Were the trees leafed out last year? The grafts took? I understand the when a pear rootstock is used it needs to be sweated before its put out in the field.

Curious,
Little John

Yes they leafed out last year and the grafts took; but still no growth on the asians as of yet. The buds swelled a long time ago but some are now drying out and falling off.

I'm in zone 9 also and my pears are just now starting bud break. I bet yours will start soon too.

One of my four asian pears just pushed out some flower buds, other three are still sleeping. I deeply water them once a week now. My two apple trees already have many grape-size apples on them.

Ill bet the unually cold winter sent them into a real dormancy. When this happens the trees may leaf a little later but when they do it will really bust out!

Scape

Mac man, it sounds like a rootstock incompatibility there. Often it can take awhile for it to show. I don't know much about callery as a stock but its never used commercially and maybe incompatibility is a reason why it is not used. The fact that the buds started to swell but then dried out means they are not going to make it.

Scott

Rootstock incompatiblity Really?? They grew up about 6 ft though. Also Dave wilson uses calleryana http://www.davewilson.com/roots.html with their asian pears. Could it be too much water?? It was very wet where I planted.

Since you said above that the roots are sprouting that means they are alive and the water didn't do them damage. Actually, looking at what you wrote you said only some of them are sending out suckers. The ones not sending out suckers may have drowned.

How much they grew is not going to help a lot with diagnosing rootstock compatibility, it is often delayed and sometimes for a lot more than a year.

I didn't know anyone used callery comercially and that makes me downgrade my suggestion that that is your problem, if you were putting asian scions on those stocks. If you were putting Euro scions on callery, there is still a strong likelihood there is delayed incompatibility going on.

Scott