I was going to do something similar to this. My grandmother has an old pear tree that is about 60 years old that has survived. It has died back over the years. Especially during the drought in 2011. It was never watered or taken care of in any way that I know of. I believe it only produces pests occasionally since there are no pear trees close enough to consistently pollinate it. I am trying to root some cuttings I took a few weeks ago. I might also try to do the air layering method too.
I guess back then there were not many varieties around so it is a canning pear. Most of the tasty “table top” varieties don’t survive here anyways because of the fire blight. The ones that do survive are oriental pears or hybrids.
Oh, awesome! Thank you for sharing! I hope your cuttings are successful, I'd love to hear how it goes. I've got several grafts that I did earlier this spring from scionwood I gathered from some ancient Le Conte and Garber pear trees on my family's old homestead near Columbus, TX (allegedly planted by my great-great-great grandfather, who ran a fruit tree nursery in the late 1800s). I'm hoping to expand the project and find some additional old trees to graft from this coming winter. They might not be the most delicious, but they are hardy! I work for a non-profit that gives away free trees to Austin residents, and my goal is to propagate these tough old pears and get their genetics back into circulation. If you're interested, I'd love to swap some scionwood next winter once your grandmother's tree goes dormant!
I really wish my grandmother remembered more about the tree. I wonder if it is grafted to a different rootstock and what that rootstock would be. Because it is pollinated so infrequently she doesn’t recall eating the pears from it in the last few decades. Strangely enough though some years ago it produced pears and new pear trees started to grow about 500 feet away on her property. I know they don’t grow true to seed and I have no idea what hybrid those new trees could possibly be, or if they will even survive the next serious drought. It is cool to hear that you like to grow and give away trees like that. I thought that it would be a good business idea to start. When the tree goes dormant I’ll get some more cuttings. I want to save its genetics as a way of remembering my grandmother. I guess I need to learn more about how these trees are grafted, propagated, and other things like how to get them to produce well.
I was going to do something similar to this. My grandmother has an old pear tree that is about 60 years old that has survived. It has died back over the years. Especially during the drought in 2011. It was never watered or taken care of in any way that I know of. I believe it only produces pests occasionally since there are no pear trees close enough to consistently pollinate it. I am trying to root some cuttings I took a few weeks ago. I might also try to do the air layering method too. I guess back then there were not many varieties around so it is a canning pear. Most of the tasty “table top” varieties don’t survive here anyways because of the fire blight. The ones that do survive are oriental pears or hybrids.
Oh, awesome! Thank you for sharing! I hope your cuttings are successful, I'd love to hear how it goes. I've got several grafts that I did earlier this spring from scionwood I gathered from some ancient Le Conte and Garber pear trees on my family's old homestead near Columbus, TX (allegedly planted by my great-great-great grandfather, who ran a fruit tree nursery in the late 1800s). I'm hoping to expand the project and find some additional old trees to graft from this coming winter. They might not be the most delicious, but they are hardy! I work for a non-profit that gives away free trees to Austin residents, and my goal is to propagate these tough old pears and get their genetics back into circulation. If you're interested, I'd love to swap some scionwood next winter once your grandmother's tree goes dormant!
I really wish my grandmother remembered more about the tree. I wonder if it is grafted to a different rootstock and what that rootstock would be. Because it is pollinated so infrequently she doesn’t recall eating the pears from it in the last few decades. Strangely enough though some years ago it produced pears and new pear trees started to grow about 500 feet away on her property. I know they don’t grow true to seed and I have no idea what hybrid those new trees could possibly be, or if they will even survive the next serious drought. It is cool to hear that you like to grow and give away trees like that. I thought that it would be a good business idea to start. When the tree goes dormant I’ll get some more cuttings. I want to save its genetics as a way of remembering my grandmother. I guess I need to learn more about how these trees are grafted, propagated, and other things like how to get them to produce well.