A lot of us here are familiar with the structural problems of Callery pears, caused largely by their poor branching habit... upright branches and tight crotches that lead to included bark, and eventually self destruction.

Two things I find interesting:

1) there are now a lot of pear stumps in the neighborhood, and the shoots that have been allowed to sprout back make branch angles of almost 90 degrees and have horizontal branches. I guess these are from the root stock, anyone know what rootstock is typically used for these?

2) There is a small field that I drive by that is overrun with volunteer pears that are now a few years old, and practically all of them have the same kind of branching habit that I see from the resprouting stumps. Is this some kind of juvenile trait? It seems odd to me that this branching habit would be so prevalent, considering the parent.

Anyone else notice the same things?

Alex