Hi, I have a 7 year old, 30 foot high pear tree that I’d like to make shorter. Its starting to shade the garden and I can’t reach the top fruit even with a picker. Can I cut the central trunk and if so, how much can I safely do?
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Spent the last two years shortening 30 footers. I just straight up butcher them to the size I want. They have all done well after. Basically I cut the central leader way down and trimmed all the side branches back some.
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Hi Deve. Welcome to the forum. I’m sure that some of the members can provide some good advice. I would suggest adding a couple of pictures of the tree.
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A pic might be helpful to explain your goal. Understand too tall, is there room to espalier, if you do cut out the central leader or any large diameter scaffold, make certain to not leave a large flat scar unsealed. All large cuts need to be done so they drain off any rainfall. Large cuts require several years to heal over with bark, so make cuts more vertical than horizontal, seal them with pruning sealer or latex paint, and continue to check each year for sealing until the bark completely heals over your cuts. This will prevent rot! Better to delay these large cuts until just prior to bud swell in spring, This avoids infection during dormancy
Dennis
Kent wa
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Definitely needed topping much sooner! But not too late to make a useful shape. What is your goal? If it were mine, I would cut it off right above these 3 scaffolds slanting it as much as feasible for good drainage of the scar. Then I would pull those 3 scaffolds down to nearly horizontal and prune off the tips so that lateral growth is encouraged.
Dennis,
Kent, wa
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cut at the red line?
To my eye the red line is a bit drastic.
I would likely cut central leader at blue line.
Cut out branch at yellow line ,
Hope the weight of a good crop would pull down remaining branches some , or ropes ?
Thin crowding , excessively tall branches in the next few years .
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thanks, yes the red line looks really low 
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Start by finding the height that you feel comfortable picking with the stick at. Cut everything that goes above that height. Then shorten all of the branches so they can more easily support the fruit weight. Cut out any branches facing inward.
Each year or two after come back and cut anything going straight upward or above your picking line. That’s my method, but you may find something else works better for you. I shrunk several of mine from near 35 foot to roughly 15-20. The main trunks were still over 6 inches at 20 foot. They are good now, but I should have done it sooner.
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