Pear Problems
Categories:
Fruit Growing
Kindly let me know the advisability of grafting Bartlett pears onto
apple trees. In replanting pears in young orchard, how would it do to
take rooted pear suckers, graft the Bartlett on them, and save the cost
of nursery stock? Last year my five-year-old Bartlett orchard was full
of blossoms, but, though many pears became as large as white beans, the
majority of them dropped.
The pear and apple do not make a good union. The grafts may grow for a
while, but finally fail. Do not use suckers as stocks. You can dig up
some year roots and use them as starters by making root-grafts with
Bartlett scions and do better than with suckers, but a good pear
seedling is the proper thing either for budding or root grafting. Unless
you have some experience in such work, it will be cheaper in the end to
buy good nursery trees. The nonbearing of your young trees is probably
due to their youth and vigor.