Relocating Bradford Pear Seedlings and grafting

[ToddG]

I am going to relocate some Bradford Pear seedlings to better locations and was wondering could I graft them to edible pears at the same time or should I wait a year to graft them?

 

[Bluestone]

This is a good question and something I was thinking about recently as well. Plan I came up with was to transplant and then wait a year before grafting to allow the tree to acclimate. I guess depending on the number you are moving, you could try and graft a couple in the transplant year for comparison.

 

[ToddG]

This is a good question and something I was thinking about recently as well. Plan I came up with was to transplant and then wait a year before grafting to allow the tree to acclimate. I guess depending on the number you are moving, you could try and graft a couple in the transplant year for comparison.

Wouldn't grafting while transplanting be the same as grafting to root stock before planting?

 

[Bluestone]

Yes that’s correct. To clarify my earlier comments, I was thinking of transplanting two to three foot tall wild pears, where transplanting success percentage could be less than ideal. Transplanting success rate will be much higher if you are working with something smaller and can get some water to them should things dry out during the summer then you should be fine grafting at the same time.

 

[ToddG]

I think I will experiment and try grafting while transplanting. It's free so nothing to lose but time.