Pear tree pruning advice

[White Oak]

I have a 8 foot tall Whitetail Crabs Rut Rage pear tree planted this spring (2023) . I plan on pruning it sometime in Jan/Feb . Will I be okay to cut the two branches off I have marked in blue and turn it into a central leader, or would that be too much stress ?. Thanks for any info

 

[Catscratch]

I'm curious too as every pear I've touched did whatever the hell it wanted no matter what I cut.

 

[Telemark]

Yeah, you can prune it there. Take the top few inches off the central leader, too.

 

[CrazyEd]

Apple trees I try and keep good, spreading outward growth. I strive for 60-90 degree branches.

Pears on the other hand, in my experience seem to do just fine growing upward. I walked by one of my pears yesterday. Tons of upward growth made me cringe. I thought to myself, do I try and fix this or let it be. I’ll probably just let it be. Wish I would have snapped a few pics.

I’m curious what others recommend.


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[Turkey Creek]

You are fighting mother nature if you try and force them to go outwards. You can thin them once they get multi branches to keep invigorating new wood on the tree and to promote better fruit set. Always prune to an outward facing bud. That is about all that is necessary pruning wise.

 

[Prof.Kent]

I've never had a pear tree behave.. before OR after trying to spread it.

 

[bigboreblr]

Same here. Got a young barlet and kieffer. Both of them got 3 or 4 competeing leaders, all with sharp crotch angles.

Tried spreading one, Split oen the middle of the tree. Tapped it back with grafting tape. It healed luckily.

With 30 going on 40 apples trees, why not try a pear or two. Got a saturn peach in the orchard. Hear they don't like heavy soil, it;s brother died back down to the stump last summer.

Kieffer was a wierd one. Didn't look too lively. Got the nursery manager to give me half off on it. Buds didn't pop till mid june or so. I was literally walking to it with a shovel to dig it up when I saw the buds coming alive. It caught up good this year for leafing out so late too.

 

[g squared 23]

Because of the vertical growth of pears, it seems like I don’t have to space them out as much as apples.


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[Derek Reese 29]

So does that mean they don’t need pruned as aggressively as the fruit load will help those branches “weep”? I have about a 12-14 tall 2.5 year old pear that had good limbs pretty well spaced out that i was planning to take a few limbs off but don’t want to cut what could produce fruit next year..thanks!

 

[Telemark]

So does that mean they don’t need pruned as aggressively as the fruit load will help those branches “weep”? I have about a 12-14 tall 2.5 year old pear that had good limbs pretty well spaced out that i was planning to take a few limbs off but don’t want to cut what could produce fruit next year..thanks!

My pears grow so upright that it is difficult to do much with them. The only pruning I have done is to remove irregular lower branches and take out a couple inner branches to get more air and light into the center. Going forward, I don't plan to do a whole lot with them other than protect them from animals. Every 3 to 5 years I will probably try to get in with a ladder and clean the trees up as best I can, removing a few inner branches and crossing branches. But so far there isn't a lot of branches to remove. The growth is tight and upright compared to apples, but it actually seems like pears just don't need as much intervention as apples and plums need. Though the branches are relatively tight together, they seem relatively regularly spaced, with very little crossing. When I have tried to prune a branch to an outward facing bud, I get a few new branches from the 3 or 4 buds below the cut rather than just one new branch from the outward facing bud. The upright growth of the trees makes pruning out the extra branches rather difficult.

 

[Tree Spud]

I prune to outward bud as described above to strengthen limbs. I also remove water sprouts, downward facing limbs, and crossing limbs.

 

[H20fwler]

I have a 8 foot tall Whitetail Crabs Rut Rage pear tree planted this spring (2023) . I plan on pruning it sometime in Jan/Feb . Will I be okay to cut the two branches off I have marked in blue and turn it into a central leader, or would that be too much stress ?. Thanks for any info

I would cut a couple inches off the central leader, and about half off the branches you have marked. Those look high enough on the trunk to not be a problem.
Shortening those two outside branches will help them thicken up and make them stronger.
As others have said, try and prune so you have a bud out just below cut. Like apples the first 5-7 years are very important to try and train tree...as much as you can "train" pears, they do have a mind of their own. I try and keep a close eye on the younger pears and prune through summer if I see something I don't like. Heavy crop years fruit will need thinned mid summer too.

 

[cavey]

Pears are just a pain to prune, do as mentioned...

There are many here that have grown to hate pears just because they "pears" dont listen. They are the problem child of the fruit tree world. Topping will hopefully stimulate some lateral branching and strengthen the core trunk, cutting the other two branches to outside buds is something you'll want to do just to prevent a mess later. I cant give too much advise on pears mainly because i need to learn how to keep them alive - mine seem to struggle. They are awesome once grown and producing, though I just dont own any of those yet - close but not yet.

I always seem to get something funky happening to the lower trunk - from injuries to fungal issues. I have tried to pull down branches and have split many - they just want to grow up!

 

[Derek Reese 29]

Here’s a pic of the tree as it stands now…cage is 5’ for reference

 

[bigboreblr]

As per the cornell hom fruit guide on page 38 or so

While the central leader system works with pears as well as apples, pearshave some differences. They tend to grow more vertically, but branches withnarrow crotch angles are less likely to split. Branches that spread more than45 degrees tend to produce water sprouts from their bases. Because of therisk that fire blight may girdle the leader, pear trees are sometimes prunedto multiple leaders; if one dies it won’t take the whole tree.

https://hamilton.cce.cornell.edu/resources/cornell-guide-to-growing-fruit-at-home

Got a 1 year old kieffer and bartlet I will apply this advise to.