Pear trees

[bamatoolmaker]

I have a couple of pear trees that need an agressive trim.My dad let them grow for almost 20 years.They are around 20+ feet high.Is it possible to cut the tops out of them so they can be manageable?Would it be better to cut them down and replant?

 

[fishfrank]

I am the 3rd generation family owner of my property. My great grand dad planted three pear trees, one of which is nearing 100 yrs of age. When I got the place the oldest, which stands about 20-25 ft tall needed pruning badly but I was a little hesitant that I might cause more harm then good by pruning it. But finally I got up the nerve to shape it up and thin it and it has made it just fine. That was three years ago. Now I don't think I would cut the tops off, that seems kind of drastic. Just my personal experience.

 

[thingy]

If they are in the way or something,or don't produce any pears,,,,,but you can prune them,,if they are healthy,,,don't lob the top off like you see some people do shade trees,,,,,get you a pruning book,,,after you thin one out properly and cut all bad crossed limbs off,it won't look like same tree,,,than,,get you a pole pruner[after reading that book],and cut off upward growing limbs up where you can reach,,which would be maybe 12-14 foot up or so,,,pears grow straight up alot,,just gotta keep up with this by giving them a good pruning every 3-4 years,,you want to shape it too,,,but pear limbs,,wanta grow up[or down],,you gotta try and make it grow side ways,,,thingy

 

[Robert_in_NY]

On old trees you can cut them back but don't take too much the first year as it can harm the tree. Cut back a lot of the cross limbs and upward growing limbs to allow light into the tree but don't go hacking limbs off at the trunk right away. There is a lot of information online about proper pruning of apple and pear trees. Do a search and read up as you will learn a lot.

I was lucky as my neighbor had an fruit farm. Growing up I spent a lot of hours there helping. As a kid I didn't like some of the tedious work like trimming the apples, pears and grapes but now I am glad I did as I still remember almost everything he taught me. He passed away this last month and I am in the process of buying his place. He wanted me to buy it and his family knew that and gave us a great price with no need to try and negotiate a better price. I do like trimming apple trees now and am looking forward to working his property again. I am no expert in regards to trimming trees but I have learned that these trees are tough buggers so you don't have to worry too much about making a mistake as they will recover. So just have fun.

 

[thingy]

Thats right,,words of wisdom right there. Get you a pruning hand book,,learn about opencenter ,,central leader,,fruiting buds,,leave buds,,,learn how fruit trees grow,how pear trees are different than apples,in the way they grow,,,get you a long adjustable pole pruner,saw/lober,,,,a small hand pruner saw,,good pair of hand shears,,,and go at it,,,,but try and understand what your doing before you cut,,,anybody can just cut limbs off,,,thats not the idea in pruning fruit trees,,,,but they are forgiving[to a certain degree],,,thingy

 

[rox]

Robert,

congratulations on buying the apple orchard. How many trees are on the propety? Are they in pretty good shape?

Bama- wish i could help you but i don't know anything about pears. On our olive trees i will say this, it is hard to kill a tree. You might stress is a bit but they recover. We prune all our trees back to the point where you can rach all the fruit to harvest. It makes no sense to all grow fruit trees to grow so tall that you can't reach thier fruit. How are the pears by the way are they delicious/ good tasting?

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Hello Rox, there are around 700 apple trees, 20 pear trees and a few plum trees as well as a small patch of red raspberries and 4 acres of grapes (Concord and Niagara's). The Niagara's are almost completely dead so they will be removed. The entire farm has been maintained up until last year so the trees and grape vines have a little extra wood on them that needs to be trimmed off.

 

[dmccarty]

Robert,

What kind of apples?

On how many acres?

Are the fullsize aka standard trees or dwarf or semi dwarf?

I have this crazy idea about planting apple and pecan trees. Like an acre or so of trees crazy. Just ordered some more books on apple trees.

There is LOTS of info out on the Internet on pruning.

Later,
Dan

 

[Robert_in_NY]

The apples are just about every variety that will grow up here. I can not even start to name them all. The old orchard is the standard size tree but the rest are semi dwarfs and they make up around 500 of the trees planted on a trellis system. The trees don't take up a lot of room though. This parcel is 14 acres and 4 of those are grapes and he has about 4 more acres of field so maybe 6 acres total devoted to trees. I am not sure though as I am just guessing as I never figured out the actual acerage before.

We have a few fruit trees on our property that we planted a while back. Not a lot by any means only 15 but we spaced them out in rows so we could mow around them and work with them easily. Ava loves them, and she makes us stop every time we drive by on the quad or tractor and pick her an apple to eat as we head down to take care of the deer. We do have to make a few walks over to the apple trees during the fall also so she can get an apple to munch on as she plays.

I wish you the best with your orchard plans as they can be a lot of fun. We have a variety of apples, pears, plum and cherry trees in our small orchard and they ripen at different times so its always a treat to walk by it.

 

[bamatoolmaker]

Thanks for the input folks.I have been doing a little pruning for the past 2 years, water suckers and low limbs for mowing under.I will buy a book but wanted to cheat with a crash course.We had a late frost last year and didn't get any harvest.The kids like to eat them green.I have 1 that will eat them till
shes sick.