The tilt test and black seeds are an indicator it is time to pick them and let them ripen until soft inside. They turn a light yellow color.
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Thanks, Clark! I put the three uncut ones in the fridge last night. So Iām looking for that green skin to yellow a bit and them to feel a bit softer? What about fridge vs counter?
Thank you SO much for sharing your knowledge with me all these years! Itās amazing to have what was just another Callery (interestingly it barely if at all still puts up any sprouts from the rootstock) turn into good fruit!!
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HI Clark! Im looking at getting some of these Callery seedlings in the wintertime. Granted, I doubt they have gone through such extreme natural selection as yours, but they should do the job. Im assuming they are as vigorous as communis seedling, but not sure. What can I expect vigorwise?
I also want to stay away from vigorous pears that will get too tall. Iām thinking asian pears, H.sweet, seckleā¦ any others that are naturally smaller trees?
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Callery is a very vigorous rootstock. Even small varieties will tend to get large when grafted on it. I have an Akers on Callery that was roughly 5/16 inch when I grafted it last spring. It is over 1.5 inches diameter at the graft now and the tree is about 14 feet tall.
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Wow. Thats huge! Gotta get something precocious to saddle it down!
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I may have made a baaaad mistake. I gave a it 2 shovels full of chicken manure early this spring. Every time I walk by it, the wind whispers āfeeed meeeeā.
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If you want i can send you some scions next year that will runt out callery. Im not sure what kind of pears they are but you could use them.as an interstem if nothing else. I have some that will runt callery to 8 feet. I keep them around just for that purpose.
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Thanks Clark. Maybe I should just use them for Asian pears. How would they respoond to late summer topping? I am also getting some ohf84 and 97, so they would grow the smaller trees I want.
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Would a 15ā height be manageable through late summer pruning of leader?
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Yes just make sure you get a fireblight tolerant type of pear. Get the branches going out but plan for extra distance between pears like this How to Prune a Pear Tree: 12 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow
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Thanks!
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Do deer generally strip young callery of new growth as aggressively as they do other pears/apples/etc? I know the callery seedlings make it in the wild a lot more, but a tree producing 250k seeds/year or whatever is going to win the numbers game.
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