North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Alan Haigh <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

As Asian pears grow here in southeastern NY I see no reason to seek to
reduce their vigor as they are so precocious and spurry  they can be
maintained as small trees regardless of rootstock- but I don't think that's
the question anyway.  I believe the reason Adams sells them on both Bet and
ohf is because Bet is considered less cold hardy.  It seems to be fine in
southeastern NY, Z6, however.

I've ordered Asians on OHXF and actually been disappointed by their lack of
vigor, and these were on 97 (which is generally vigorous), but my
experience has only been with a single cultivar and maybe 5 trees.  Most of
the scores of A. pears I've grown over the years have been on Bet, and even
where a tree has died on a single site- it was the scion that died and the
Bet rootstock lives on and will be grafted to the deceased variety next
spring.