark damage is still alive. The replacement rootstock planted next to the tree is still alive, but the graft attempt failed. The wind caused the trees to move around a lot and the graft union pulled apart. I have several options. I could attempt this same graft again. I could do a bridge graft and dig up the newer rootstock. Or, I could take a cutting from the original tree and graft it to the new rootstock. Or…
@clarkinks
I grafted almost 30 callery pears today and I’m debating whether or not to plant them in nursery beds, like i do with other benchgrafts, or to plant them around the property. On one hand, our droughts make keeping an extra 30 trees alive a chore, on the other hand I’m scared of the tap roots on these things. Digging them back up will be a chore.
One option i considered was putting them in a nursery bed, planted diagonally to keep the tap root shallow.
What are your thoughts, Clark et. all?
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The callery in Spain stays mainly in the plain
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Callery is arguably the most drought tolerant pear so I would plant where they will wind up growing.
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I agree with @Fusion_power plant them where you want them long term. If you plant them elsewhere in rich soil and they like it after you dig them up, you will get 4 or 5 more callery there next year from the roots you leave behind. They are drought tolerant. I would mix a scoop of old cow manure in the dirt where you plant them. I would add several inches of woodchips around each callery to keep them moist after planting them. I would water them once a week the first year until fall.
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Hartwell Cook on callery took off and has grown about 5 foot so far
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Thanks for asking, Clarke. It seems to have way more fruits than last year but they are all small and look like they’re hit pretty badly by cedar rust. Will attach a couple of pics I got this morning.
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Looks like that quince rust is pretty bad there this year. The good news is it also looks like you will be eating pears pretty soon. Ayers are a smaller pear. Some years are worse than others for them. Looks like overall it is a success. You were out a little bit of your time and gained a lot of expensive fruit every year. I walked by a 3# bag of pears in the store one day and they were $6. You can spray for rust if you decide you want to or need to. The rub is ofcourse organic grown fruit like you have now is worth far more if not sprayed. Great job! Sometimes it is hard to look at the numbers since that is not really counting our labor. It comes down to the tree being like interest to you paying you over $100 a year worth of pears for the labor you put out. It really adds up fast in an orchard. It is the best investment a person can make in their future.
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Thanks for the encouragement and wisdom!! We have yet to have truly enjoyed the pears and I’m not sure if that’s because of my harvesting strategy/timing or if it’s just what they are. I guess I’m hoping for sweeter and juicier as the most basic adjectives. I will keep reading on here. I can’t even recall if Ayers need chilling. I don’t think I did that the year before last. And I made pear butter which we still have because it wasn’t very good- blah flavor and gritty. Maybe I should dehydrate slices…
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I definitely hear your point about it being an investment! I do enjoy the overall challenge/ project of grafting but also see it as a little initial input for long term fruit.
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It is to bad people no longer recognize the skill of your hands. You now possess the skill to graft fruit trees which are totally capable of keeping your family and friends alive during difficult times. The majority who dont have that skill may literally starve to death one day. The last several years was a good indicator of problem with supply and food prices. Imagine if it was 100x worse. One pear you could likely sell for $1 now. Imagine $100 pears that would make for some really skinny people. Your not so great pear butter is likely worth $5 - $10 a jar now. Many people would gladly pay it. As far as gritty pears go you can always screen them through a food processor or like you said dried pears are like sugar candy.
When i started grafting callery many years ago, discussing growing mulberry and blackberries etc. that wasn’t super popular because that makes it possible for everyone to grow everything. When i was young like all young people money was very tight. There is no money in it for people other than what is charged for scions if anything with people like me. I do spend around $500 - $1000 a year on my orchard now. That means you and i can grow the same fruits as the neighbor that paid $80 a tree to grow. That is the American way to do for ourselves and then have more than others by hard work.
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Seedlings I started from a wild callery I found growing at a local park. ( Wild callery pear rootstocks - #444 by evilpaul ) Going to move them so they get all day sun and hopefully big enough to graft in the Spring.
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