If you have scion wood available I would graft it now.
Thanks, Auburn, I have loppers and a small hand sawā¦ Should I just choose the largest main trunk and remove the rest? Thanks so much for the help! Any way to discourage those areas where I cut to keep from getting revenge on me by sprouting tenfold at those spots? Do I just keep cutting them back as hey show up? I might email my friend to see if she has pruned recently, and I donāt recall her pear varieties, but otherwise, I donāt have access to any scions. Maybe itād still be good to prune the tree for when I find some, even if I have to wait until next winter?
That looks like a great tree to graft. Those above are experts and it probably would make the most sense to remove those smaller trunks, but another option -especially if you are doubtful of your grafting abilities- would be to do a graft (cleft Iād think) on all noth of those biggest trunks after you cut them off. Then you could graft some of those smaller limbs coming off the bottom. This also gives you the option of having more than one variety of pear growing off that same roo tstock.
AS for your question about stopping sprouts, I donāt think you can. And there will be lots of them. You need to just keep them cut back as your grafts take and start to grow. Eventually they should slow down.
From the look of that tree, if you donāt already have your scionwood it is likely too late (you have to collect it before it comes out of dormancy). But its possible there are still some fruiting pear trees in your area that are dormant. Different ones wake up at different times. If not, I may have some left I can send you. Good luck.
Thanks for the advice!! Ok. I may be too late. I do have these pear seedlings that I bought from the VA Dept of Forestry spring of 2014 (accidentally ācoppicedā by my sweet husbandās mowing spring of 2016!) which are still dormant so maybe thereās a chance of some scionwood available around here. These saplings are supposedly Bartlett but theyāre thorny, almost as thorny as these callery pears so I donāt know what to make of them or if theyāll ever give good fruit. I hate the thorns .
So Iām understanding that the dormancy of the scionwood is more important than the dormancy of the rootstock? I donāt know where you are but if you have scions youād sell that might work well (northern va, I think Iām 6b) Iād gladly buy them from you! I have perused the scion swap pages here but of course have nothing to swap and one said go to a wiki page if you want to buy/sell but the link was dead. i do have some wild black cherry that I also bought from our VA forestry department sapling sale, but I donāt think anyone would be interested in that, either.Just found this with a quick google. They say luscious and moonglow are fb resistant. Any thoughts? http://maplevalleyorchards.com/Pages/ScionWood.aspx
Found another! Exciting! If any of these pear varieties seem most apt to bring success to a complete noviceās attempt, let me know!http://www.masonvilleorchard.com/scionwood.htm
ClothAnnie,
This post will be worth reading Pear tree Fireblight research so you dont have to.
Looks like you are doing a lot of research, which is a good thing. To answer your question: yes, dormancy is important with the scionwood (the fruiting wood you want to graft ONTO your callery) but the rootstock (what you are grafting TOO- your callery pear in this case) should NOT be dormant. It should be about where yours looks to be, though warmer weather is preferred and probably should be waited for even if it means your callery will have leafed out a lot more).
To be clear, here is how it works: People usually collect their scion wood in late winter while it is fully dormant. Then they put in their fridge in baggies and damp paper (some do) and so on. Then they wait about 1-3 months until trees come out of dormancy and wake up and sprout leaves AND the temperature gets considerably warmer. (ideally, 70 degrees for 3 days). Then they take the still dormant scion wood out of fridge, graft it onto the non-dormant rootstok tree, and if all goes well by the time the scion wood wakes up and comes out of dormancy, the rootstock will have connected its cambium layer to that of the scion wood and in that way the rootstock can supply water and food to the scion and keep it alive until the two pieces can grow together better. (Cambium layer is the bright green layer just below the bark that is very thin. The goal of grafting is to connect both pieces cambium layers and let nature do the rest.
I hate to see you do all this work and use bartlett seedlings for your scion. Chances are you wonāt end up with a tree much better than a plain callery. At least I think that is right, is it @clarkinks ?
If you havenāt found any scion wood soon, I will check and see if I have enough to send you some this year. There would be no charge if I have some. Next year you can find a tree in your area Iām sure. Good luck
@thecityman,
I did not cut any scion wood this year accept from my small yellow pear and one stick of citron de Carmes. Maybe I will wind up with some extra scion wood from grafting this year and can donate some. We had little dormancy this year and it rushed me on everything. That Bartlett seedling is not what I would use. I think the pears would not be very good.
Something just donāt sound right about a thorns on Bartlett but I could be wrong.
Iām sorryā¦I wasnāt clear. What I was asking you is whether or not you think her Bradford seedlings will create good fruiting trees. I just told her I hated to see her do all this work using bradford seedlings as scion because I thought it probably wouldnāt make much better tree for her (in terms of fruit) than callery. I was asking you to confirm if that is true or not? thanks
Notice she said they were Bartlett SEEDLINGS. I donāt think Bradford can cross with Barlett to make a seedling, but if it can that would explian thorns? Otherwise, maybe she is confusing Bartlett and Bradford? Iām surprised the state would be giving away Bartlett seedlings but they would certainly give away bradfords
Iām sorry for being unclear. I wasnāt saying is use the (supposed) Bartlett saplings that I got from the Va Dept of forestry as scionwood; I was just noticing hat theyāre still apparently dormant to my untrained eye so maybe Iāll find some local good fruit pear trees still in dormancy. I did email my friend who I think would be surprised to hear of my grafting into callery rootstock. She has lovely espaliered pear trees and I wonder if any of hers are dormant and need pruning.
@ClothAnnie. I just looked through my stash of scions and the only pears I have remaining is two sticks of Ayers and four of Orient. If your interested in these I will be happy to send these to you to practice on. I would immediately remove those competing trucks and just let the larger one grow. The cuts are low and all you need to do is come by and rub off the new buds that will form at or near the cuts. Very easy if you stay on top of it and donāt let them grow unchecked for long periods of time. The sprouts will be less of a problem over time. Bill
Seedling Bartlett do have thorns just like wild callery do sometimes. BET, ohxf, etc. rootstocks also have thorns. My little yellow pear has thorns when itās young and they are as nasty as a anything youāve ever seen. Here is a pear seedling Iām not looking forward to grafting!
I was surprised by the thorns, myself! They were definitely sold as Bartlett but not sure if it said seedling or sapling if thereās a difference.
My guess would be seedling but I donāt really know
[quote=āClothAnnie, post:96, topic:3490ā]
They were definitely sold as Bartlett but not sure if it said seedling or sapling if thereās a difference.
[/quote]All sapling means is a young tree. Itās another way to say starter tree.
Looks like they are marketing it as an actual Bartlett. Lines of what is a Bartlett and a seedling Bartlett can sometimes get blurred but you might actually have a Bartlett. Clark Iām sure can clear this up.