can cordon fruit tree be retrained?

[w33blegurl]

Morning all. I recently ordered a pear tree online which was delivered yesterday. It turns out I have ordered a cordon by mistake (seriouly, senior moment there!) rather than the drawfing tree I thought I was getting. As its headed for the allotment anyway its no big issue, but was just wondering if it could be retrained into more of a bush type tree or if it is now "committed" to a cordon shape. It will be grown in open ground (staked) and I read that cordons do better against a wall.
Any advice appreciated!

[Paulieb]

Can you post a picture? That will help a lot. It would be possible but the success will depend on the current shape, and what is the rootstock?

[BearGardener]

An unpruned cordon should try and turn itself back into a tree of sorts over time.

You normally prune cordons in August to trim off the summers growth and to keep the neat shape. If you don't do that the tree will eventually bush out.

As with any type of tree you may need to do some pruning from time to time to keep the tree 'open' and to the size/shape you are looking for.

In short there is nothing unique about a cordon it is just a tree pruned very restrictively.

[Bigmallly]

There's a bit of info here on training cordon fruit trees:

Apples and pears: growing and training as cordons / Royal Horticultural Society

[orangepippin]

BearGardener is right. The quick answer is there is no need to do anything, just plant it and leave it, and it will revert to being a regular tree in no time.

The slightly longer answer is, assuming it is on Quince C rootstock, cut it back to around 40" / 1m. This will free up the pruned side shoots to grow more quickly.

[w33blegurl]

Thanks all, it is on a quince A rootstock. I'm considering now just keeping it as acordon and then putting in some other trees to fill the space. Will prob make a last minute decision when I space all the trees (I also have 2 dwarfing cherries and a semidwarfing peach) out. It takes a lot of thinking power this planning malarky!

[orangepippin]

On Quince A it could eventually become quite a big tree - 3m-4m tall.