Grafting Asian Pear onto Hawthorne and Mountain Ash

Has anyone had any success grafting the asian pear varietals onto hawthorne or mountain ash? A friend just did some pruning in his orchard and set aside a bunch of scion wood for me to play with (just got an omega grafting tool for Christmas ) and I was wondering if anyone out here has tried this combo with any success. If you have any pointers or advise fire away, I'm always interested to hear differing opinions. Any way I'll post some pics up as I start the fun!!!

I would also like to know what can be grafted onto mountain ash.

I have grafted other pears onto mountain ash, but have avoided asian pear on general advice to use the most vigorous rootstocks - I use Betch and OH-97.

On mountain ash, I've been successful with aronia and shipova -- I haven't tried much else..

I tried making a pear-centric Belgian fence using Shipova (purchased, because they take forever to start to fruit as it is) and hawthorn x mountain ash and aronia x mountain ash hybrids (both of which look like red-purple fruited mountain ash, but are smaller trees with supposedly better fruit) as foliage contrasts/accents.  I budded the Sorbus hybrids (other than Shipova) into OHxF333 European pear rootstock.  The buds "took" but growth was minimal (6") vs. several feet of growth from pears budded on the opposite side of the "Y" and after 1 year, died.  (I was doing a symmetry thing and trying to maximize the variety, each cordon different and mostly pears.)  Perhaps they simply couldn't compete with pear branches and would have worked if they each were the only scion on a pear root, but I am inclined to think that Mountain Ash doesn't do well on (European) pear roots.  If graft compatibility is reciprocal (no idea as I don't have Sorbus trees to test on, but seems reasonable), I suspect pear on Sorbus will struggle.

i grafted 4 scions of 2 varieties of euro. pears to a 6ft. mountain ash last spring. both took and put on 16in. of growth. going to add a shipova scion next spring. also have a shipova grafted to a aronia thats about 4ft. now. ill keep this thread posted how these trees do. also heard that the russians graft hardy pears to cotoneaster to make natural  cold hardy dwarf pear trees. I've yet to find a cheap source here in the states for cotoneaster.

not sure if this is the right cotoneaster for you, but just in case....
https://stlawrencenurseries.com/collections/timber-and-yard-trees/products/package-of-10-peking-cotoneaster?variant=31302757318743

I had my first two successful grafts ever this year after making attempts 6 years or so- most of the failures were trying to add apple varieties on apple branches...  and the ones that succeeded this year were interspecific- european pear on mountain ash and aronia on mountain ash.  I did them with a construction razor knife and electrical tape, once the buds just started to open.  European mt. ash (sorbus aucuparia) is naturalized and very vigorous here.  I probably have 50-100 of them already growing on my 1 acre.  I'm considering purchasing scionwood next winter.  Can anyone recommend the best timing and method for the highest percentage of graft success topworking pear on mt ash?  We have a cool and dry summer here.


ALSO... I had some Asian pear on mt. ash attempts fail.  When I took the tape off one for an examination, the scion was joined to the rootstock, but had still died...  I will try again, given my history with grafting, a failure does not mean an incompatibility...

the topworking timing that has worked best for me (includes apples, pears, mt. ash hybrids, pawpaw, persimmon, walnut...haven't had the opportunity to try pear on mt ash) is when the spring's new growth is around a centimeter long - 'as long as a squirrel's ear'...i've heard advice that includes other times of year for several of those, but since i'm usually above 90% taking, i haven't felt the need to experiment much more.

i agree with Greg. graft just as the tree is starting to leaf out. out of 10 pear grafts put on my mtn ash, only 1 didn't take. so now i have 6 varieties of pears on this 6ft. tree.

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...

i added a bartlet scion this spring to my last branch and it took.  now have 11 scions of 7 varieties on my 7ft. mountain ash. there is no mountain ash leaves left on it only pear. half of the varieties are from hardy Maine pears discovered by Fedco. all  are putting on vigorous growth except the bartllet from this year. thats just leafing out. one stacyville graft was so vigorous i had to cut it back in half as the branch was turning down toward the ground. i may need to build a  support scaffold for this tree until the parent tree catches up with the pear growing on it. or i may have to give support yearly if the mtn ash cant support the weight of the pear grafts. we'll see.

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...

       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.

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?

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?

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.

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).

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).

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.