I agree. I am not so upset with these darn “weeds” now. I was looking at them this afternoon. I have about three dozen 3’ ones out there.
I appreciate all the useful information I get here. Great group of nice and helpful people.
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If any of the Callery are located in a place you would like a pear tree you can save maturity time by grafting where they are.
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Great to hear! Last weekend I put Hood, Korean Giant and Ayers on one Bradford and Ayers and Orient on another. Hope it works out as well as yours.
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One thing I should mention…ever since I cut my mature Callery pear back to 3 stubs that I could graft to, its been a constant battle against shoots coming out and up everywhere on the Callery wood!!! Places I couldn’t even see buds- shoots just burst out of the smooth, bark covered trunk all over. Its crazy, Same thing coming out of the ground, from roots and trunk. You just can’t believe how often these come out and how fast they grow. Hopefully once the grafts become larger and can accept more of the tree’s resources things will slow down, but for the first year its been quite a battle!
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Kevin would it help to wait until mid summer to remove all of those shoots? I’m not an authority but I’d think removing them while dormant would trigger more growth. Removing during summer shouldn’t.
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That seems logical, Dave, but I can say with great authority (for once) that no, it doesn’t help. I say that because I DID cut them in the summer…ALL SUMMER!. I would go all around the tree and the ground and cut them all back flush just about once a week. You just wouldn’t believe how many and how big they would get in a week to 10 days. Of course, keep in mind that this was a huge callery pear tree- probably 30 feet tall and 20 foot wide with a 5 inch trunk before I topped it back for grafting. So you have enough roots and trunk to support that whole tree that is now trying to feed 3 little scion pieces. It kind of makes sense that it would sprout a lot of new growth considering how much extra energy and nutrients were being pumped up to the now-missing top.
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Eventually the callery shoots do slow down. Once the tree canopy has been replaced the shoots will slow down to just a couple a year.
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Good info. TY!!
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They are actually on a little slope going down into my pond. That may be a good area to put a few more pear trees once the rootstocks get a little bigger. I can pick the one side of the tree at gound level while the other side the ducks can have when they fall down the hill. That is an excellent idea.
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I am not sure when I’d need it, yet could someone send me wild callery pollen someday for a few hybridization projects that I will be working on?
Wow! I’m brand new to the forum and this thread caught my eye. We have tons of these invasive pear trees - our back 2 acres are pretty much these, wild blackberry, and autumn olive. Anyway, before I knew anything of what we had I paid someone to brushhog the field and of course these guys came up with a vengeance. I’m trying not to get too excited that there could be a good use but I’d love to get fruit from them!! Any tips on videos to watch or what to read to make it simpler? Ive never grafted anything. I did buy some pear saplings from our state forestry Dept. They’re not cultivars(hope that’s the correct word) - just said “Bartlett pear” iirc. They have grown thorns and I thought, oh no! They’re the same thing! But when I emailed our state forestry Dept they said that happens in young pears sometimes. They don’t seem grafted- I don’t see a joint Union/ knob. Please P ardon me if I’m using terms incorrectly- I feel so uneducated here- never heard of an interstem, for example! Looking forward to learning more here!
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When your ready to graft I suggest going with disease resistant varieties especially the ones resistant to fireblight. Bartlett is a fb magnet in my area and struggles to survive.
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I would plant these and use them as root stock to graft onto or let them grow and see what you have.
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Those “Bartlett pear” are Bartlett pear seedlings – hence the thorns. They will in all likelihood not produce fruit resembling Bartlett. I concur, use them as a standard sized rootstock for grafting.
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@ClothAnnie,
Highly recommend you check out this post first The best 96 pages on growing fruit I've found!. Then check out this post on how to graft those big wild callery pear trees in the future Top working Pears weather permitting. Here is a great post to get you started grafting First time grafters: what's working, what isn't?. Your sitting on a lot of potential fruit. Dont worry about never grafting before as you look through a few posts like this one 2016 graft thread you will see it’s not as hard as it sounds.those big callery pears are especially valuable because you would be eating pears from those within 2 years. Don’t worry about interstems and all that the first time you graft. Get some Duchess or Douglas scion wood or any disease resistant pear wood and start grafting and see what happens. Chances are if you graft 100 trees as is 50 will take grafts with little to no extra work the first time you try it. 2 years after you graft when you eat your first pears it’s a pretty satisfying feeling.
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Wow, thanks!! I’ve got a browser window open with that first link! Can’t wait to read it - just looked at the first few pages which made me think I just might be able to grasp the concept of grafting a bit better!!! This forum seems full of knowledgable folks. Is there any section of geographical areas? I’m in northern VA and thought it’d be cool to know what folks around here are doing. I do have a kind friend who is growing lots of fruit but she is investing lots of money into it. Her result is good but I can’t approach fruit growing that way. She is also knowledgable but I think it’d blow her mind to think I’d graft into these invasive pears lol. Thanks again!!!
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If your friend has the time she can show you the simple cleft graft in 15 min. It is now the the type connection I use 98% of the time.
@thecityman and @speedster1 did come up with a users location map to help you find people that grow fruit close by General Location Map of growingfruit.org members. The members in your area that put themselves on that map will show up. It’s a voluntary map of course so many people did not add their location.
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@Auburn,
I suspect her friend does not know how to show her that but is great at growing trees. Most orchardist don’t know how to graft.
@ClothAnnie
The thing I love about this method of growing fruit is you don’t need to spend a bunch of money. Technically you could stop by a friends get a couple of pear cuttings off their tree and graft them on the wild callery trees. Most things you need like a razor knife and saw you may have around the house now. If you need help just ask us. Post some pictures and let us know how it goes. Stephen Hayes has a great youtube channel on grafting and fruit growing and this is him doing a cleft graft https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XpgbpbewU3E
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Hi Annie. I just wanted to welcome you and put in one more word of encouragement for you to go ahead and try grafting and turn some of those wild pear trees into fruit trees. Trust me when I tell you that I knew less than you do when I first tried it, and I had good results. It sounds intimidating at first, but it shouldn’t. Just do some you tube searches for things like “cleft grafting” or Fruit tree grafting. There are lots of good ones, especially the aforementioned Stephen Hayes. The more time you spend watching those videos, the more courage you’ll have and the more successful you will be. I don’t think I even knew what the word “graft” meant when I started, but it didn’t take long and I was doing it. You will enjoy what you are talking about doing very much. There is just something special about taking a wild tree that is the equivalent of weeds and turning them into fruit that you, your friends, family, and wild animals can all enjoy. You can do this! And of course, when the inevitable questions come up, just pop in here and ask for advice. This place is filled with experts who are willing to share their knowledge and techniques. You’ll never find a bigger pear expert than @clarkinks, and lots of others come very close. They’ll even help you get some good varieties of pears when you are ready. Good luck- YOU CAN DO THIS!
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