How does limb branching work? Trying to visualize future growth to help with pruning

Looking at my peach and pear trees it seems like their branching habit is very different. The peach for example will have a branch coming off the trunk with dozens of 8 - 12 inch shoots all over it. The pears on the other hand will have a branch coming off the trunk with only a few, if any, 3 - 6 inch shoots.

I did a lot of limb training and spreading on the pears towards late summer so it looks almost too “open” now, with 3-4’ branches with a lot of space between them. The canopy looks like its… inefficient, with a lot of light passing through it when compared to the peach which looks “dense” with leaves filling out a lot of the canopy.

So my question is how does a tree decide to create shoots on a branch which will later become their own branches. Will the spaced-out looking canopy fill in on its own or do I need to do some pruning to induce branching?

Any website or documents on the technical details of fruit tree growth would be greatly appreciated.

1 Like

This could fill a book .
But , in short .
Pears bear fruit on spurs ( very short branches)
And yes, I think your pear will fill in shortly
Peaches bear fruit on new ( one year old) branches)
And since you have a lot of new 1 ft long growth that’s good,you may have to thin these.

2 Likes