Callery top worked to ?

ourcountryway

A good 3 year old buck
Hello HT ! Zone 7B South Central Virginia here, Ive read a bunch of post about graphing to wild Callery pear on this forum with great success. I have 2 giant ones that produce marble size fruit and then the other rmillion evasive small ones that pop up in the fields. I normally BH those down, but some older ones are 3 to 5 inches in diameter. Is it worth the effort to take some cuttings from my kieffer pear tree and do a bunch of grafting to either the big old ones or some of the larger small ones?
I'm guessing since both grow in my area it might be a good match but I'm not sure . Hoping I can do something constructive with them instead of destroying them.1000005833.jpg c96a92d9-2e4c-46a3-9c10-0636c380aac0-1_all_3955.jpg1000003530.jpg
 

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I dont have your answers, but you do have a beautiful place!
 
It definitely would be worth it, even with the huge ones. Worst case scenario, your grafts fail and the tree dies. Not a bad outcome. 2nd worst case is your grafts fail and the tree sends up a bunch of smaller shoots next year which you can graft again.

Collect your scion wood while it is dormant; I keep 6-8” pieces in ziplock bags in a fridge.


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Go for it. Graft dozens of them. You'll have an entire pear orchard.
So I'm guessing kieffer is the way to go, is there other cultivars that is a good match ?
 
So I'm guessing kieffer is the way to go, is there other cultivars that is a good match ?

You should be fine with any Asian or European pear cultivars. Everything I have ever topworked to on Callery has worked great. I would recommend Ayers and Korean Giant for sure. Both are great eaters and highly disease resistant. But with as many as you have, I wouldn't stop with just those. Get in the scion exchange thread and add a bunch of different ones.
 
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You should be fine with any Asian or European pear cultivars. Everything I have ever topworked to on Callery has worked great. I would recommend Ayers and Korean Giant for sure. Both are great eaters and highly disease resistant. But with as many as you have, I wouldn't stop with just those. Get in the scion exchange thread and add a bunch of different one.
Thank you very much. Loving this forum!!
 
IF you luck out with the scion exchange, 39th parallel orchard has alot of varieties and roostocks too. I bought seckel and gin pear from him and grafted just fine onto rootstock. I don't know much about pears. But besides the ones mentioned on here, moonglow is mentioned on here. folks grow bartlet and seckel too, might be more for eating than ideal fall drop time trees. Could be wrong on that though. moonglow was released for fireblight resistance.

Virginia and south, seems pears are more favored to apples for wildlife on here.
 
I've planted numerous pears on Ohx97 rootstock. When I moved, there was a large collection of callery pears in the back yard. They ranged from an inch to 6 or 8 inches in diameter. I had no issues grafting European or Asian pears to them. I did bark grafts on the large trees and cleft grafts on the smaller. I have had to break off suckers regularly though. The first year, most of the callery sent out new shoots everywhere along the trunk. There were fewer the next year but still some. It's not hard to do but I think its something to be aware of anyways. You should do well taking advantage of a good rootstock already in place.
 
I've planted numerous pears on Ohx97 rootstock. When I moved, there was a large collection of callery pears in the back yard. They ranged from an inch to 6 or 8 inches in diameter. I had no issues grafting European or Asian pears to them. I did bark grafts on the large trees and cleft grafts on the smaller. I have had to break off suckers regularly though. The first year, most of the callery sent out new shoots everywhere along the trunk. There were fewer the next year but still some. It's not hard to do but I think its something to be aware of anyways. You should do well taking advantage of a good rootstock already in place.
Thank you!
 
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