Grafting to Ornamental Pears?

[Sean98]

I apologize if this has been asked ad nauseam, but I didn't see anything directly on point in a quick search.

I live in NE Kansas and we're right on the verge of the "escape" of callery pears out of housing subdivisions and into the countryside. There's a few here and there, but not the massive amounts they have south of the Kansas City area. We've been cleaning some pastures up, removing some undesirable trees, and this last weekend I began to wonder if there was a better use for some of this volunteer ornamental pear rootstock? Particularly worth noting given the absolute perfect location of a few of these trees. Well drained slight slope, catching lots of early morning sun in an area that deer really like to travel. It's a good area, but just rocky enough to be a real b***h to try and dig a hole big enough to do a good job planting a new tree.

Internet searches on, "can you graft fruit pears onto callery pear rootstock" seems to make me believe it's possible. But it's more of the, "why not give it a try" than it is YES! or NOOOO!!

So, questions for you folks... Can it be done? And more importantly, SHOULD it be done? I'm sure I'll deal with some vigorous suckering, but if I can take an established root system in an ideal location and jump-start that into a productive fruit tree I'd sure like to give it a try. (at least next year as I hadn't saved any scions this year)

I appreciate any insight/advice/tips/warnings anyone can provide.

 

[ToddG]

I apologize if this has been asked ad nauseam, but I didn't see anything directly on point in a quick search.

I live in NE Kansas and we're right on the verge of the "escape" of callery pears out of housing subdivisions and into the countryside. There's a few here and there, but not the massive amounts they have south of the Kansas City area. We've been cleaning some pastures up, removing some undesirable trees, and this last weekend I began to wonder if there was a better use for some of this volunteer ornamental pear rootstock? Particularly worth noting given the absolute perfect location of a few of these trees. Well drained slight slope, catching lots of early morning sun in an area that deer really like to travel. It's a good area, but just rocky enough to be a real b***h to try and dig a hole big enough to do a good job planting a new tree.

Internet searches on, "can you graft fruit pears onto callery pear rootstock" seems to make me believe it's possible. But it's more of the, "why not give it a try" than it is YES! or NOOOO!!

So, questions for you folks... Can it be done? And more importantly, SHOULD it be done? I'm sure I'll deal with some vigorous suckering, but if I can take an established root system in an ideal location and jump-start that into a productive fruit tree I'd sure like to give it a try. (at least next year as I hadn't saved any scions this year)

I appreciate any insight/advice/tips/warnings anyone can provide.

You sure can. I did about 20 last year and had 100% success rate. I'm going to do another 20 in the next week or 2. I had one grow 16 ft in one year.

 

[Gravel Road]

I don't know if you tried grafting this year or not, but here's a couple that I did this year. Two varieties were used on each callery pear and they turned out great. This was my first time grafting pears and I will definitely do it again. 4 different trees were cut off and they varied between 3 inch to 6 inches or so diameter. There is a glove in each photo for size reference. The two varieties were Shinseiki and Bartlett since that is what scion was available from my yard The Shinseiki is a favorite for me, so heck with the deer-LoL.
If you notice, the lower area of the graft has been stripped of leaves. Totally my fault as it never crossed my mind hat there would be cattle in the pasture later in the summer. Sure enough, they stripped everything in reach. Luckily, the grafts were strong enough to not pull out or break! On the smaller trees there was approximately 4 ft of growth and 5-6 ft on the largest tree.
Sure is nice to take an invasive tree and turn it into a major positive. Next year will be pears more suited to wildlife.