Tall skinny pear tree pruning

[ToddG]

I have 6 pear trees that I planted from the wildlife group that are growing straight up with very little branching. They were planted in spring 2017 and they are about 16 ft tall now. I have staked them but am afraid they are going to break. Would it be a bad idea to prune the leader back? Any suggestions would be appreciated. They haven't been fertilized.
Thanks,

 

[Charman03]

I assume maybe you can head it off some and score above some buds to grow some limbs

 

[homerj]

How much sun are they getting?

 

[ToddG]

They are getting about 7 hours per day.

 

[Telemark]

From everything i have read and seen, heading it off should encourage it to branch. However, there are other ways to get them to branch.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

Don’t worry it will prune itself when it snaps in the wind or from fruit load lol. I have had a few Kiefer trees do that with fruit load

 

[ToddG]

They are branching some. They have just grown really tall really fast. I just installed some 10ft conduits to help support them. Do you think they will eventually start producing more branches? I will try scoring next winter.