'Winter Banana' Apple as Rootstock for Pears?
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...