Ep. 161 – With Callery Pears the Problem is the Solution

How I turned my pasture of thorny Callery pears into an Asian pear orchard by bark grafting and cleft grating.

Do a Google search on Callery pears and feel the hatred.

Star Wars clip: “I can feel your anger. Let the hate flow through you!”.

Bradford pears, planted nearly everywhere, are usually grafted onto Callery pear rootstock. Callery pears are thorny pears that I have never seen growing any fruit. On my land they spread by suckers – literally everwhere.

I cut them down (chainsaw noise).

That just makes them mad and spread even more.

The roots are several feet down. What to do?

The gov’t says “cut them down and spray the stump with 50% glyphosate and some other harsh chemical”. 

I have seen a guy pull them up with a tractor. The roots literally went everywhere – much longer than the tree and farther out than the drip line. 

The Good:

My horses eat them as fodder in the late Fall and early Spring. (ding!)  But they can’t keep up. (buzz).

Bark grafting and Cleft grating Callery Pears

My friend Mike from 39th Parallel Nursery said to graft on Asian pears like Chojuro and European pears like Turnbull.

Two ways that I do this:

How to bark graft Callery pears

For larger trees, I cut them low, then bark graft on the pears. 

You gently slice the outer bark. Use a grafting knife to loosen the outer bark.

Cut an Asian pear scion, strip it a little, and place it in between the bark and the core of the tree.

Wrap it with Parafilm grafting tape, then tightly wrap with electrical tape over the grafting tape.

Seal with grafting compound. In this picture the right is sealed with black pruning sealer. The left is a vegetable based modelling clay. The left side did better than the right.

How to cleft graft Callery pears

For smaller trees I cut them off and then cleft graft.

I use a machete and a hammer to make a cleft in the top of the tree where I cut it off.

I cut a pear scion and strip it and then arrange it in the cleft, close to the outside cambrium.

Wrap it with Parafilm grafting tape, then tightly wrap with electrical tape over the grafting tape.

Seal with grafting compound.

As permaculture says, the Problem is the Solution.

These are very fast growing trees. Within two weeks I had buds and the grafts grew and inch and a half in three weeks. 

Mike says that they will put on fruit in 1-2 years. 

I have so many of these that I could have a profitable pear orchard in a few years!

In my back pasture I chainsawed off the trees at a level high enough so that the deer won’t get to them. Then I bark grafted or cleft grafted onto the trees.

The Problem really is the Solution! 

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Buy my chestnuts, hazelnuts, elderberry, and comfrey that are adapted to the Midwest.

GrowNutTrees.com

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Raised beds that I am building to test Perennial Kitchen Garden layouts:

Vego Garden Modular Metal Raised Bed (which I will make 5′ x 3.5′, 17″ tall).

I use this for a perennial kitchen garden – growing herbs to use daily in the kitchen. Just come along and pick what you need for tonight’s dinner.

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Meadow Creature Broadfork is my favorite tool for starting new garden beds. I turn over the sod, add a layer of compost, then Milpa, and cover with woodchips.