Hi,

My Grandma is 91 years old, and she has a pear tree, which she and my Grandfather planted soon after they were married. She calls it a "Pineapple Pear". We would like to propagate this pear tree, and start a new one in our yard. How can we do this? Can we take a cutting, air layering, or etc? We have propagated many types of plants, but have never done fruit trees.

Kind Regards,

Beth

-- Beth Boyett (elizbeth@rose.net), September 05, 2003

Answers

grafting would be easy. Or how about taking suckers from it?

-- Stan (sopal@net-pert.com), September 08, 2003.

That's great, but how do I graft it, and what do I use to graft it to. It doesn't ever seem to produce suckers...we had considered that.

-- Beth (elizbeth@rose.net), September 08, 2003.

grafting wont give you the tree,, just the branches which hopfully will bear you fruit. Cut branches off of grandma's tree, trim to a 45 degree angle,, take to another pear tree,, find like sized branches, trim to 45 angle,, hold together with twine and/or tape.

If you want grandmas tree,,, can you get some roots? Dig up a good chunck of root stock,,and let it grow from there.

If you want to try layering,, at a node,, make some light cuts barely into the bark,, wrap with moist peat moss,, cover with plastic. You want to make a mini greenhouse effect at the site. Must keep the moss damp. After a couple weeks or so,, roots should have formed at the site which you take off and plant. But if you can get roots from the tree,, would be faster

-- Stan (sopal@net-pert.com), September 10, 2003.

I just bought 2 "Pineapple Pear" treas at the flea market in Alabama. Beth, since you already know about the tree that your grandma owens, would you please give me some information about the pollination. I would like to know if your grandma has any other variety beside the Pineapple pear to pollinate it, or was the tree able to bear fruits on its own? I would appreciate your response or any one else would respond.

-- Mack Khelly (Khalafm@aol.com), April 12, 2004.