So I have a Hosui asian pear and a Bartlett pear. Past years they have had very upright growth - so much so that I judiciously used spreader bars and tie downs to have them be more horizontal.
This year however shortly after they both leafed out and started putting on some growth I noticed the branches drooping to horizontal… and then downwards in an arch, falling all over each other.
I’m not sure what could be causing this and if i need to do anything to prevent it. I did fertilize them this year, and winter pruned them less than previous years.
On one hand I know that the weepy growth will encourage fruit set, on the other hand it will also encourage suckering and the crowded canopy encourages disease.
What would you do?
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Dimitri, I have a long and complicated response to your question but I’m not sure it’s any good and I’m waiting for others. If nobody speaks up later I’ll give you my two cents worth. In the meantime, I have to say I’m a little confused by your pictures. Are we looking at pictures of one tree or two, which is which, that kind of thing. Maybe put some more photos up if you can?
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I got one thing for ya. Everybody knows Richard in California… well, he told me to buy a book that’s been off patent for like a hundred years. Here’s how pear produces fruit, Dimitri.
Sincerest regards,
Dax
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Dmitri, as threatened:
Here are some thoughts, but don’t make any cuts until you get more opinions!
Your pear is not just weepy, it’s positively viny, and completely out of balance. I think that once your leader lost control your other branches took off, but weren’t strong enough to handle their own weight. Now you have branches that are longer than the tree is tall, and are arching back up.
You’re right that the more horizontal growth favors fruiting, but you need stronger, stouter branches. And you have three new leaders forming at the top of the tree (top picture). I would consider heading back the scaffold branches pretty severely, cutting to a downward-pointing bud, removing the sprouts that have formed, as well as the downward-pointing secondary branches, and stopping the fetilizer. As for the leader, your best bet might be to choose one of them and remove the others completely. The new growth that is appearing on the top on the arches can be removed completely, or some can be kept by pinching back to three leaves every time you notice them.
Heading back well into last year’s wood or even deeper will result in shorter, stiffer branches. Once apical dominance is re-established the tree should start to behave itself again instead of acting like a gangly teenager on espresso shots. I’m suggesting that in this case the ferts were the espresso.
I doubt you’ll get any fruiting for at least a couple of years, maybe more. But once you do that will also help tame the tree. And it looks like the branches are attached at nice angles, so my thinking is that in time this will be a well-structured, attractive, and healthy tree.
Better minds may prevail.
:-)M
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You want a structure that looks more like this.
Bartlett pear that is 4 years old on dwarfing rootstock. Pruned back to an open center to accommodate my taste is pruning style.
Yeah I can see what you mean. I think that me NOT pruning as severely in an effort to reduce vigor completely backfired. That and I need to stop fertilizing.
I think I may have chopped the top of my ‘modified central leader’ off a bit too early - but to be fair it had shot up 10’ in the air already and I imagine it would have just kept going.
I’ll plan to more aggressively cut back the growth this winter and start doing some summer pruning to focus the vigor to the parts I intend to keep. I’m moving off this property in 3-4 yrs so I’ll just continue to use it for pruning experiments.
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