Please help - pear tree

[WeeGarden]

Hello, it's been a while since I've been on here and my garden has been neglected for a couple of years. I bought 3 pear trees in Winter of 2008 to train as cordons in my very small garden.

The one I'm a bit worried about is an Asian pear 'Shinseiki' - I haven't managed to prune it since summer 2009 and it's a bit out of control. Is it possible to prune now without affecting its health? And really, it was sold to me as suitable for cordon but it seems a but vigorous? Can I control it by pruning or would it be best to uproot? My garden is very small and I've grown it against a brick garden wall.

Thanks in advance!

[FB.]

Just because something is suitable for a cordon, doesn't mean that it is suitable for no-prune growing.
Trained forms, such as cordons, espaliers, fans and stepovers require correct pruning on a regular basis, otherwise they will fulfil their destiny and become a bush or tree.
The same rootstocks used for cordons are also sometimes used for bushes or even half-standards, depending on the soil quality.

Normally, cordons are pruned in winter (Dec-Feb) for the early years, to increase vigour and build a framework, then pruning switches to summer (July-Aug) to reduce vigour, increase fruitfulness in following years, and to keep them within their allocated space and shape.

If you can show a picture, I'll suggest what I'd do.

My instinct would be to prune the older wood now, then prune the new shoots in July. But this is just a generalisation without having seen what they look like.

[WeeGarden]

Here is the tree. Thank you so much for your help. I didn't think that I could get away with not pruning the cordon, but I didn't get round to it the second year I had it and then it got a bit out of hand. It grew a second branch the second year and it's almost as big as the original, so don't know whether I should chop one off.

It's such a contrast to the other two that I have along the same wall.



Reading through some of the replies on other fruit tree questions, I'm wondering if it's because I left them to fruit the first year I got them, (I only got a couple of marble sized fruits) and so they've stopped growing? I think maybe this is the problem I have with my dwarf cherry in a pot too, as it's really not much more than a twig with bunches of flowers. Is there a way of cutting these back this year to encourage them to grow?

[FB.]

I think that it's just because one of them is a more vigorous variety than the other two.
It would be the same if you'd planted (say) a Bramley, a Discovery and an Egremont Russet; the Bramley would have grown much faster, even if on the same rootstock.

Given the strength of one compared to the others, it might be better to allow the vigorous one to become a variant of a cordon, so perhaps a double-cordon, or some kind of fan structure.
This would allow it to be bigger than its companions, but still be grown with them.

Now to the pruning:
The one in the middle has a large amount of growth (Quince) growing straight up from below the graft (or perhaps from ground level; I can' quite make out). This would have best been completely cut out before it leafed-out.
The "sucker" appears to be drawing all the energy.
However, if you cut it off now, you will take away most of the "life" from the tree as it has just invested all of last years reserves into those leaves, but has yet to get "payback" by those leaves gathering the sun's summer energy.
So I would suggest leave the root sucker on the middle one until winter and then cut it off at its point of origin.

The out-of-control one, I'm just of to butcher your picture and re-post it with what I'd do.

[FB.]

Here are a couple of ideas about what to do with the bigger one.
As it's so vigorous compared to the others, I would not hesitate to prune it now - losing some of its reserves won't be such a bad thing as it'll slow it down.
Also, you'll lose a lot of the flower buds and fruit potential, but it looks to me like those straggly branches will break under the weight of fruit anyway.
You have a choice:
prune it now, lose most of the fruit it might have given, but it comes back under control.
- or -
don't prune it and get some fruit, but also risk losing some branches to breakage and it gets further out of control.

Anyway, here are a couple of pics.
Blue lines represent roughly where I'd make a pruning cut.
Red lines indicate what I think will remain afterwards.
The markings are approximate as it should be pruned to a suitable bud - preferably not one which is on the upper side of the shoot (uppermost buds tend to be more vigorous and go straight up without fruting, whereas lower buds are less vigorous and more fruitful).
The side branches which remain on the main stem would ideally have three or four buds remaining after pruning; these will then grow-out into shoots and/or spurs in later years.

It will need follow-up pruning, either during the summer, or during the winter.
With clever pinching-out of shoot tips, you can make additional lower buds break out, which will save time for forming fruit spurs in later years.

I slightly prefer the first pic as the branch is a better angle, but the upright-ish shoot in the second pic already has some short side branches which will save time for building-up fruiting spurs and it may be able to be pulled down a bit and tied to a cane in parallel with the original shoot; a kind of double-cordon.

[FB.]

If you like either of the above ideas, please say which and I'll suggest what I think the plant will do, and how/when I'd follow-up prune it.
If you don't like the ideas, please say why and I'll see if I can suggest something else.

[WeeGarden]

Thanks! I think I prefer the look of the second pic because the shoot to remain looks a bit more robust. I'd be happy with 2 or 3 fruit from the tree this year, to be honest, so am ready to go secateur happy.

Thank you for the advice on the second tree. With the 3rd tree, should I leave it to do its thing and just hope that it grows more than 2 or 3 foot tall, or is there something I can do to encourage growth? The two just seem a bit weedy when I consider that they were bought as 2 year old trees, so would be 5 years old now and yet aren't any thicker than a large twig? Is this 'normal'?

One last question - what is your opinion on how close they are to the wall? I've been to visit various gardens since I planted them, and cordons/espaliers that I have seen seem to be grown about a foot away from the actual wall. Worried that mine are far too close.

Sorry for the million and one questions, and thank you so much for taking the time to write such a detailed reply!

[FB.]

The big one will need new shoots pruning back to 2-4 new buds in mid-July.
It can be allowed to carry fruit on the bits that you don't need to prune off.

The little ones need the blossoms removing (the leaves at the base of the flowers might as well stay) and they would benefit from heavy nitrogen feeding, adequate soil moisture and a good mulch of compost.
Fertilisers were discussed here as to their nutrient content:
> link <

Is their lack of growth "normal"
Yes - they are competing against grass, weeds, dryness at the base of a wall (even the grass can't grow up to the wall because of dryness - and possible builders rubble).
Pears (and plums) do not cope well with dry soil and it may be that the cool, moist, shaded soil under the deck is what the larger one has tapped-into; pear - and especially quince rootstocks - really don't do well in dry soil, but can grow very large in moist soil.
Apple MM106 rootstock is the same; very dwarf in dry soil, quite vigorous in cool, mopist soil.
There appears to be no mulching of your pears with compost to add nutrients and prevent the soil drying. (the big one doesn't need any help!).
The more dwarfing the rootstock, the more care it needs. If you want to grow cordons in poor soil, certain slower-growing varieties will need to be on strong rootstocks.
I have a pear minarette 5ft tall and 2ft wide on Pyrus communis rootstock (very vigorous; normally considered to reach well over 20ft). My soil is very poor; shallow, dry,sandy, gravelly, infertile, slightly chalky.
Not all varieties grow at the same rate, even when on the same rootstock and this needs consideration - hence the evolution of such things as the tree size estimator which I now link in my signature!

[WeeGarden]

Thanks! All done! I even managed to pull the second branch to parallel to the first one so it looks quite good already. Thank you so much for your help!

[FB.]

Thanks! All done! I even managed to pull the second branch to parallel to the first one so it looks quite good already. Thank you so much for your help!

Don't forget to be prepared to prune again in mid-July.
At that time, on strong-growing plants to be trained as cordons, any vigorous shoots should be cut back to 2-4 buds. This will reduce vigour and some of the 2-4 buds may form fruiting spurs.

The two which have low vigour would be best pruned in winter (assuming that any pruning needs doing).

-

Summer pruning is to reduce vigour. A weak-growing tree should never be pruned during the growing season as it will be severely devigorated and might even be killed by the stress.

Winter pruning is to increase vigour and to shape young trees.