North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Steve <sdw12986@aol.com>]

Hi Devin,
I don't have answers to your questions, because I've never grafted 
anything onto a hawthorn. If they grew around here, I'm sure I would 
have long ago.
I just wanted to mention that pears can be grafted onto a mountain ash. 
That combination doesn't seem to be very dwarfing, but if you happen to 
have any wild mountain ash around your property, you might want to try it.
About 20 years ago, I bought a Nova pear tree and planted it. After a 
few years, I grafted a scion of Nova onto a mountain ash that had 
sprouted up next to an old stump. After a hard winter, the original Nova 
tree died, before ever producing a fruit, but the one grafted onto the 
mountain ash still lives and produces lots of pears every year.

Steve (in the Adirondacks)


On 3/13/2014 10:29 PM, Devin Smith wrote:
> I'm new to NAFEX and still figuring things out. I posted this to the google 
> group and forum, but it didn't seem like much was happening there. It looks 
> like the listserv is a lot more popular, so I thought I'd post it here. Sorry 
> if its a repeat for some of you...
>
> I've
>   been playing around for a few years with grafting pears onto the many
> hawthorn seedlings coming up in my old hayfield turned orchard. I've
> found that many European pears are compatible (all that I've tried actually) 
> , though not all, and all
> asians attempted have been failures. I'm not sure what the mature trees
> will look like exactly, but after 3 years of growth on some, I've observed a
> tendency toward unbranched cordon growth pattern with some varieties
> showing very short inter-nodes. It looks like there will be a pronounced 
> dwarfing effect. This year, I'm going to graft a bunch
> with Old Home interstems so I can hopefully then graft asians too.
>
> Beyond dwarfing, one potential advantage I can see to
> hawthorn as a rootstock is the fact that it is tap-rooted and so less
> prone to drought. I'm particularly smitten with the idea of grafting to
> existing seedlings because it saves so much work up front, survival is
> much higher, and initial investment is nill. I understand that
> compatibility issues sometimes don't occur until later in the game. I may try 
> grafting low and burying the graft on some to produce self-rooted trees. 
> Still, the allure of a true dwarf pear on free (and already planted!) 
> rootstock is hard for me to pass up. I've
> scoured the web and elsewhere looking for info about hawthorn as a pear
> rootstock and have found little beyond casual mention that it can work. The 
> Grafter's Handbook mentions in passing that Pyrus and Crataegus form a lasting 
> union, but says little more. If this works, why don't more people do it? I assume 
> there would be a similar range of compatibilities across various hawthorns as 
> found in other types of rootstock. I've read somewhere that apomixis is common in 
> hawthorns, though, so maybe I have effectively clonal rootstock. FYI, the local 
> landrace of hawthorn seems to be quite shrubby. Ancient ones seem to top out at 15 
> ft. and 6" diameter or so.
>
> I'm curious if anyone has longer term experience to share and would 
> appreciate any information anyone could provide.
>
> thanks,
>
> Devin Smith