Hello. I am new to this forum and fruit growing in general. My family has only ever had two apple trees on our acreage. But this winter I was looking through some seed catalogs and found out that pears, plums, and haskaps can grow in our zone. (I didn’t know pears or plums could grow here and I had never heard of haskaps/honeyberries.)
So, most of the plums came branched out and I cut them back to a few buds like some websites said to do and they are doing really well. Lots of new growth.
And most of the pears came without side branches and have sent out plenty of new growth (especially the ones from Jung and Trees of Antiquity, which I received the earliest). They were being attacked for a little while by what I think were thrips (?) keeping the leaves curled up. But they have recovered well.
The two pears that I ordered from Raintree came fully branched out and were already budding on the end of the side branches. So at the time I thought I shouldn’t cut back these branches since there were already green buds on the ends. Was this a bad idea? Should I have cut them back? And if so, is it too late to do so? Initially I thought cutting the already active buds off would slow growth, but maybe keeping that much length on the side branches slowed growth even more.
I’m also wondering why the leaves seem to be curled upward. They should be getting plenty of water.
For reference, these two trees were the last that I received - the last week of May. Fairly big root mass on both. In lower Zone 4B.
I’ll attach a picture of each.
