The pruning of fruit trees, and especially pome fruit trees such as pear and apple, requires compliance with precise rules. These trees bear fruit on all their branches, which involves pruning them differently than stone fruit trees. We explain how to proceed with the different types of pruning of a pear tree.
What are the different types of pruning to perform on a pear tree?
Like any fruit tree, a pear tree must be maintained through regular pruning. There are different types of pruning, which vary according to the age, size and life cycle of the pear tree.
The formation size of the pear tree
When pruning a young pear tree, it is called formation pruning. This is the type of pruning used tohelp a tree take its shape, whether for practical or aesthetic reasons. It is also at this time that you can choose to drive your pear tree in espalier (also called "palmettes", this gives a flat shape to your tree so that it has a maximum of light).
Fruiting size
Fruiting pruning is the type of pruning used to promote fruit production from a fruit tree. It accelerates fruiting while improving the yield of the tree.
Rejuvenation size
In a fruit tree, rejuvenation pruning consists of cutting branches that no longer produce much fruit to promote the appearance of new, more productive branches.
When is the best time to prune fruit trees?
While all fruit trees need to be pruned from time to time, not all should be pruned at the same time. Indeed, if stone fruit trees (plum trees, cherry trees) are generally pruned in spring, pome fruit trees such as pear trees must be pruned in winter.
When and how to prune a pear tree too high?
The rejuvenation pruning of a pear tree that is too high should take place in winter, between the months of November and March. It must occur before fruiting pruning, which takes place at the end of winter.
Can a pear tree be carved into flowers?
Pruning pear trees in summer is not recommended, so it is better not to prune a pear tree in bloom. However, it is possible to prune green at the beginning of June. It consists of selecting the largest fruits and eliminating the others to promote their growth, using different techniques depending on the shape of the tree.
What are the different pruning shapes of a pear tree?
To increase the yield or facilitate the harvesting of fruit trees, they can be pruned in different shapes. Here are the different shapes you can give to your pear tree.
To increase the yield or facilitate the harvesting of fruit trees, they can be pruned in different shapes. Copyright (c) 2022 Joe Kuis/Shutterstock. No use without permission.
How to prune a columnar pear tree?
Some varieties of dwarf pear trees naturally take the form of a small tree with short branches, whose protruding branches are enough to shorten to give it a columnar shape.
How to prune a pear tree in full air?
An open-air pear tree is a free-form pear tree, whose twig growth is not particularly oriented. For this type of shape, a maintenance pruning is simply to reduce the extent of the crown and remove dead or sterile branches.
How to cut a pear tree into a cup?
Goblet- or spindle-shaped pear trees are cut so that they have a short trunk and a compact shape. To obtain this shape, it is necessary to remove the axial carpenter branch and promote the appearance of radiating carpenters around the trunk. They must then be guided on a vertical axis with stakes to create a cup shape.
How to cut a pear tree in espalier?
An espalier pear tree, or trellised pear tree, is a pear tree whose growth has been oriented by stakes and cords, so that it grows along an alley or against a wall.
The size of a trellised pear tree varies according to the shape given to the pear tree during its formation, since a trellised pear tree can take the form of a palmetteor cord. This specific form of trellised pear trees consists of removing the vertical branches to keep only fairly low side branches.
How to cut a U-shaped or double-U pear tree?
We speak of U-shaped or double-U pear tree to describe a palmette-shaped trellised pear tree composed of two vertical carpenter branches. We speak of double U when the pear tree takes the form of four vertical carpenter branches, or two U side by side. We can also mention the Verrier palmette which consists of four vertical carpenter branches taking the shape of a U in a U.
How to grow a pear tree?
To make a pear tree fruit, it is necessary to carry out a particular fruiting pruning, reserved for pome fruit trees: the trigem pruning.
This pruning technique consists of cutting each lateral branch after its third eye. This allows each eye to develop into a new branch or stinger, which can give birth to flowers the following year.
It is therefore necessary to differentiate between a wood eye and a stinger, usually sharper and drier, taking care not to cut its branch just above a stinger. Indeed, a stinger located at the end of the branch would give rise to a sterile leafy stem, while it could turn into a flowering bud as close as possible to the birth of the branch.
By pruning its pear tree with a three-gem tree, we promote the appearance of flowering buds in order to increase fruit production from year to year.
