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Interesting pear observations

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Posted by alexander3 6 (My Page) on
Thu, Dec 22, 11 at 21:51

A lot of us here are familiar with the structural problems of Callery pears, caused largely by their poor branching habit... upright branches and tight crotches that lead to included bark, and eventually self destruction.

Two things I find interesting:
1) there are now a lot of pear stumps in the neighborhood, and the shoots that have been allowed to sprout back make branch angles of almost 90 degrees and have horizontal branches. I guess these are from the root stock, anyone know what rootstock is typically used for these?

2) There is a small field that I drive by that is overrun with volunteer pears that are now a few years old, and practically all of them have the same kind of branching habit that I see from the resprouting stumps. Is this some kind of juvenile trait? It seems odd to me that this branching habit would be so prevalent, considering the parent.

Anyone else notice the same things?

Alex

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RE: Interesting pear observations

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  • Posted by j0nd03 7 west/central AR (My Page) on
    Fri, Dec 23, 11 at 11:22

I have never looked that close at seedlings and wild pears. But I sure do notice them in spring and fall, even now many are quite attractive while nearly all other trees are leafless.

There are several stump sprouts on my street. One has grown over 6' in 2 years and has filled out very well, too. I will try to remember to take a peak at it this weekend.

John

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RE: Interesting pear observations

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I assume the callery pear cultivars are all grown on seedling callery pear rootstock. I believe the common (fruit) pears are also sometimes grown on callery pear rootstock. Callery seedlings and sprouts from the rootstocks are often thorny. Even though they appear very uniform as young trees, they will probably be somewhat variable in growth form as older trees. Though I haven't seen many large wild callery pears, my guess is that many of the older trees will likely develop the same kind of structural problems as the cultivars.

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