Bending the branches over at about that angle is a good idea. That will encourage fruiting. My concern is the very weak structure of the tree. It appears that there are three branches all originating at the same point and at a very sharp angle. That area of the tree will split out under the weight of fruit, ice, or snow.
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I agree, that is a big concern. However, to me it depends what the rootstock is and if he intends to keep the tree small. If it has a dwarfing rootstock it should be relatively easy to keep the tree in the 6 - 8 ft range. A tree that small can be easily trellised, or have some stakes driven to attach the main branches to for support. I have a dwarf clapps favorite that basically ended up that way because of the deer and their pruning job. It has lasted almost 20 years with only 2 branches that are in a V coming of the trunk at the same point. It has never split on me and it is not supported. Mind you, it is a notoriously small copper. I took one of the 2 V branches off this spring and grafted it with Dewdrop pear. All of a sudden the tree started sprouting growth all along the trunk when it never put out any new branches before. After all this time I finally have a bunch of new branches to reshape the tree to a bit lower profile. BTW, the graft did take, so itâs now a multi graft pear tree.
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I get what you are saying. I will take a closer look at it. One of those angles does look bad, maybe itâs the picture making the other two that bad.
Iâd hate to prune it that much though. Itâs been growing crazily slow.
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Rootstock is G.202, so nope, not dwarfing enough. I was thinking though that if I did keep it like that, I could potentially put supports under those limbs, and that might take enough of the weight that it wouldnât be a problem.
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The slow growth is a good reason to prune your tree hard. It appears that the tree has runted out, which is probably what happened to the Clappâs Favorite pear that @tbg9b describes in the post above yours. He pruned off 50% of the fruiting wood to graft on a new variety and the tree responded with a lot of new growth. Severe pruning is a good way to stimulate new growth in a runted tree and get it back on track.
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HighandDry nailed it: I did that to Claygate early in '23 & it suddenly shot up and out. Very happy with the result & keenly awaiting its first actual crop in 2025. I should note it took a little clean-up pruning 4 or 5 weeks after the Big Cut to reinforce what I was after, but nothing besides.
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Itâs surprising that the growth is still so small in caliper with that much length. Did you prune off a portion of the limbs to strengthen branches and encourage bud formation?
My Arkansas black is very"limbertwiggy" on the ends of branches but the trunk is thicker and supports the tree well. I do have to support limbs that have more than a few fruit.
I visited the Sundance at the orchard of friends, planted last spring ('23) only to find it on the ground. Gopher(s) chewed through the root just an inch or so below the surface. I cut what small scions could be salvaged & will try grafting them onto Bud118 & MM111. Sigh.
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Any chance you have an extra stick of that Sundance?