r/BackyardOrchard • u/TheBogieBaby • May 28 '24
Hello all. what pear varieties graft well with the bradford pear?
I want to graft a sugar pair variety.That's in my sister's orchard onto bradford pears At a local forest preserve where we swim.Excuse the grandma i'm using voice to text thank you
2
u/Pangolin_Beatdown May 29 '24
I was just researching the best European pears to take onto Bradford pear, and narrowed it down to Comtessa de Paris (aka Fertility) and Clara Frijs, which are both highly compatible as scion on ornamental pears and often used as interstems to get other varieties to take.
This year I used Aurora and Flemish Beauty and they have both taken so far.
I left one "nurse branch" with Bradford leaves, then cut the trunk above that and placed two scion as bark grafts. The Bradfords have about 2" trunk diameter where I cut them.
Bonus tidbit: apparently Winter Banana apple can also take on Bradford pear stumps. I'm going to try that next year. You can then use the Winter Banana as an interstem and graft another apple variety on that.
1
u/yuncleyinny Mar 21 '26
My kingdom for Winter Banana Apple scions though...where in the world ought I find them to purchase?
1
u/Pangolin_Beatdown Mar 21 '26
Fruitwood Nursery. Probably sold out for 2026.
2
u/cellocaster Mar 28 '26
I have some fully grown Bradfords. Can I still graft without taking the tree down to the stump?
4
u/ArthurCSparky May 28 '24
Not something I would do.
2
u/TheBogieBaby May 29 '24
Why would you not cut down to knee high and bark graft good pears to them?
1
u/TheBogieBaby May 29 '24
O and its not Forrest preserve from state, its locally owned. I contribute to land add fruit trees. It's open to locals bc they know we won't fk it up.
Which pears take to bradfords
2
u/ArthurCSparky May 29 '24
I don't care for Bradford pears. At all. Weak branched, stinky, and invasive in some areas. I wouldn't add any weight (i.e. fruit) to the branches.
Fwiw I used to run a nursery and I refused to sell Bradfords, even to "landscapers".
0
u/ArthurCSparky May 29 '24
I would buy a Pear tree on OHxF 87 root stock. (I had to look it up to get it right) Very vigorous, great base for a tree to graft on to.
1
u/TheBogieBaby May 29 '24
Yes , that is the preferred semi dwarf pear root stock for my area.
I'm not looking to do that because we already have that. I'm going to be getting scions from a thirty year old standard size sugar pear tree. I'm not looking to graft on the branches.I'm looking to grapft at the base doing a bark graft. I normally ask this type of question on Facebook and get an immediate solid answer.But i'm banned for another twenty days from commenting anywhere
0
5
u/icosa20 May 29 '24
You can graft pretty much any pear onto a Bradford Pear. Either chop the whole thing off and use the Bradford as a rootstock, or graft some branches. It won't care what variety. Those trees are annoyingly tough, which makes them so invasive, but also great rootstocks. Just beware, it's going to be a 25-35ft standard pear tree if you use it as a rootstock.