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.

 

[rox]

Robert, for that many trees and also for the vines it would be worth it to get a "power" pruner.
I like this brand because you can set the blade to only open half way, if you are pruining a lot of small stuff you don't need the blade to open wide for big branches, because it only opens half way you can really go fast, in other words it is a faster snipping action because it only is moving a short distance to the closed position. They are pricey but i couldn't live without it.

Don't miss their videos-
Infaco products : electronic pruning shear, electronic lopper, electric tying device, accessories

Also check out their tying device for the vines.

 

[dillo99]

What about older apple trees? I have three that don't product much...some, but not a lot. They are quite large. Is there a way to cut them back and encourage new growth or are they just probably past their prime? I would guess the trunk diameter of the largest one is 15"

Thanks.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Rox, the best system I have seen is what my neighbor used for as many years as I can remember. He has a pto powered air compressor that hooked to the 3pt on his tractor. That with a couple hundred feet of air hose and air powered snips did a good job. Extremely fast cutting action. We use to run two cutters at a time (he could have added more outlets but we didn't have any more workers) so you would park at the end of the row and work up both sides and come down the other. We had enough hose to reach past the halfway point of the row so we would move the tractor to the other end once we finished the first half.

Those electric snips you linked do look nice though and I might get one for when I want to work without bringing the tractor out. How long does the battery last on it and does it feel heavy after a few hours? How much does one cost roughly?

 

[rox]

Robert,

I get about 2 days work out of the battery. Youa re not always using the machine, sometimes you are using a saw or a hand pruning shears so it is not like you are running it the whole time. theya re set up like a digital camera if not used in a certain amount of time tey turn themselves off to preserve the battery. I'm not sure how much they cost midlf on this forum bought one, my guess is that theya re going to be around $2,000. We also hae the same sustem a 3ph compressor with hose and the pruning shears running off the compressed air. My hsuband hooked that up once for me to try and i didn't care for it. #1 you are wasting diesel fuel to run the tractor, #2 it was noisy all day with the compressor (with the battery powered one it is quiet and oyu hear the birds singing while you work)#3 No hoses. The hoses get in the way especially when you circle around a tree.

I believe midlf got a demonstarion before he bought one. the best brand is the elecrocoup brand. Foresty supply sells them, jsut google "Elecrocoup" they have US Dealers. The battry is not to heavy to wear all day. Sure you feel it a litle bit but it sits comfortable on your back it's nto that bad. I will say at the end fo the day when you take it off you sure feel lighter. I jsut think of it as getting a little more excercize, like exercizing with weights. I didn't buy the Electrocoup, I bought a Pelnec brand and I'm sorry I did. For the exact amount of money I could have had the Electrocoup, hwoever there was not a dealer near me I could try one out at. Now there is a dealer in town so i wish I would have bought that brand. The Pelnec's do not open the blades half way which is a terrific feature. In France you mail in your blades every year and they sharpen them for oyu for free. Actually i think you mail back the whole "gun" and they grease it etc. kind of tune it up and I think you actually get a new blades come to think of it, They do the whole thing one a year for only the same cost as buying new blades

 

[Jstpssng]

What about older apple trees? I have three that don't product much...some, but not a lot. They are quite large. Is there a way to cut them back and encourage new growth or are they just probably past their prime? I would guess the trunk diameter of the largest one is 15"

Thanks.

if they are that big they must be standard trees, which can live 100 years.
Do they still produce apples, and is there new growth in the tops? If so you may be able to save it. Also, are they good apples? Some of those older trees were best used for making cider.

As mentioned above though don't do it all at once; bring them back over a 2-3 year period. There is also a lot of literature available, a good place to start is your local extension agency.

 

[Jstpssng]

What about older apple trees? I have three that don't product much...some, but not a lot. They are quite large. Is there a way to cut them back and encourage new growth or are they just probably past their prime? I would guess the trunk diameter of the largest one is 15"

Thanks.

P.S.; i'm not sure what part of upstate NY you're in, but that's a beautiful area.

I spent a lot of time around Canton, Cranberry Lake, and Boonesville areas a few years ago, and was ready to stay. (OOPS, that's just what you don't want to hear ) I always wanted to canoe the Grass River, but never got around to it.

 

[ToadHill]

Dillo99, I'm a retired arborist with a small fruit orchard myself. When you prune start by removing all dead wood. Never remove more than 25-30% of the branches in any one year, but the dead wood doesn't count toward this total. Next remove any crossing branches, wind action will rub off the bark and cause an area for disease to enter the tree. Third remove all watersprouts,( branches that grow up from lateral branches) they sap strength from the tree and usually don't produce any fruit. Lastly shape the tree to make picking easier.

Remember that fruit requires lots of sunlight so make sure that light can get to the middle of the tree. You will find that after pruning you may cause the tree to send out lots of new sprouts and you may have to keep these in check over the next few years but after a few years the sprouting will slow down and the tree will only need occasional attention.

 

[midlf]

Robert,

I'm not sure how much they cost midlf on this forum bought one, my guess is that theya re going to be around $2,000.
I believe midlf got a demonstration before he bought one. the best brand is the elecrocoup brand. /QUOTE]


We paid around $1800. We did not have any demo but bought on the recommendation of someone on TBN who was from our area and now has an olive ranch in France. <gin> Bought ours from Bubco in Lodi CA Bubco - Sprayers, Trimmers, Quick Hitches, & Accessories for Vineyards, Orchards & Turf no website order system. You call them and talk to a human.

We bought them because spouse was doing a lot of trimming and her wrists were bothering her. We figured it was a buy it now or buy it later thing. Only the later would be after surgery. The only problem now is she can put more wood on the ground in 1 hour than we can collect and burn in 3. The battery will last at least one long day. They recommend unit be sharpened after 4hrs use but that appears to be a worst case recommendation. The wood this thing will cut is unreal. What it can't cut she leaves for me to attack with the 3' loppers or the chain saw. She says they turned a lifetime project into a project where she can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

She, AKA "Kubota Girl", will wear the trimmers when she goes out on the tractor and leans out and wacks stuff that is too low for her. These things are no toy but a professional unit. Watching it work is creepy. It could take off your finger without slowing down and it would happen before you know it. Spouse always puts her left hand in the holster when the trimmer is out to make sure she keeps that hand out of the way.

 

[dillo99]

Thanks guys...

Yes, the apple trees do still produce some apples...not a lot, but some. They seem to be pretty tasty too although I am not spraying or anything yet so they have pests and such. They are actually beautiful trees so I think I will give them a go a little bit at a time and see if I can get them producing. I have also started planting some new young trees so worse case I take them out someday or just leave them. I don't need the space as I am just planting a few fruit trees for my own consumption. Thanks for the pruning tips - I did get rid of the dead wood last spring plus do some minimal pruning to improve airflow and sunlight.

JST - I am actually around Rochester area - just east. Also a nice area with lots of lakes (Finger Lakes) and of course Lake Ontario. I know the areas you are referring to quite well - very beautiful. I went to St. Lawrence University so Canton was my home for a few years. That is a great area if you like outdoor activities.