Mrs G,
I’m assuming so - at least enough to produce what I would consider abundant flowering (?).
So those trees are in the sun from about 11 AM to about 5PM…and on the east coast, z7B 
The rule I followed when summer pruning was not to allow any shoot to go beyond about 10-12" without pruning it. With plum/pluot/pluerry varieties it was challenging. I wish I could cite the source (maybe my own funny ideas, LOL) that encouraging side branching encourages fruit set - maybe that had to do with elderberries, hmmmm. Well anyway, that’s what I did and that’s what I got. 
Pat
Thats a good solid six hours of sun. The trees look closer to or orchard than they are. Sounds good.
A good post from Gardenweb:
six-hours-of-sun-is-no-fun
Very possible, but I’m hoping that you are wrong 
I haven’t done much branch bending with them yet, but it has seemed to help with apples and pears. I also bent the heck out of my Nadia last year and it is looking good.
Though I was surprised that it didn’t do the trick with Magness, a Euro pear, where lots of branch bending in early 2014 didn’t produce any fruit in 2015, even on a 2012 tree on quince. Of course, this year it looks to have settled down on growth, so I’m hoping that it spent it’s energy on making fruit buds…
Actually, that is the way mine grew, with lots of short little sticks- much nicer than open wood. I haven’t cut anything back, other than some water spouts for scionwood. I’ll probably bend a few more as well, as well as possibly trimming a few off.
So Bob, should some of those trees go? Pats ground looks very dappled.
All shade trees should go. And convince the neighbors to remove theirs too 
But, it depends on the time of day from the picture. I’ve taken pics around sunset which made it look like I had lots of shade too. If those trees are on the North and the other 3 directions are all open, then it isn’t bad.
The only tree I have left in my yard (other than the 100+ that I’ve planted) is a pine on the extreme northern edge (not shading much and I’ve chopped the parts which were), which I’ve been using as a trellis for a male hardy kiwi (won’t need to climb to pick…). The neighbors still have a few, but I’m working on them.
Just how much sun I have was driven home to me when we recently purchased a nearby multi-family for rental. I was looking around the yard for good spots to plant things and didn’t see anything that I would consider sunny enough to bother with, even with a strategic tree removal or two. So, it will have to be relegated to currants, gooseberries, elderberries, etc, which can take the shade, and hopefully not need any sprays.
I have town property abutting my land and there are ‘swamp elms’ on it that are huge, three of them. They are very brittle old trees. I’d give anything for the town to take them down, as they do add shade to my orchard but not until early evening. My orchard faces due south. I would add another row of six trees if the huge trees were removed. I keep an open discussion with the gentleman in charge of trees for the city. The rest of the trees on the property are mine so I can deal with those. The property is fairly sculpted at this point. Just those three behemoths in the way.
When I mentioned Europe it is because in Spain and other countries pedestrian orchards are common and have been for 30 years. The way I prune my cherry trees is an adaption to the Spanish technique of pruning. I just wondered how they handled Euro plums? Probably where DWN got the idea, but they treat all fruit the same for any location and as mentioned it just doesn’t always work, not only for all fruit, but for all locations. It is a rather undeveloped technique. MSU is now promoting pedestrian orchards for cherries and other stone fruits. Trials on various methods are underway. They have been working closely with OSU on these orchards for some time now. MSU helped develop other tart cherries for commercial market and while in Europe took notes on the various commercial operations there and have been developing the technique to fit our needs a little better. In 1990 MSU and OSU started trialing various systems. And as I mentioned I use the KGB system for cherries developed from the Spanish Bush training system used in Spain. Here we needed a little more open tree to permit good air flow so they modified the Spanish Bush system to allow for more air flow.
DWN had a great idea to develop pedestrian techniques for the backyard. They do work, and work everywhere with some modifications. Denser planting has been a trend for a long time and not just for trees. Square foot gardening is a good example of high density planting for veggies. I space brambles closer than traditional methods too. High density planting has taken off in recent years for just about everything.
Spain in recent years is shipping to China, plums and peaches. Exports increased 30% in 2015. Spain is a huge producer and I would like to know more about how they grow stone fruit there. Finding info is difficult. I have looked but found little info. I was curious specifically about Euro plums. It’s cool Scott and Steve have found ways that work well for them, with stone fruit. That helps us all out.
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I have Magness fruit buds this year finally - !! My first tree on seedling was so over-vigorous I pulled it and got another on quince. The quince tree I put in in 2012 or so. It is also super vigorous on quince, it is a triploid and grows like a triploid apple. The bending over really helped, the fruiting buds are on those limbs. There are not a lot of them but hopefully its on the right trajectory now.
In general I am fully seeing the fruits of my limb bending efforts this spring, I think this is the third year since starting it and with each year the benefits have grown. All my white apricots have at least some heavily-budded areas, most Euro plums have buds, and many multi-graft apples that were just producing wood are starting to produce flowers.
Let me show you these recently pictures. It is a high density euro pear orchard, pruned just a few days ago.
in this way, a common method for commercial growers in The Netherlands
variety Conference
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Wow! I cannot wait to see them in bloom then with fruit. They must be beautiful. It is such a beautiful pear.
Thanks for sharing that! Great to have you here!
Scott,
I snapped this (poor) photo of my Bavay today (camera would NOT focus).
The tip of this Bavay branch is bulbous and fat. I wonder if it is indicative of a flower bud, or just a weird vegetative bud.
The tree is on Citation.
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These are absolutely beautiful trees, I love the structure and form.
I missed this post of a month ago Matt. Those fat buds are usually just large leaf buds. I think there is a name for them.
I grafted Bavay’s in a better spot last week and its already starting to bud. I really hope I can eventually get a good tree of that plum as its an excellent one.
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Bourse buds! 
I love what you did with the Magnolia vine. If mine puts out good growth this year, I’m hoping for to end up with something similar.
Scott
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What do I do with these watersprouts forming on my Harrison cider tree? I got to branch bending this year earlier than last year, and it looks like it has done its job in forming spurs, but I am getting some watersprouts too.
Do I cut them back to 3-4 nodes? I suspect they will start growing again. When hit by my shears or deer, it seems my trees will happily re-grow shoots all the way into September.
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I haven’t gotten my trees where I want them, but the advice I have received before is that it may require three or four rounds of pinching to get the fruiting buds to take over. The advice I have seen is prune to three leaves, then pinch everything passed the first bud.
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That happened to mine last year. I waited until after the summer solstice and made my apples look like weeping apples, LOL. Along the limb they did as yours are doing. I pruned them to 3-4 nodes…after letting them go to about 8-10 inches.
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