OOoouu… Seth - sounds like fun! How much scion wood do you have, pear of course..? And it’s not too late to graft …in fact, I’ll be headed out later this week to a commercial apple orchard to do just that. Actually, it’s perfect – if your scion wood’s still good.

Are you just wanting to bring this leggy pear down to size, or change it’s ‘variety’ completely? Do you know what variety it produces? It’s not too late to prune – in fact it’s a great time to do that, too… Either pruning or removing enough wood to graft (a new variety) lower down, it’s good to be ‘getting rid’ of some of the excess energy stored in the root system. There will be fewer suckers.

But dang, I teach this very element of grafting at our annual classes @ Clackamas CC (Oregon) and it’s nearly impossible to describe the various methods ‘here.’ Some crown veneer and inverted L bark grafts would suffice, and it’s never too late for a good ol’ whip & tongue graft to an appropriate sized shoot ... and the bark’s slipping so nice it’s sensual ~ and it’s fairly difficult to make a mistake if you understand the basics.

How old is the tree; how much scion wood do you have; and roughly where are you located (I didn’t fully read the Blog link)?

Have you got dormant persimmon scions and rootstock, too? Actually, you can graft persimmons to rootstock any time they’re dormant, it’s just now that they’re beginning to bud. They’re late, like Oaks. Do you have an existing persimmon tree and are wanting another cultivar (variety)?

Not sure about pine trees… being evergreens there may be other opportunities. I’ve seem them propagated in mass from small cuttings and don’t know of any that have been grafted. Do you have a dwarfing rootstock specific to pines..? I do love the ‘concept’ of Bonsai… and it wouldn’t take a lot of urging for me to head that direction…