I have gathered several pounds of pear rootstock seed (Callery Pear). I would like to get them germinated and planted in order to have rootstock to graft good pears to. They are hard as a rock and have a black seed inside them. How does one plant them and when does one plant them. Do they have to be stratified? Is there anything special one has to do to get them to germinate or grow? Thanks for your response....David

Because the cultivar Callery pear is resistant to fire blight, seedlings from this cultivar are often used as rootstock for fruiting varieties of pears. You will need to stratify the seed for 90 -120 days. After stratification you should get near 100 percent germination. - Millet

Thanks Millet
I intend to use the seedling for rootstock. I gathered the small pears with the seed in them. Do I have to break open the small pears or do I just plant them as they are. I read that one does not have to stratify in some places and other tell me that they will need stratification. If you plant the entire small pear I can see where you could get 4 sprouts from each one as there are four seed inside each one. The little pears with the seed are hard as a rock and I have some that have been in a zip lock outside laying on a table top and they are still hard as a rock. Seems like it is gonna be tough to get them germinated. I took a few and peeled them and took the seedout and have them planted outside in a containment. Any more ideas..any web link that will spell it out in detail...........David

For many fruit varieties that have seed that requires stratification, one can plant them in the ground right from the tree, if he lives in an area like Colorado with long cold winters. However, in Louisiana I assume the winter weather is much to warm to achieve stratification by this method. Therefore you will need to refrigerate them. Normally pears are picked while still hard, and laid on the counter for a few days, unti they turn yellow and soft. Give your fruit a week or so to see if they will soften up. I don't know much about Louisiana, but I assume the fruit you picked was mature enough to pick. - Millet

Thanks Millet
I am with you on the stratification. I use the refrigerator as here in S. Louisiana it does not get cold long enough to give the chilling hours to give the seed what they need.
Any other pear would be put on the counter and would soften and begin to deteriourate in a week or so. The Callery is a little different. I picked the small pears (about 1/2 inch in diameter) when they were mature. They have been sitting outside in a zip lock and have never softened...if they had I would have mashed them and flushed the seed out of the pulp with a good stream of hot water. Then I want to stratify and plant after the appropriate stratification time. I felt that someone had faced this situation before and knew of a set of detailed instructions that would work for this particular pear............... One of the reasons for my confusion I guess is conflicting information from different sites...........for example look at this one that states stratification is not needed.....
http://www.gardenguides.com/plants/plant.asp?symbol=PYCA80 I appreciate your respons. Thanks David

David,

I mash the fruit and remove the seed. As you have found, the PC fruit does not break down easily (I suspect they need to pass through a bird). I stradify them in the frig by placing them in the crisper in a plactic bag, with a small amount of peat base mix that has been slightly moistioned. My experience has been that Millet is correct that they will not get enough chilling time here in the deep South without help. I plant the seed in late February or early March, in an outside area, where they are expose the the elements. I normally do this in a community pot and pot them up individually after they come up.

Ned

Here is another web site that says the seed requires stratification, where the term CS4 means Cold stratification for 4 weeks.

Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana), A medium sized tree from China. Most useful as a vigorous rootstock for cultivated pears: it is resistant to fireblight and produces large trees. Its own small fruits are edible, usually cooked. Likes full sun or part shade and a moist soil; hardy to -23°C.

Stratification: CS4


https://secure.agroforestry.co.uk/seeddataord.html

There are different cultivars of Callery pear of which the famous ornamental large white flowered Bradford pear is one. Pears can also be grown on quince roots, which produce dwarf trees. In fact pears may also be successfully grafted on apples, but the tree usually dies within a few years. Frank Meyer, the discoverer of the Meyer Lemon, also is the man who introduced Callery pear seeds to the USA. He extracted 100 pounds of Callery pear seeds over a period of two weeks and sent them back to the US Agricultural Department in Maryland. - Millet

Thanks Millet and Ned. I am going to do as you guys have suggested. I will try to mash the seed as best I can. Then Stratification in the frig in a little dampened peat. Then I will plant them in a growing medium in the good spring. I will be grafting out several hundred pear trees for someone that has contracted for budwood this spring. He so far has failed to come up with enough rootstock to get his trees done. I am going to try to get some going and graft them as soon as they are big enough. Might take a little while but that is the way things are. Thanks agin for your help ....Daivd

David, Just a follow-up on the PC fruit. I went to a tree that I collect seed from and found that about half the fruit was very soft. The rest was soft enough that, with a little effort, I could mash it with my fingers. It looks like they will get soft if you wait long enough. Even with the soft fruit, the seeds remain encased in the capsule right around the seed, which I had to removed by hand.

Ned

Good info Ned. I am going to check ans see if they have goten soft here. We have had several good frost and one freeze so things might have changed and they have gotten soft...will have to check. Thanks for the info. I knew there had to be some way of getting to the seed or getting them to sprout . Thanks David