Johann's Garden

**Update posted at the end** This post has been created to document my observations with the following four Saccharum × Miscanthus  hybrids (aka "miscanes"): Plant Name USDA-ARS Accession # USDA-ARS Inventory # Pedigree MIA 36952 MIA 36952 MIA 36952 PL * POJ 2725 x ** Miscanthus 'Walluca' MIA 36958 MIA 36958 PL ** Miscanthus x *** Saccharum 'Fiji 59' PI 268061   MIA 35497 PL ** Miscanthus x Saccharum officinarum 'Fiji 53' PI 271853 MIA 35492 PL ** Miscanthus x Saccharum officinarum *POJ 2725 is male sterile hybrid Saccharum or "noble cane" derived from S. officinarum introgressed with S. spontaneum (to add various disease resistance traits). **Unspecified  Miscanthus  species ***Unspecified  Saccharum  species, but due to the fact that this was a hybrid developed for sugar cane breeding it is almost certainly either  S. officinarum or a hybrid thereof.  Miscanes are interesting in that they ar...

Many fruit tree hobbyists have heard that the 'Winter Banana' cultivar of apple is unique in its ability to be graft compatible with pear.  To this end, the majority of references I've found are anecdotal.  While a fair number of people have claimed success, many appear to have created these intergeneric grafts no more than a couple of years prior to sharing their findings with the internet.  This leaves me wondering what the long term survivability rate is with these unions.   I was able to find one long term study spanning 11 years ( https://eurekamag.com/research/007/637/007637340.php ) which covered using 'Winter Banana' as an interstem between pear scions and clonal apple rootstocks.  For pears two different cultivars were trialed, while five (or six?) clonal apple rootstock selections were used as a base in all possible combinations.  Of note is that the survival rates differed according to pear variety, but what was consistent was that there was...