By Darren8
Lancashire, United Kingdom
Excess green shoots on my pear trees?
May be the wet & warm conditions this Summer but my pears are producing loads of weedy sprouts that won't be much use to long-term pruning, shaping & fruit production.
Should I snip them now or wait for Winter dormancy & then tidy them up?
- 20 Aug, 2019
Answers
Prune them now, summer prune for fruit, winter for shape.
Cut the ones you do not want to train back to a couple of leaves from where last years wood
This will generate fruiting buds
You may get slight regrowth, just cut that back to one bud later in Autumn
I pruned my apples & pear only a week or so back, training mine as sort of cordon
21 Aug, 2019
Thanks, mine are free-standing so it's just keeping their height down & tidying really. & being patient with young trees of course... Fingers crossed for fruit next year
21 Aug, 2019
Previous question
I would wait. Why do it twice? Let it finish its growth spurt. Looks like a nice healthy tree to me. I guess you'd want to keep 3 of the strongest leaders for fruit production. Is that how it works? I think pruning in Winter is better for the tree - less pathogens around to invade freshly opened wounds.
21 Aug, 2019