 |
| Pollinated Asian Pears. 4.20.14 |
 |
| ~6wk Mishirasu Graft. 4.20.14 |
I am hopeful this will be the year of a bumper crop of Asian pears on the tree I pollinated by hand. The petals have fallen. So far the embryonic pears look viable. If they continue to swell, in a few weeks they may need thinning. Excellent.
The 6 week Asian pear grafts are flourishing. I think I'll choose May 1 as the date to remove grafting tape. Maybe. Mishirasu and Shinseiki look as good as the stock's own growth.
The stock, Hosui, was planted in summer 2012. It was on sale at
 |
| 2013 Graft on Hosui, one year later. |
Home Depot. I noticed last year it was susceptible to fire blight. The varieties that I grafted onto Hosui appear resistant. Now that I know how to graft, I can continue to rework the Hosui into a tree with disease resistant varieties. And leave a couple of Hosui branches so I can sample that variety, as long as it makes a comeback from fireblight.
This is great. The tree is nearly established. By reworking it, I can have a self pollinating, multivariety, disease resistant tree that I otherwise would have had to wait 2 or 3 or 4 years to bear.
 |
| ~6wk Shinseiki Graft. 4.20.14 |
