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["Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>]

Lon wrote:

Medlar, quince, Sorbus, Amelanchier, loquat are all graft compatible with pear.

 

Hmmm... I'd just as soon skip the medlars, though it's true they seem to do fine here.  I've just never figured out what they are good for.  Loquats would freeze out here unless global warming speeds up considerably.  We have one amelanchier that produces skimpy crops of rust infected fruits.  The others have refused to grow at all, I suppose due to the boron deficiency in red clay?   Only 2 out of 5 actually died, they just sit there in suspended animation.  Sorbus sounds interesting, but when I skipped back in time I found Lon asking Hans how to propagate them because someone he knows couldn't get grafts to take on whatever he was using for rootstock... presumably something that sounded like a better bet than pear.  Quince might be good, only I just got one from Hidden Springs even after they warned me about disease problems.  Two successful quinces would be too much, two disease riddled quinces would be worthless times two. 

    Is Aronia too distantly related to be graft compatible?     Donna