Callery Pear?

[dannyray]

Anyone have any experience with the Callery Pear Tree? This is the one that produces tiny 1/2 inch size pears.

A few years back I was trying to get seedlings identical to the old time wild pear tree (pyrus pyraster), of which I have a few on my place. This tree puts off pears about the size of a golf ball and draws the deer like a magnet. Well I purchased 50 "wild pear trees" from the NWTF, planted and tubed them. They have grown real well with most about 6 feet tall now. The only problem is that after reading some of the data that came with the seedlings and calling the nursery that they came from, I found out that they are the Callery Pear (Pyrus Calleryanus) instead of what I was hoping to get (Pyrus Pyraster).

Anyway was hoping that someone could give me some first hand info on the Callery Pear and if the deer eat these tiny half inch pears when they fall from the tree, or if I will just be feeding birds.

 

[PassThru]

I've got quite a few seedling pears that produce dime to nickel sized pears. You'd think that would be great for deer, but my trees don't drop their fruit until the fruit is essentially rotten. The deer don't care for them by the time they fall. Sometimes there are so many fruit on the trees that they look like clusters of grapes but almost none of them fall before rotting.

You can graft the variety you have on the farm to the seedlings though. That's give you the same pears you have on the farm and much quicker than the seedlings will produce. I'd recommend using a "whip graft". There are numerous "how to" grafting guides online. The main issue is getting good contact between the cambium layers of the rootstock and the scion.

 

[dannyray]

Thanks for the information.

Wow....I have heard of grafting on this forum but never really researched into the hows and whys of it. A quick google search and that sure looks like the way to go.

So it looks like I need to cut my rootstock (2 year old callery pear trees) at an angle about 1-2 foot above the ground, then cut similar diameter branches off of my old timey deer magnet pear trees at an angle, then match them up with good cambium contact. Then bind with tape and grafting compound.

Sound about right?

 

[PassThru]

I would say about 6 inches above the ground. What diameter are your trees at that height? The ideal size is about .5 inch in diameter. If they are much larger (say an inch or two) you might want to look at cleft grafting. You'll need a sharp knife for whip grafting (preferably sharpened on only one side), some grafting wax and/or grafting tape. With whip grafting you want to cut on an angle that makes the cup about twice as long as the diameter of the stem. You typically slice into each side of the graft so the two pieces can "pinch" together creating a little bit of a mechanical bond. Most of the bond will come from the grafting tape though. Around late February is when you'd want to do it.

 

[dannyray]

Unfortunatley right now I am in Iraq supporting the troops and will not be home until next fall, so the grafting project will have to happen then. I checked all of my trees when I was home last month but all are tubed, so I did not get a look at the diameter 12-24 inches above the ground. But most are about 5-6 ft high, so that half inch diameter at 12-24 inches is about correct right now (the tree tubes seem to promote lateral growth over diameter growth for the first few years). Hopefully they dont put on to much diameter growth this summer and I can do the whip graft on them at that time. Any that get to an inch diameter at that time I will have to cleft graft.

Once again thanks for the info. I am really excited about this and cant wait to give it a go. I have never quite seen anything in my neck of the woods draw the deer like these old timey pears. Plus they don't drop until late November/December, perfect later season food source.

So you do not need the grafting compound and tape? Just the tape will do?

 

[dannyray]

Actually I guess I will have to do the grafting in Feb 09 (God that sounds like a long time from now!!)

 

[PassThru]

I only use grafting tape on whip grafts. For cleft grafting, the wax works better.

Thanks for your work supporting the troops! Good luck over there - stay safe.