I have a ton of wild pear rootstock. I assume that years ago my grandmother canned a bunch of pears and dumped the waste where they are now growing. The problem is that they have never grown to any size and it seems like the reason is due to fireblight repeatedly killing them back. Other than that the roots seem to just grow right back up. I have mowed them over and even disked over them at one point and they still came back up. My question is what the chance they would work for grafting onto with something that is fireblight resistant and having that graft growing into something productive?
I wouldn’t see why not to graft something fireblight resistant on them. Its certainly worth a try. If fireblight was going to kill them to the roots it likely would have done so already.
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Would you suggest grafting as close to the ground as possible as a way to try eliminate the chance for fireblight as much as possible . Normally I would just go ahead and try it but any scion wood will be limited to what I can trade for or buy .
Yes as close to the ground as possible.
Thanks Clarkinks!
No real experience with pears as not many people ever grew them around here .
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One last trick I use which is once the graft takes paint the trunk to the ground and little bit of the graft with pruning seal. You are sealing off the possibility of the FB having an entry point. As a tree gets older the base gets tough bark on it and is no longer vulnerable. Once the tough bark has formed at the base you are mostly out of the woods.
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I should have mentioned and see I forgot that fire blight can infect roots. The roots thus far have not been infected on your wild pears. Mentioned it more for the sake of people that read this in the future. Every situation is unique.
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