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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