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Propagating pear rootstock?

12 years ago

Does anyone have experience propagating pear rootstock? I know that pear rootstocks such as the Oldhome x Farmingdale varities are grown from hardwood cuttings. When is the best time to stick the cuttings? Best media for growing? Anyone with experience please chime in.

Thanks!

Comments (5)

  • 12 years ago

    I used Cleveland Flowering seeds and grow them for one season and graft them the following year. Very easy process.

    Tony

  • 12 years ago

    Suspect the clonal rootstocks, like the OHxF series are produced from stooling beds.
    I've tried, several times, to root dormant-collected cuttings of OHxF513 - with no success(but not much investment of time or care, either).

    Callery pear seedlings pop up like a plague around here, and I graft some in-place for tranplant, or dig them and pot up or line 'em out in a nursery bed for grafting. Probably cut and poisoned close to 50 of them in a 20x20 area I was clearing out yesterday that hadn't been mown in about 5 years.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Stooling

  • 12 years ago

    Tony thanks for the info.; however, I am most interested in cloning the above mentioned cross'. I know they are grown from hardwood cuttings. Just trying to gather info. on the most successful approach to propagation that way.

  • 12 years ago

    Lucky p, I am familiar with stooling I use that approach on my apple rootstocks. I know that the pears are grown from hardwood cuttings at least the rootstocks I have purchased in the past were. Fairly heavy stem and the roots originate from the callus on the bottom cut.

  • 12 years ago

    I too have read that clonal pear rootstock is now commonly grown from cuttings. (Although the huge stooling fields seem unlikely to have been replaced.)

    Possibly the cuttings are softwood cuttings rooted under mist. Other woody plants whose dormant wood is hard to root are now successfully rooted commercially by softwood/mist methods (e.g., muscadine grapes). If I were a betting man, I would bet it relates to the presence of leaves helping rooting. I have read that leafless citrus cuttings root poorly while leafy ones root readily under mist. And in citrus the effect may even be be less pronounced because terminal shoots in citrus are green and likely photosynthesize a bit themselves.