Scoring Asian Pears

[Lot2Learn]

I have several asian pears (e.g., Shinko, Olympic (Korean Giant), and Yoinashi...not particularly fireblight prone varieties) that during their second leaf put on 4-5' of 'whip' growth. For example, most are now 9' tall, with small branches at 4' and below and then 5' of central leader with no side branches above that.

I've had good luck with apple trees using the technique that Ben outlined years ago on the other site where he scored above a bud to encourage a branch to emerge there. With that technique he as able to put branches where he wanted them. His post on that topic is here: https://www.qdma.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16088

If I were to score about 4-5 buds at each 'whirl' of scaffold branches and those scaffolds are 2' apart, I'd be scoring about 8-15 buds in a single tree.

Now, I'm more than willing to spend the time to encourage branches where I want them, but my question is this: am I tempting the fireblight gods by putting that many 'wounds' into a single tree?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts, Lot2Learn

 

[Turkey Creek]

The topic was brought up on "Growing Fruit" website. I think the general consensus was that it is not a likely a good idea to notch on fire blight susceptible stock in areas where fire blight is present. I did have a thought that I dont believe ever was hit on over there. While sealing cuts is typically not thought of as beneficial in most instances and maybe even a bad thing to do, I wonder if a small amount of sealer was used to cover the notch if that wouldnt keep fire blight out?

There are growth regulators available for shoot formation, "Promalin" is one. You can spot apply to individual buds on non bearing trees. I guess I would be more tempted to go that route than a bunch of open cuts if I was worried about fire blight.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

I get enough fruit on my upward growing branches so never had issue with getting more laterals to fruit. These trees just like to grow up lol. Hard to train Asian pears dammit but they are very fruitful and yummy