They only look that tidy in the spring. The rest of the year is full of aggressive growth. I don’t mind the constant pruning because they are near my front door and I just rip off the shoots. I would guess this might put them at a higher risk for fireblight. That last picture is a couple years old.
2 Likes
My neighbor had a huge pear tree similar to this right beside the road. He cut it down last year, right before I put 2 pears in my front yard (Bartlett and Red Clapp). For whatever reason I don’t think he used the fruit and it was probably a hassle to clean up the mess in his driveway. I wish I would have known more about grafting at the time, I might have been able to convince him to start a similar project to this. Very cool, keep us updated!
3 Likes
Sparty What rootstock are you using for the pears?
1 Like
Pic should be on the cover of Fine Gardening! Looks so much more exquisite than foundation planting.
1 Like
I bought those trees before I knew anything about fruit trees. They were box store purchases and I don’t know the rootstock.
Masbustelo - what an interesting idea for an old overgrown tree! looks like it is coming along nicely.
Sparty - that is beautiful!
1 Like
I was examining my pear tree today and with the foliage gone I noticed this sizeable hole where someone cut off a limb long ago. It seems to be closing up but looks like it will be several years before it does so. What can I do to protect it from the rains, snow and ice in the meantime? Is there something I can fill it with? It is a little more than two inches across.
It looks like this tree has been healing pretty well on its own without human intervention.
The most that I would do is just to keep an eye on it and just remove any stuff that accumulates inside the opening .
Mike
2 Likes
I went ahead and made a little cover out of flashing. The hole is right below a crotch and was quite wet inside. This way it will be dry and yet can breathe. I can open it and check the hole if I
want. I think I’ll measure it, I’m curious how much it encloses in a season.
I grafted about 15 varieties on this tree today. Last year I had lots of sprouts from epicormic buds. I am keeping 20 of these to grow permanent cordons.
I did some notching on some of the lower sprouts.![Pear march 20 2021 A|690x518] (upload://xlRW1qYzTC4mQYTh0RHI3uYPMIh.jpeg) The epicormic sprouts from last year that are not keepers I stubbed off and will allow them to regrow this year. Their purpose is to cool the tree, help with circulation and root maintenance. Eventually they will be eliminated. I’m not sure what i should do where the tree was topped last year. Should I make a tin cap? Is it a good idea to make a tin cap out of flashing to protect the exposed cuts at the top of the tree. I can’t imagine that they will ever heal, and I think they will cause problems down the road. Any suggestions much appreciated.
3 Likes
I grafted about 16 known varieties onto this tree, and out of all my pear, plum and apple grafts, these two Chojuro buds are my very first buds showing green. It’s not a very good picture, I couldn’t get the camera to focus on them. Also I just spotted a Magness and Harrow Sweet bud popping through the parafilm. 
1 Like
I have these growths on several of my pear cordons, I don’t know the proper botanical name for them. I know they are potential fruiting spurs, no blossoms this year. They were develloped last year. Should they be pruned at this time? Is the length proper? How should I treat them this growing season? What kind of growth will they produce this year? Any suggestions or comments are much app
reciated.
2 Likes
I’ll be interested to see what other people have to say, but I think I’d be inclined to trim some of those back (the ones where the tertiary growth is getting a little longer). And I think some people might even cut out the thicker branch on the left in the bottom photo. It looks like it might be starting to take over from the scaffold a bit.
But I’d probably wait to do the trimming a bit later on - I give my espaliers their first haircut around midsummer.
Take this with a grain of salt, though - I’m just learning how to do this stuff myself.
1 Like
@JinMA That vertical shoot does seem maybe too thick. I don’t think it is taking over the scaffold. It is coming off of two year old growth. The thinner part to the left is last years cordon growth. @Roland ?
1 Like
Normally you prune these ’vruchtzetels’ to 4 nodes. The last node in downwards direction. When it’s a vigorous tree then its better to prune at 6 nodes.
All vertical shoots you can prune at 0,5 cm.
You can prune all side branches without flower buds on these ‘vruchtzetels’ to 0.5 cm. This causes the ‘nevenoogjes’ to wake up.
2 Likes
Thankyou @Roland, and @JinMA For your suggestions. I tried to prune them down (more or less) to 6 buds. It was very vigorous last summer. It also had scab pretty bad last year, if I diagnosed it correctly. I’ve sprayed it this spring with lime sulfur, and Mancozeb and sulfur. Since it isn’t fruiting I’m going to try the Mancozeb/sulfur spray until about July 1st. 
2 Likes
Hmm, looks like you keep the vertical shoots?
I would keep the more horizontal shoots and make fruit seats from them.
The vertical shoots have more vigor and you can do Lorette pruning. Prune to 0,5 cm (not all at the same time, but spread over the year).
Roland, I was just guessing. I am however reading the Lorette book.
I’m trying to document the good, the bad, and the ugly. I’ve got some disease thing going on here that I can’t diagnose.
Can anyone identify what is going on here? I have a problem with my pear and don’t know whats going on.
Recently we’ve had a frost and temps in the mid 80’s. I sprayed copper, lime sulfur and dormant oil prior to the leaves emerging.
I have sprayed twice since leaf emergent with Dithane M-45 and micronized sulfur.
Generally it has been cool, dry and low humidity. One inch of rain in three weeks.
Last year the tree had a similar problem and I thought it was scab, and thought I’d be proactive this year. Can anyone help me with a diagnosis?
The pruning of hard wood should be done in winter, before the tree woke up. I vegetation period you usually just prune new growth…