Davey Tree Flipbooks

The Davey Bulletin Jan-Feb 2018

The Davey Tree Expert Company provides residential and commercial tree service and landscape service throughout North America. Read our Flipbooks for helpful tips and information on proper tree and lawn care.

Issue link: https://daveytree.uberflip.com/i/941808

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 17 of 35

18 THE DAVEY BULLETIN | January/February 2018 PRESERVING A PIECE OF FAMILY HISTORY John Siefer, arboricultural researcher, Davey Institute, received a call asking for help to preserve five, 80-year-old pear trees threatened by an oil pad going in on the client's property. The trees were once part of an orchard planted by the client's great-grandparents in the early 1900s. The client wanted to either transplant or graft the trees to make clones. It was found that transplanting the trees was too costly, so grafting became the solution. Siefer contacted the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC), a research branch of The Ohio State University, in February 2017 and connected with Paul Snyder, program assistant at the OARDC Secrest Arboretum, to graft the trees. This was the first time Snyder had grafted pears, but he had experience with apple trees. The challenge with grafting these trees was collecting samples from the trees before the trees broke bud. If the trees break bud, the tissue is actively growing and the nutrients are pulled out of the sample, Snyder said. "Unfortunately, it was that early spring, because we had a few 80-degree days in February, and that made the trees break bud earlier than normal, so that was a fight," Siefer said. Siefer collected pear scions and Snyder located pear understock to graft the segments of the pear tree to. "Working with old trees like that is kind of a gamble, because as the tree matures the chances for you to graft it successfully go down," Snyder said. Snyder successfully created roughly 40 genetic copies of the original trees. The trees will be planted sometime this year, once the grafts have had time to become more secure. The original five trees are no longer standing, as they were removed for the pad installation, but their legacy will live on through the new trees. The client also is saving the wood from the original trees to make something with it, Siefer said. This project was something new for Siefer, and he enjoyed working on the consulting end. "I like saving things for my family too," Siefer said. "I liked helping to save that lineage and family history." MY DAVEY Above: This is one of the 80-year-old pear trees from the orchard the client's great-grandparents planted in the early 1900s. The trees have since been removed. The trees were still fruiting, but it was unclear what variety of pear they were. As John Siefer said, you could buy a pear out there today, but it might not be the same variety of pear.

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Davey Tree Flipbooks - The Davey Bulletin Jan-Feb 2018