New pear roots for old … inarching decline-immune seedlings into susceptible peas trees

An agricultural extension project was initiated in the spring of 1962 to determine whether pear trees susceptible to decline could be saved by adding a new nonsusceptible root system around the base of the trees. Although the cause of pear decline was not yet known, it was an established fact that pear trees on Oriental pear and Old French (churn bottom) rootstocks were most susceptible to the disease. Rootstocks produced from Old Home cuttings or Domestic French seedlings grown from a seed source known to be free of Oriental pear pollination were for the most part immune to decline.