Droopy pear tree question

[Ben.MN/WI]

Last year I planted a pear tree from St. Lawrence Nursery in standard rootstock and it did great - it put on over a foot of new growth and looked great. This spring it started out fast and I have close to 6" of new growth this year already.

I was checking the trees last weekend and noticed that the top of the tree (last year and this year's growth) started to droop like a Charlie Brown tree. There's about 18" of top growth that is now at a 90 degree angle with the main trunk. I'm thinking that I could just tie the droopy portion back to vertical and hope it hardens off that way. Has anyone else seen this or does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

No pics yet, but the tree looked great. All leaves are dark green and the tree is on a the corner of the woods and the only shade comes from an oak 10 yards to the east. There is no shade from the north, south or west.

I wondered if somehow the weight of the new growth was more than the tree could take. I've never seen anything like that before - the tree really looked great until the day the top fell over.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I looked at my droopy pear tree again last night and couldn't find a clear cause for the problem, so it seems likely that the top growth was just more than the tree could support. I tied the droopy main leader back to vertical, so hopefully it strengthens up a little more this summer. There was a little shade coming off a shrub to the east of the pear, so perhaps the pear tree was reaching for the sun more than I thought. I chopped off the top of the neighboring shrub so hopefully that help out.