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[HDessureault <inter.verbis@videotron.ca>]

Hi Charlie,
I am further north than you are and I am grafting on Pyrus ussuriensis,
which are of course way too large. So instead of grafting the center leader
with varieties, I started grafting side branches a few years ago and I leave
the main leader develop as it will.
I see two advantages :
Once you get as high as you wish to collect pears, you can stop grafting
branches and let the top continue as a pyrus ussuriensis.
If you have a scion reject, a phenomena frequent with P. ussuriensis, it
affects a branch and not the whole tree.
Maybe this is too time consuming for a commercial venture, but it works
quite well.
Hélène, zone 3