My wife @justfarmerjulie has been grafting onto the many Bradford pears sprouting up on our property. It's so fulfilling to watch a "weed" turn in a cultivar you want. Thanks for sharing your journey on here! We're in the process of starting a permaculture nursery too, so it's fun to follow along with someone else doing the same!
My wife is in charge of the pears. You could ask her over at @justfarmerjulie, because I'm not sure on the cultivars, but I do know she's doing both European and Asian varieties. I love Asian pears!
Callery pears, the thorny $&@!, are trying to take over my pasture.
Much like you suggested, this year I am topping them and will graft Asian pears onto them.
I also bought a Bushbar, basically a pry with a fulcrum added, and will try to uproot the smaller ones. I don’t know - they have suckers going every where and they are deep.
Excellent piece! It is insane the amount of production that could be had if there was a real effort to thin and topwork all the callery pear we have growing. I have heard that the apple cultivar Winter Banana is graft compatible with callery pear, and could be used as an interstem for other apple cultivars. Planning on giving it a shot this spring!
Let me know if you have any success. We top-worked a few along the fence rows at our house with good success. Went from a nuisance to the potential for food with less than 2 minutes of effort per tree. Thanks for sharing Tim!
Fantastic work. Thank you very much for your serious and tenacious effort to educate on propagation. Well done, sir. I'll add that I'm heartened to know theres a workable approach to the Bradford pear debacle.
A lot of people hate the idea but then they are generally the same people proposing I use herbicides to kill them and I just can’t get my head wrapped around that idea. I’d rather take them as a willing participant for rootstock and make food out of my problem.
There’s still one last profile for next week. After that, onwards and upwards. I was thinking of you when I found that one actually. I think id also enjoy that one as long as there was some bacon or prosciutto or something salty on top. 😋
My wife @justfarmerjulie has been grafting onto the many Bradford pears sprouting up on our property. It's so fulfilling to watch a "weed" turn in a cultivar you want. Thanks for sharing your journey on here! We're in the process of starting a permaculture nursery too, so it's fun to follow along with someone else doing the same!
Yeah man! Sounds like you two have a great plan in place. Any particular cultivars you’re using?
I’m looking forward to following along with your journey gardencoach. I’m sure I’ll learn a lot. Thanks for being here! 🙏🏼
My wife is in charge of the pears. You could ask her over at @justfarmerjulie, because I'm not sure on the cultivars, but I do know she's doing both European and Asian varieties. I love Asian pears!
Callery pears, the thorny $&@!, are trying to take over my pasture.
Much like you suggested, this year I am topping them and will graft Asian pears onto them.
I also bought a Bushbar, basically a pry with a fulcrum added, and will try to uproot the smaller ones. I don’t know - they have suckers going every where and they are deep.
Aha very nice! The farm I work in has one of these that goes by a different name. At least I’m assuming. https://youtube.com/shorts/A8iaR_zyby8?si=qFExPR2ps8hKjBcK
Excellent piece! It is insane the amount of production that could be had if there was a real effort to thin and topwork all the callery pear we have growing. I have heard that the apple cultivar Winter Banana is graft compatible with callery pear, and could be used as an interstem for other apple cultivars. Planning on giving it a shot this spring!
Let me know if you have any success. We top-worked a few along the fence rows at our house with good success. Went from a nuisance to the potential for food with less than 2 minutes of effort per tree. Thanks for sharing Tim!
My wife @justfarmerjulie has mentioned the same and wants to try the interstem as well!
I’d be interested to hear how this project turns out. Keep us updated Laverne. Thanks for sharing! 🙏🏼
Fantastic work. Thank you very much for your serious and tenacious effort to educate on propagation. Well done, sir. I'll add that I'm heartened to know theres a workable approach to the Bradford pear debacle.
A lot of people hate the idea but then they are generally the same people proposing I use herbicides to kill them and I just can’t get my head wrapped around that idea. I’d rather take them as a willing participant for rootstock and make food out of my problem.
Thanks brother. I appreciate you. 🙏🏼
I appreciate you back, man. You out there doing the Lord's work. Do you love me? Then feed my sheep.
Amen brother. Amen! 🙌🏼
Solid post to wrap up the crop profile series! Has me looking forward to more pear tastings.
Oh my goodness that pear goat cheese pizza. Looks riiight up my alley. 😍
There’s still one last profile for next week. After that, onwards and upwards. I was thinking of you when I found that one actually. I think id also enjoy that one as long as there was some bacon or prosciutto or something salty on top. 😋
You didn’t mention prunus Americana. We have several on our acreage and though they produce small fruits they are quite tasty.
The plum post can be found here: https://open.substack.com/pub/backyardberry/p/crop-profile-building-a-sustainable?r=4hapgz&utm_medium=ios
That would be because this is a post about pears.
Pears are in the genus Pyrus while plums, cherries, peaches and apricots are in the Prunus genus.
I did however discuss Prunus Americana in the post I made a few weeks back discussing native plums.
I hope this helps. Thanks for being here Mark.