Hi Greg, I was visiting a friend in Arkansas last week and we were talking
about bud grafting. He went over to one of his pear trees and found a that
he was going to prune off in a few months anyway, cut a horizontal line
about 1/2 inch above and below a leaf on the waterspout. Then he made two
diagonal slices, one on each side of the leaf (it had a bud just above where
the leaf stem attached to the waterspout), and carefully "skinned" it off
the branch. Then he went to a limb that needed another bud, and made two
horizontal slits in the limb about an inch apart, and one diagonal slit that
connected the horizontal one. Then he just carefully peeled the bark back
on the limb, placed the bud into the slit, replaced the bark over the bud,
and taped it with masking tape.

The whole operation tool less than 10 to 15 minutes. He has done this for
years, apparently and showed me where he started with a pear tree that had
been broken off by the wind and put up a waterspout. He grafted the bud
onto the waterspout and pruned it to make the bud the main stem of the pear
tree.

That tree isn't very pretty, but he sure has some good pears off of it.
Back to your original question, I get mine from Stark located in Washington
or Oregon. They may ship to you but I cant say for sure. You might talk
to them. I just looked but couldn't find their catalog for an address or
e-mail, but you might find them on the internet.

Dwayne



"Greg Miller" wrote in message
om...
Pen, where did you get your tree? I don't have any experience with
grafting or the like. I guess I'd need a rootstock on which to graft.

That's a good idea. Greg, if you want some Shandong pear twigs, let
me know. I've never seen squirrels eat pears but they'll dig a pit
and throw the fallen pears in.