Since I've not been successful at it I'm going to say it's hard to do- I think others here have said the same thing. You might have some luck air-layering; I wish I could recall the poster here who speaks well to this. Perhaps they'll comment.

Remember that pear grown on its own rootstock will be a full-sized tree upon maturity, won't start to bear very soon, and is likely to be sensitive to fireblight. But it is done and you may well prefer it.

Good luck,

M

I've seen reports from 'oldtimers' that some pear varieties root easily by just sticking a cutting in the ground - but I never had any success doing that, even with 'juvenile' cuttings from clonally-produced(stooled) rootstocks.
One thing that *might* be successful is doing the 'toothpick' trick - around Aug 1, take your pocketknife and make a stab incision all the way through the stem, just above a point where the present year's growth commenced, and stick a wooden toothpick through, to hold the wound open. Callus tissue will form there, as the tree begins to 'heal' the wound. Around Nov 1, cut below the wound you made, dip in your choice of rooting hormone preparation, and stick in appropriate potting medium. Many plants will develop roots from that meristematic callus tissue over winter, and the cutting will take off in spring. It's worth a try...

Thank you both for the thoughtful replys. Lucky_, I will try the toothpick method.

Travis Callahan of Nafex southern pear group recently wrote me that it was possible to root cuttings from the Leconte pear. I have a Leconte and will try it out this comming year. He saw a closely packed line of lecontes that were propagated that way on an old farm some years ago.
From a recent email:
"I located several documented 130 year old Leconte pears growing as a fence line fifty miles from me. That proved that Leconte would start from cuttings. I spoke to the 92 year old owner ( a Man named Marie Durand) who told me that his father had told him of the day that he and his own father had "stuck limbs of the family pear tree into the ground to grow a fence".

Reviving this old thread as I think have been successfull rooting my Seckel pear and pretty much by accident. I was going through my fridge in July? and throwing out some old scion probably cut in Jan. that I had not used or shipped out. I noticed the Seckel was very calused up and the bud swelled but looking fine. The cuttings were probably 15 inch an I decided to just group stick them in a 15 Gal pot of a old potting mix. I have 4 of the 8 that still have couple leaf as of today and the wood appears sound and alive. I was going to verify root by dumping them out and potting individually, but at least today I decided to wait until spring easier to winter them in that large pot, but I am dying to check the roots. They had really no care, but in shade and got a little moisture from a sprinkler I have setup for my young potted area.

It might be beneficial to do it similarly to grapes:

Take dormant cuttings in fall put some root gel on the cuttings and stick em in the ground for the winter.

The fact that stooling works (or worked) as a routine method for mass propagation of certain pear rootstock gives considerable reason for optimism in airlayering.

Strudeldog, How were your scions stored in the fridge?

Just a bundle wrapped in damp paper in a trash bag tied shut in the fridge. I don't want to disturb them until spring, but I would think to hold leaves this long there would have to be supporting roots. The leaves are dropping now of course.