[Geordie]

Could do with some advice on how to reduce the size of my pear tree please.

It's about 5 year old, 7ft in height and needs a bit of a haircut. I think it should have had the central leader removed when it was younger but this never happened so it's a bit congested.

It produces a decent crop except for last year (2023). In previous years lots of pears were produced but the weight of the fruit meant the branches sagged quite badly.

I was thinking that I would try and reduce the central leader gradually over that next 2/3 years and to reduce the number of main stems off the central leader back to about 4 or 5?

Any advice or tips would be very welcome. 😀

[New shoot]

I would say all of those branches need reducing in length, but as you might lose the fruit buds when you do this, trim maybe 1/3 right back and then another 1/3 next winter and so on.

I cut the central leader right back down on one of my pear trees on the plot over the winter of 2022 and several side branches. I got the best crop ever even with the less than ideal growing conditions last year.

The remaining fruiting branches really benefited from the lack of competition 

[Geordie]

Thanks New shoot. Do you think I should remove all the low lying/horizontal branches near the base as well?

Just had a closer look today and it looks like the main stem goes off into a Y formation about 1ft off the ground with one side slightly thicker.

 

[New shoot]

Do you think I should remove all the low lying/horizontal branches near the base as well?

 

On my allotment site, fruit that low would be eaten by muntjac deer so I would take off branches like that, but even if that is not a concern for you,  I think I would still lose them to make it easier to get to the centre of the tree to prune it.

The split trunk should be fine, but you might want to make sure you thin out branches that point into the centre of the tree and towards each other, just to make sure all the fruit gets enough sun. 

My rule with tree pruning is do a bit and then spend the next couple of plot visits having a look and a serious think about whether you need to do more.  It is easy enough to decide to have another go - less so if you are trying to stick a branch back on because you regret cutting it 

[Geordie]

Thanks you for the advice.

I will be removing lower branches, thinning out the centre and reducing the height by 1/3rd.

Might do it over 3 sessions on different days so I can reflect on what I've done!