Seedling pear?

Mozark

5 year old buck +
A few weeks ago my cousin noticed deer visiting a tree every evening. It is on the farm he manages, but not where he hunts. Early this week he drove over to the tree to find out why. Turned out to be a very old pear tree of some sort, which he took me to yesterday. There is an old foundation near the tree, don't know if it is a seedling or possibly a rootstock of some sort. A few water sprouts on the trunk, they were rather thorny. Pears are small, not bad tasting, but rather sour, not sweet. The tree has been dropping for at least three weeks and is still holding a good crop. We will be getting scion from this one!20211126_153126_HDR.jpg20211126_153449_HDR.jpg
 
I have one out on the farm that is huge taller that the power lines by quite a bit. Must be self pollinating could of filled a pickup bed with pears this year dropped a couple weeks ago in zone 6. I can also cut some scion wood from it if anyone is interested. It is a fantastic wildlife pear. I’m sure it was probably planted by my wife’s grandparents at some point it’s about 30 yards from the sour pie cherry tree grove.
 
That is a crazy amount of pears on that huge tree. The pear looks similar to the Dr. Deer Pear tree that Chestnut Hill Outdoors used to sell and Wildtree now sells. Here is their page discussing the tree. https://www.wildtree.co/product/dr-deer-pear/ I bought a few Dr. Deer Pear trees from Chestnut Hill a couple of years ago. Below is a pear from the tree. You copied my photo by the way. :emoji_grin: You could make a fortune selling scion wood from that tree assuming it produces that many pears every year.

pear.jpg
 
I grow seedling pears. And am really really happy with them.
For my trees it took about 7 or 8yrs (from seed) before they bore any fruit.
But each year after the fruit load gets bigger.

I am at 43 latitude---south central Michigan.

Here's my story with my seedling pear:
I had long admired two grafted pears in a nearby neighbors front yard. I grafted scions from them and several of those trees are growing and producing just like the parent.....tho, after 11yrs they are a ways away from producing the volume of fruit the parents do. But they are producing more pears (big pears, too) each year.

Out of curiosity 12-14year or so years ago I cultivated seeds from the the better of those two trees.
THAT turned out to be a home-run.
Those half-dozen trees are a sure fire draw for deer each night from September until late January when the last of the fruit has dropped.
My fruit looks exactly like the fruit pictured in the OP. And the quantities are big now....and get bigger each year (absent a late frost).

With the success of those trees I have propagated perhaps a dozen or so more and they are in various stages of maturity now, tho none old enough to produce.

The caveat: They bloom early. In fact, my earliest bloomers of any fruit type on the farm. And thus they are susceptible to a late frost. I have twice had frosts after May 10th in recent years. They reduced the yield, unquestionably. However, it was not reduced to zero. Some trees are hurt worse than others. Probably a micro-climate thingy for their specific location. But even this year --2021 --- when we had killing frosts around May 25th/26th.....all trees still bore some fruit. And a couple are carrying heavy loads.

BTW, they have been easy to propagate from seed with the usual stratification protocols. They have been vigorous growers as seedlings. Better than any of my seedling crabs or oaks.
 
Beautiful tree, and that sucker is huge! That would be great for top working a Callery pear. If you ever decide to cut scions or collect seeds, please let me know :emoji_slight_smile:
 
Looks like my asian pears
 
I have one out on the farm that is huge taller that the power lines by quite a bit. Must be self pollinating could of filled a pickup bed with pears this year dropped a couple weeks ago in zone 6. I can also cut some scion wood from it if anyone is interested. It is a fantastic wildlife pear. I’m sure it was probably planted by my wife’s grandparents at some point it’s about 30 yards from the sour pie cherry tree grove.
Sounds like a great tree to have, I may hit you up for scion.
 
Beautiful tree, and that sucker is huge! That would be great for top working a Callery pear. If you ever decide to cut scions or collect seeds, please let me know :emoji_slight_smile:
I checked the tree for water sprouts and it does have a few here and there. I will be getting scion from it in February. I like the idea of putting it on callery, but I don't have any growing on me, or any around me that I can dig.
 
I grow seedling pears. And am really really happy with them.
For my trees it took about 7 or 8yrs (from seed) before they bore any fruit.
But each year after the fruit load gets bigger.

I am at 43 latitude---south central Michigan.

Here's my story with my seedling pear:
I had long admired two grafted pears in a nearby neighbors front yard. I grafted scions from them and several of those trees are growing and producing just like the parent.....tho, after 11yrs they are a ways away from producing the volume of fruit the parents do. But they are producing more pears (big pears, too) each year.

Out of curiosity 12-14year or so years ago I cultivated seeds from the the better of those two trees.
THAT turned out to be a home-run.
Those half-dozen trees are a sure fire draw for deer each night from September until late January when the last of the fruit has dropped.
My fruit looks exactly like the fruit pictured in the OP. And the quantities are big now....and get bigger each year (absent a late frost).

With the success of those trees I have propagated perhaps a dozen or so more and they are in various stages of maturity now, tho none old enough to produce.

The caveat: They bloom early. In fact, my earliest bloomers of any fruit type on the farm. And thus they are susceptible to a late frost. I have twice had frosts after May 10th in recent years. They reduced the yield, unquestionably. However, it was not reduced to zero. Some trees are hurt worse than others. Probably a micro-climate thingy for their specific location. But even this year --2021 --- when we had killing frosts around May 25th/26th.....all trees still bore some fruit. And a couple are carrying heavy loads.

BTW, they have been easy to propagate from seed with the usual stratification protocols. They have been vigorous growers as seedlings. Better than any of my seedling crabs or oaks.
Just curious, are the seedlings similar to the parent or are they much different? I have a few seedlings from a bosc, not old enough to produce. They will probably be lightening rods for fire blight, but they will get planted anyway.
 
Wish I had a better photo of the pears it snapped a couple branches it was so heavy with them this year. I brushed out around it last fall and holy cow did it set a lot of fruit this last summer.
 

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There are a few trees like that near my parents in Ohio. I'm pretty sure it's part Callery, possibly crossed with ussuriensis or something similar. I'd wager you can easily graft that type onto a Callery rootstock. If you wanted to produce seedlings, it might be interesting to cross that pear with another Asian variety, especially something a bit later blooming and/or late dropping.
 
Just curious, are the seedlings similar to the parent or are they much different?

They are very different.
The tree itself is much more vertical oriented than the parent.
Much taller. And narrower.
And the fruit is dramatically different. Much smaller ---as pictured in the OP....that's what my seedlings produce.
Whereas the parent produces a really large globular fruit.

The grafts I have of the parents (on Old Farmingdale roots) produce fruit like the parent.
The seedlings don't.

If you saw the parent and the seedling side by side and did not know the connection.....you would never know the relation, other than they are both pears.

I looked at several of them today, November 28th, and they are still carrying good fruit loads.....whereas ALL of my grafted pears have been on the ground since about the 1st week of November, or a bit earlier.

With these seedlings today, all had deer poop underneath 'em.........and NO fruit on the ground.
Whatever falls during the day is being sucked down each night as deer do the rounds checking out each tree.
 
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