For those of you who have grafted pears with Winter Banana as an interstem, what length is appropriate? By that I mean less chance of rejection? I have several potential rootstocks of pear, but more of apple. I found all the Winter Banana I could. I am going to keep several growing for next//following years, but can do some this year.
[apple rootstock>Winter Banana>pear cultivar]
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I have used both short (est 3") and longer (est 8"). I’ve not noticed any compatibility difference based on length. The quality of the graft connection does matter for the rate of graft takes.
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Good, I wasn’t sure. I know incompatible pear on quince needs a long compatible interstem to knock down some factor. Grafts seemed to work decently if they were wrapped tightly enough, but the pear took longer than apple. I only lost trees later to hot weather and rabbits.
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where did you read that? There is a method called “Nicolieren” where you use less than a millimeter thick piece of a compatible variety for grafting pear on quince.
Somewhere in my searches, I will find it again and post it. Essentially it was that some factor, don’t remember what, traveled sometimes two or three inches into the scion. So interstems of compatible varieties should be 5-6 inches long to be sure it was clear. It made sense and I went with that, I seem to remember something where I had to look at a published journal. Anyway, I would never be able to graft with such a small interstem layer. A shorter section would be helpful, though, so there is some reason it stuck in my head.