This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Pruning 100 year old pear tree
Charlie Saylor
Posts: 2
in Fruit & veg
I have a very old pear tree that has been neglected for a long time. It bore a lot of fruit last year but most of the fruit fell off before they ripened.
The base is about 1.5 feet in diameter. I heard that several years ago a storm broke the top out of the tree. It has many small branches, and not many substantial branches. I need advice on how to prune this tree.
Thanks for any advice.
0
Posts
It's always worth a try renovating it, although it's likely that the wounds where it snapped will be allowing water to get into the trunk! As suggested remove no more than 40% of the branches on a yearly cycle in winter and see if it recovers. This process should prevent over vigorous re growth
Thanks pansyface and Rhod for your comments. I presume then I shouldn't cut the big trunck off at the top at an angle to help prevent rot? Too much stress?
I'll try thinning out the some of small shoots/limbs and see what happens.