Pear tree help

[TWalter91]

In 2017 or 2018 I planted 2 pear and 2 apple trees. Well life kind of got in the way and I neglected the trees and all but this kieffer pear tree ended up dying. I got back into planting fruit trees last spring and all of those trees are being cared for and doing great! Lol

As you can see this Kieffer pear has multiple trunks and I am trying to figure out what to do with it?? Did the original graft die and the tree resprouted from the rootstock? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[TWalter91]

 

[TWalter91]

 

[Turkey Creek]

Looks highly likely that those shoots are coming from the root stock. Once you clear the snow away see if you can find the original graft union. Anything above the graft would be Kieffer, anything below is root stock suckers.

 

[TreeDaddy]

So.........

How would you manage that?

Cut the root stock suckers?

bill

 

[bigboreblr]

IF you're not sure whats kieffer and whats not, just remove the sins. Inward crossing branches, branches too close., diseased or damaged Don't overly concern yourself about branch angles like you do with apple trees. Once you see fruit, mark the ones with paint or tape that you will cut next dormant winter.

I read multiple leaders for pear trees is not a bad thing. Thats what I am doing with all my pear trees. 3 or 4 is what I am doing. PEar seem to be more sensitive to fireblight. Once a leader gets hits hard, the tree is done. Several leaders ensure survival better.

Not sure where your trees are, but from what I have seen on this website, guys around zone 8 or hotter do better with pears than apples.

Even if the pears are different, see if the deer eat them or pass them up. Sometimes rootstock fruit make good deer snacks. Dolgo, antonovka, and even M111 are good examples in the apple world.

Any suspicion why your other trees did not make it?

 

[TWalter91]

IF you're not sure whats kieffer and whats not, just remove the sins. Inward crossing branches, branches too close., diseased or damaged Don't overly concern yourself about branch angles like you do with apple trees. Once you see fruit, mark the ones with paint or tape that you will cut next dormant winter.

I read multiple leaders for pear trees is not a bad thing. Thats what I am doing with all my pear trees. 3 or 4 is what I am doing. PEar seem to be more sensitive to fireblight. Once a leader gets hits hard, the tree is done. Several leaders ensure survival better.

Not sure where your trees are, but from what I have seen on this website, guys around zone 8 or hotter do better with pears than apples.

Even if the pears are different, see if the deer eat them or pass them up. Sometimes rootstock fruit make good deer snacks. Dolgo, antonovka, and even M111 are good examples in the apple world.

Any suspicion why your other trees did not make it?

Yeah I kind of want to let it keep growing and see what happens. I only have 3 pear trees including this one and soon to be 20+ apple/crabapples. Planted several whitetail crabs last year and have a dozen trees coming from bluehill this spring. The whitetail crabs are doing awesome but I am excited to see how the dolgo rootstock does in my sandy soil.

The area I planted my first four trees in was probably an 1/8 acre opening in the woods. So I know sunlight was definitely an issue along with very acidic soil and a drought. I believe those trees were planted in mid may so I missed out on several spring rains.

The area is now opened up to 1.5+ acres and has been planted in a food plot every year since. Ph is close to 7 and working on building the soil up with a no till system. Most of my trees now are planted in or around my food plot.
Hoping we dont have another drought this year but I am working on a small water trailer so I can water the trees a couple of times if needed.

 

[Catscratch]

I have a similar situation. The grafted part died and now a suckered is coming up strong. I figure there's 3 options; let it grow to see what it does, let it grow then graft it, dig it out and plant something I actually want and not waste years waiting on an unknown.

 

[Gravel Road]

Perfect opportunity to learn grafting.

 

[Native Hunter]

There is a chance one of them could be a Kieffer, but I doubt it. That looks more like what happens when something dies and comes back from the roots.

I’ve grafted trees like that and had pears in 2 years. I would graft all of the shoots. After a while I would leave the one that looks best and carefully cut the others down at ground line. Then I would mound some dirt over the base and cover the cut places.

PS - grafts on a tree like that take off like a rocket. They could grow 6 feet or more in the first year. If you don’t brace them for a couple of years, you will end up with them broken off if you have any strong winds.

 

[TWalter91]

I may have to try my hands at grafting. Will have to watch a few videos. How high up do I graft it? Is it to late to cut scion? I do have two other kieffer pears that were planted last year that I could possibly take scion from.

 

[cavey]

Like mentioned above, look for a graft union, thats the one you want.... but like native hunter said looks like a bunch of sprouts from a die off; - Ive seen sprouts overtake the original grafted tree so spend some time looking close for a union its not always the biggest one.

If you knew what type of root stock it was you could just stick with the the best one and cut the rest, and/or as mentioned there is opportunity to graft or even frankenstein this tree.

As far as multiple leaders - I think your still going to want to pick one main trunk and not have a mess of trunks - if one develops multiple leaders than thats a preference choice to make but clean up that base and pick one good one to run with, hopefully the original grafted tree. But IMO you do need to make that choice and not wait to see what happens.

 

[Native Hunter]

I may have to try my hands at grafting. Will have to watch a few videos. How high up do I graft it? Is it to late to cut scion? I do have two other kieffer pears that were planted last year that I could possibly take scion from.

It's too late in KY to cut pear scions, but I don't know about where you live. I would graft about chest high if I was doing it.

 

[TWalter91]

It's too late in KY to cut pear scions, but I don't know about where you live. I would graft about chest high if I was doing it.

I probably should of mentioned I am in Northern Michigan (Lower peninsula). We had a couple weeks of warmer weather followed by snow this weekend lol From the little I have read today, I am pretty sure I can still cut scion and my tree is still dormant. Probably should get on it asap though.

 

[BuckSnort]

The other nice thing about trimming back to 1 trunk is that all of the energy from the root system will go into a single place instead of multiple.

 

[Telemark]

I would graft about six inches above the ground. Once you see the graft has succeeded you can cut away everything above it. Next winter you can cut away the other leaders, and it will push all the new growth into the graft.

 

[Bill]

I'm no expert. This is my first and only Apple tree graft. Same story, original tree died and the root stock grew. There is a tree that really puts out apples in my back yard. Was there 30 years before me. I took some scions from it and cut the root stock back above browse height.

March 2019


June 2020


I need updated pics. The scions are as big as the trunks I grafted to and all healed up. Still no apples though. Crossing my fingers that happens soon.

 

[H20fwler]

I like the advice that Native gave for handling this situation.

I had a similar experience a few years ago where a really nice five year old Olympic threw a low sucker that I missed and the main tree died right back and the sucker took off growing great. It’s like it stole all the juice from the main tree.
The sucker from the rootstock is a little thorny but not sharp thorns, maybe was hawthorn rootstock?
It is probably as thick as a hoe handle now, plan with it is to cut it back and try and graft over it with a couple good cuttings. Main thing will be to keep a closer eye on it since the original rootstock seems to be a trouble maker.