Please Assess Seckel Pear for Proper Structure

General Fruit Growing
1

Hi Folks.

I got this Seckel Pear a bit ago and cleaned up the branches and angles to what I think is proper for a Central Leader type of pruning. I recorded a 1m video going around the tree and hope someone may have time to review it and provide some feedback \ guidance on how it looks. All my other trees are Espalier or SSA (Cherries) so this was my first attempt at it.

My Goals, based on what I think I learned:

  1. 45ā€™-60ā€™ Angles
  2. No crossing branches
  3. Keep branches 12" apart vertically
  4. No downward branch growth (I have a spur though)

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

Seckel Pear Structure

-AO

2

Iā€™m not a good pruner, but I think your tree looks good. Nice branch angles. I think that there is a cluster of rather dominant scaffold branches about chest high on your tree though (just where the leader takes off by itself) and Iā€™d get further guidance on those. I guess it looks a little top heavy right there to me.

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3

My only comment is to watch for collars pressing each other and forming creases in that top branch cluster (sort of like little butt cracks). This is I think the same area Mark is mentioning. That could be an area of concern for future trunk splitting when you load up the branches with fruit. If these creases are forming it may be best to just prune out the weaker branch at this point.

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4

I see one that is sturdy but looks like it may be tight on the collar. I am not clear on which ones Looked tight. I can go take some more pics with colored tags which may help. Thank you both for the feedback!