Wow - amazing that anybody would purposefully gird their tree trunk
just to try getting a temporary increase in fruit! I'd be far too
worried about disease introduction. I had enough trouble with some sort
of borer in our newly planted Hale Haven peach this year. Thankfully,
since I didn't have fruit to worry about, I was able to use a systemic
insecticide, which killed all of the borers. The tree probably more
than quintupled its mass in the past 5 months.

And yes, I suppose I have the most experience with the faster growing
fruit trees like the peaches, which can have an amazing rate of growth
for the first few years. I thought that the pear would be at least
twice the original size by this fall. Perhaps I should have followed my
instincts, and taken all 3 pears off of it.


What I remember was a series of grafts bridging bark and cambium that
had been chewed away by rabbits.

I actually had this thought, wishing there were some way to encourage
living tissue to cross the gap. My grandparents have a couple of
healthy adult pear trees, and I suppose that a small branch could serve
as a donor. My Father actually grafted another variety onto each of
them so that they would produce more fruit, so perhaps he would be
willing to try a graft. Can attempting to do a trunk graft in a
situation where the live portion is only about 30% of the way around
cause more harm than good?