harvestman, Dave Wilson Nursery grows several million fruit trees a year. You can only buy these through resellers. I got DWN trees from a Naturehills in Nebraska last season. They grew good. The leaves did not drop like all the other trees, they froze off. So I am wondering if the were acclimated to a longer growing season. I ordered late so my local sources were sold out. Last wednesday Scottsmith posted he got Dave Wilson Nursery Trees from Trees of Antiquity. I put a link to that thread below. DWN grows their Warren pear on OHxF333 rootstock. PeacefulValley is also sold out of Warren Pear and so is Trees of Antiquty. Better call Neil.. Here is a link that might be useful: Best fesh prune fruit

When you make a cut on an espalier, make the cut expose the least surface area possible. Like surgery on human skin, the smaller the incision, the most easily repaired. You can find a book about how to form a candelabra espalier at espalier services. Instead of making a candelabra, just form a "U". Think about keeping the 2 upright branches at least 14-16" apart.

I was just reading in a propagation book about some scions affecting the vigor of root stocks.It said if the scion is a particularly vigorous variety,that could make the root stock grow more than normal. I'm not sure if this will happen in your situation though. Brady

Thanks. It will of course take a number of years to make assessment of the various pears as fruiting trees, but by this time next year I should know whether OHxF 51 will airlayer successfully (I don't see why not) and maybe two years past that to see if cuttings (stem and root) and stooling are successful enough for us amateurs to propagate at least enough to meet our own wants and needs. My hope is that there is moderate "take" and that it is merely profitable commercial stem-cutting propagation that was challenged. I'll be glad to give away "starter" plants on their own roots if this works, so others can later easily propagate their own. If I'm lucky I'll keep a few stooling plants around to fill my own needs. At a bit less convenience I'll grow some in 25-45 gallon pots and tear apart the root system for cuttings every year or two. Of course, ultimately they may turn out to be no better than Callery seedlings if they don't dwaef a bit here. But we'll see eventually.