There is a really helpful thread over in the Heirloom Plant and Garden Forum (Starting Pear Trees From Seed.) If you search for it, it'll tell you much you need to know [Lucky Pittman's advice is particulary good, especially if you, like he, love those soft, buttery pears.])

If you don't happen to find that thread, here's the short version. 1.) Pears do not come true from seed. No telling what you'll get but it'll almost certainly be different from the fruit that produced the seed. 2.) Seeding pears can take years and years to produce. 3.) Pears are one of the easiest trees to graft.

My advice would be to give grafting a try. It's pretty fun and you may even get hooked.

Don

Buy rootstock and take a cutting from old tree???? Connect the two.

Hey Bus. Good to see you on this forum.

There's been some good discussion on this very subject, and here's a couple of links:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/fruit/msg030555072512.html

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/fruit/msg0115243517260.html

The links with "Pezzuti9" are particularly helpful, and if you email Lou I'm sure he can point you in the right direction and will be happy to do so, but if you can't get ahold of him come back here.

Short answer: What Franktank and Don and just said.

Good luck,

M

The evidence you present is overwhelmingly convincing. Looks as if next year (March?) will be the time to try grafting. I know a fellow who probably has some experience with that. Back to the pear-from-seed issue. It would seem very possible that the fruit from such a tree could be quite acceptable, even if different. These pears stay hard for a long time. They have a rough skin with varied colors. The time span between softening and spoiling is very short. We cook them and eat them or make preserves. Thanks for the responses.

Since is it not mentioned, I assume that layering is not a good method to be used on pears. I know it works well for dogwoods.

Hi Bus.

Actually, I think it was mentioned here last year that some have had success with layering pears, but even if you did succeed you'd end up with a full-sized tree, late to bear and difficult to manage. And, the tree would most likely be susceptible to fireblight, the major killer of pears.

What I did about three years ago was to buy an established tree on suitable rootstock and graft to it. So I have a Gold Spice pear on one of the Old Home x Farmington roots which provides some dwarfing and also some blight resistance. I was able to graft eight varieties to it, so I have 9 pears on one tree (although only the GS has produced fruit so far.

Here's a link to the rootstock story: http://www.ars-grin.gov/cor/cool/pyr.oldhome.html

You can Google "pear rootstock" and find reading material for days.

Also look up the Backyard Fruit Growers in Lancaster, PA. They can point you to many great resources.

Good luck,

Mark