I too would like some Warren pear scion wood. I will be happy to pay postage. Please contact me by sending an email to: ChristineJNewell---insert the usual "at" symbol--ymail.com I can exchange wood from my Comice that is doing well and has only been hit a couple of years in the last 10 or so with Fireblight in Maryland. I also have Starking Delicious pear which seems not at all susceptible to Fire Blight over the last 20 years. My two Asian pears all died with a couple of yeras of planting from Fire Blight. Neither of these two varieties are patented so it is OK to exchange wood. Both of these pears are high quality and I find they ripen up if I pick just as they start to show slight change from green to yellow and then refrigerate for two to three weeks. I also have LOTS of oriental persimmons for scion wood. Gwang Yang is my favorite followed by 20th Century, both of which are non-astringent. I also have Sheng which is non-astringent when soft. I have recently grafted Saijo, Ichidagaki, Yemon, Maru, and Miss Kim although these in 2012 are stil too small to provide scion wood. These varities have all come from the University of Maryland Persimmon test Orchard at Wye on the Delmarva peninsula

Hocking Hills Orchard has a very large inventory of heirloom apple scionwood. Here is a link that might be useful: Hocking Hills Orchard This post was edited by greyphase on Wed, Mar 5, 14 at 4:57

Axel, the USDA may be working hard at eradicating viruses from commercial stock but the concern may have little to do with the concerns of non-commercial growers. The viruses are out there and pretty much beyond eradication when apple trees sprout up in so many different places and beyond the sphere of the USDA. The reason you are concerned is because it has been a problem for you- maybe because you have so many varieties in so little space from so many different sources. If and when it becomes a problem for me in even one of the scores of orchards I manage, I too will become concerned, but if the problem was as severe as you portray it I don't see how I've avoided it so far with such a wide range of sites where I'm planting new trees next to 100 year+ apple trees multiple times every season. In addition to this I'm often hired as a consultant on sites where I've been sought because of difficult problems others were unable to diagnose. I admit it could possibly be a problem that I'm overlooking where production is less than I'd like but I am unaware of the cause- not every orchard I manage does as well as I would like. Still, I haven't seen any obvious symptoms. Many of my sites have old trees nearby that aren't going to be removed unless they die so viruses are pretty much a fact of life here. We still get plenty of fine apples. Maybe in the climate here the viruses are less destructive.

The easiest graft is a splice made to a vigorous annual shoot that can later either be spread to near horizontal to create a branch or, if it is a very upright shoot connected low enough on the trunk, to eventually replace the entire tree above the graft. However there are many other ways to graft that don't require a great deal of skill and are easily learned from Youtube videos freely available. Different folks have different opinions about the best way to graft and the only methods I've ever tried are the cleft and the splice. The splice is so easy, quick and affective I haven't bothered using any other graft besides the cleft when I need to graft on thick wood. I'm beginning to think a bark graft might be better for that. You don't need a grafting knife for any graft but for some it can be useful, but hold off on the purchase, that is not a very good offer anyway. A splice graft can be accomplished with any good pruning shear although I use a special double bladed one for the purpose that I've only seen supplied by AMLEO.COM. It is manufactured in Italy. I had good success before I found this tool just using a high quality standard hook and blade bypass hand pruner. You have lots of time to learn about grafting because you need to wait until the tree is established and growing vigorously before you begin the process. Figure spring of 2016 at the earliest. Plums should be grafted well after the mother tree begins growth in your zone, judging from my experience, others suggest warm weather needs to follow the grafting for best results as well. Apples and pear grafts grow more quickly if grafted just before or after first signs of growth but early stonefruit grafts tend to dry out before having time to heal if you graft them before they leaf out.