Pear tree pruning/surgery

[grobelaar]

Hi all

Have just signed up to the forum looking to get some pointers on a pear tree in our garden.

The good news is the tree has literally dozens of fruit at the moment – but have a number of issues that need addressing.

History
The tree a duo variety (One half conference, another I don’t know). It’s in a shady spot in a north facing garden. The garden is in a ground-floor maisonette, so four storeys plus roof provide the shade.

It’s 9 years old and has been left to its own devices pretty much, last three or four years there’s been one or two fruits and this year there are dozens and dozens.

Issues
The tree is now huge, around three storeys high, I’ve gathered from some research that it should ideally have been pruned and trained over the years.

I think it may be suffering from a number of diseases – but not sure which.

Action
The pruning is our first concern. Ideally I’d like to trim the tree right back and look to training it to grown along the top of our fence (about 7fit high) and over the top of the backdoor and kitchen window. However, the first branching in the main trunk is about 6ft high. So to achieve the above quite an aggressive cut-back would be required.

In terms of doing the surgery too – we can get the council in – but not sure what they would do or how expert they’d be, or would we be better paying for a professional who would have knowledge of fruit trees.

Any pointers would be great, pictures can be provided.

Thanks
G

[Capsid]

To get lots of fruit you need to encourage fruiting spurs. I would prune about one third off of the leading branches. Remove any branches that are crossing each other or are dead/diseased. Then prune back all the side shoots from the leading branches to about 4-5 inches, these are the spurs where the fruits form. You should try and open up the middle to allow light and air in and finish with a goblet shape (if you can). I wouldn't advise training it along a fence unless it is an espalier growing against a wall already. It sounds like a well established tree and just needs proper pruning. If you overprune it then you may not get fruit on it for several years as it takes time to recover.

Pictures would be helpful!!

[FB.]

What is your location?
Do you know any more about where the tree was purchased?

Three storeys high in nine years (from a Conference pear) is incredible, even if the tree was on fertile soil and on a very strong rootstock.
Conference is usually slow growing, heavy cropping and reliable, which doesn't sound like your tree at all.
The massive size and the fact that it has taken close to a decade for the first good crop makes me wonder whether it's on a vigorous seedling rootstock, rather than the semi-dwarf Quince rootstocks.

I'm inclined to think that either the other variety grafted to it was very vigorous and has taken over (Doyenne de Comice, perhaps? - it's an erratic cropper and fast grower), or that the soil at your location is incredibly fertile, or that it is on a seedling rootstock, or maybe the tree is growing so large, just reaching for the light.

Getting your existing tree into a manageable size and shape will be a lot of work over several seasons. Frankly, the easiest options would probably be to either leave the tree as it is, or train it into a proper tree, or cut the tree down and start fresh with a new tree that is properly maintained from day one. I think that trying to train such a monster will not be successful. You're likely to either kill the tree through pruning, or end up with so many "water sprouts" (upright shoots) that it'll be a never-ending battle and make the situation even worse.

If it was my tree, I'd cut it down - but I'm ruthless if a fruit tree fails to perform. The amount of surgery required to do what you'd like is likely to leave extensive scarring and possibly an ugly tree that may take several more years to produce good crops. Posting a few pictures might allow people to offer a few suggestions on what might be do-able.

[grobelaar]

Thanks for the responses - it seems the training idea is out then? Fair enough - but some pruning should be done.

I will try and get some pictures up in the next few days.

Regards the variety - it has to be said I'm not sure which of the two varieties is dominant. According to the pamphlet that the tree was bought from. One variety (the Conference) is ready in September and the other (a red blush pear) is due in October. We'd assumed as the fruits look advanced and are already falling off the tree that they were the conference - but it could be the other variety as some of them are starting to go red.

The fruits were not thinned out either - which may explain them falling off as they're quite crowded in places.

[grobelaar]

Also is there a good or bad time of the year to do the pruning?

[FB.]

There are two main pruning periods - winter (Dec-Feb; while the trees are dormant) and the peak of summer (mid-late July) - assuming that you live in the UK.
Winter pruning will result in more vigorous growth (and less fruiting) and is used to get trees to rapidly grow into the desired shape.
Summer pruning reduces the vigour and increases fruitfulness the following season.

[pboo]

conference pear tree pruning and feeding

Hi,
I bought this conference pear tree 2 years ago and planted it in the garden.
It was about 2 feet high with a few very small branches when I got it. It has grown quite well as you can see from the photo. I haven't done anything with it since planting and wondered should I be pruning it. I don't know anything about pruning a pear tree and so a detailed explanation would be greatly appreciated.

I also wondered if I should be feeding it and if so what with and how?

Thanks for your patience

Phil

[FB.]

Nice weather brings everyone out into the garden to do some pruning.

Unfortunately, pruning should be done either in winter (Dec-Feb) to shape, tidy-up and invigorate, while it should be done in summer (July-Aug) for trees which are putting on too much new growth.

I would suggest re-posting a question in mid-July if it is growing strongly, with some close-up pictures, or posting a question in winter if it is growing less than 1ft.

If left to do their own thing, a happy, vigorous plant should branch itself fairly well without pruning. Dwarf rootstocks are often too weak to branch well, so tend to need more guidance pruning.

Here's a pic of a young MM111 (vigorous) apple tree, of a vigorous scion variety (old, rare variety which has no modern name). The wall is several feet away, but looks much closer due to the way the picture was taken.

There are a few things to note:
1.
The MM111 rootstock is so strong that it is sending up so much water and nutrients that it has supplied enough water and nutrients to allow several buds to burst out into shoots near the top of the tree (about 1.5m above ground). Dwarfs often lack the root power or quantity of sapflow to do this.

2.
Notice how I left the tip (the central leader) unpruned, in order to encourage wider branch angles as the lower branches subordinate themselves to the leader as a result of its hormone secretions. Had I removed the leader, all of the side shoots would have lost that leadership and all would compete to become the leader - forming awkward narrow angles with the trunk which would cause problems later.

3.
At the end of this season (in winter), I will remove the leader to leave the several wide-angled main branches as the main structure of the tree and the side branches will be left unpruned; most likely each will branch again during 2013 in the same was as the tip is branching now.

[FB.]

I also wondered if I should be feeding it and if so what with and how?
Phil

There was a discussion on fertilisers on the following topic:

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...res_63891.html