Nearly 20 years in to this journey it dawned on me, “do we even get enough chill hours to set fruit on this varietal?” We get an average of 186 chill hours and it seems Koonce Pears may need 400. Despite my pitiful grafting efforts of the previous season, and the realization that the weather here in sunny, Southern California is may be a show stopper… I pressed on.
The main tree got bigger so I got to pruning.
Pruning yields scion, so I ordered some more OHxF87 and commenced grafting, with markedly improved results.
I also got to thinking that the root stock was getting expensive so I started a stool bed of OHxF87 as well.
Inspired by my modest success with grafting to root stock and fueled by copious scions… I turned my grafting efforts towards an old neglected Monterey Pear tree. I grafted 10 cuttings and 8 leafed out. Sadly, deer got to some of those fresh grafted shoots before I got it fenced in.
The realization that the big tree is developing spurs, gives me increased hope that we may indeed get enough chill hours to set fruit!