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i graft with a cleft graft with scion wood right out of the fridge. i know there are cleaner looking grafts but im not steady enough with others and clefts take just fine for me. its also easy to graft small scion wood onto bigger rootstock. havent had one break off yet. american mountain ash grow like weeds here so it only makes sense to use them as a pear rootstock. ive read on a russian fruit website that mountain ash with pear on it live over 20yrs. not as long as a pear rootstock but they also fruit in 2-3 yrs instead of 5-10yrs. on pear. ill take it! check out Fedco here in Maine. they have alot of z3 hardy pear scion wood.Corey Schmidt wrote:Thanks for these responses! 'Squirrels ear' is great and easy to remember. If I purchase dormant scion wood, its clear that I should graft it on the mt. ash once the rootstock has green leaves the size of a squirrel's ear, but what about the scion wood? Should it be grafted right out of the refrigerator, or conditioned in some way first? Also, I have read about many different grafting methods, do you consider any to be easier to do right or more likely to take than others?
I have mostly mt. ash that are larger than the scionwood. I also have a lot of our native mt. ash, Sorbus sitchensis, and I'm thinking aronia might be better on it, as its not nearly as vigorous or large at maturity as the European species. I can't tell the difference between the two until they get a bit larger and the aucuparia starts to show its straight tall habit vs. the crooked shrubby and short habit of the sitchensis...
crap! i dont remember. it was a link sent as a response to a question on growingfruit.org. ill see if i can find it again. good to hear your grafts took. i hope to see some fruit on mine soon.Corey Schmidt wrote:Thanks for the info Steve! And I'm happy to hear the pears are doing so well for you on mt. ash! I actually bought 4 pear trees and a cherry tree from Fedco this year, along with 2 other european pear varieties in scion wood. I attempted some more aronia on mt ash and european pear on mt. ash. It looks like at least 2 of the 8 or so attempts of pear on mt ash took as well as several aronia on both european and our native mt ash. Most of these were cleft grafts also and 1 chip bud of pear on mt ash looks to be growing. I had a European pear on mt ash last year but it didn't survive the winter. The aronia did and is growing the 2nd season on the european mt ash. Could you share the link of the russian website you referenced?
hey Corey. so how's the pears doing? mine are doing great but some of the grafted horizonal branches started breaking from the weight of new growth. all the vertical ones are growing gangbusters! if the horizontal ones breakoff completely, no biggie. i got plenty more vertical ones. hopefully they fruit soon. the trees now 12ft. tall.Corey Schmidt wrote:Thanks, Steve. No worries if you can't find it. It looks like all of my aronia grafts this year dried out, some of them after appearing to take, but 3 of this year's pear grafts on mt. ash are growing, and the aronia from last year growing fast (for here).
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