Grafts vs seedlings
Selected rootstock can bring resistance to various diseases into the tree.
But experience is proving that seedling trees can be more robust and resistant to fungal diseases like blight, brown rot and leaf curl.
It is also reported that seed-grown trees live longer. A grafted pear has a life expectancy around 40 years. Seedling pears have been reported to live over 300 years overseas. I have personally seen trees 100 years old in New Zealand and still going strong.
Seed-grown pears can get huge, making them great paddock trees but hard to harvest.
Most commercial fruit rootstocks are used for their dwarfing properties, making the final tree shorter or slower growing.
Most of the great varieties we have today are seedlings recognised as being superior, given a name, and propagated. Some great apples can be found on the side of the road and railway where cores have been thrown. Some bad ones have probably been chopped out.
If you have the space on your block, you can play and experiment. Fruit trees can be used as shelter belts, planted alongside streams, among natives or in firewood blocks. Excess fruit is enjoyed by birds, bees, sheep, cattle and pigs.
Trees that don’t make the grade make excellent smoking wood or firewood.