I have a few cherry and pear trees of the same size and for the last two years the rabbits have been prunning them for me and they are very bad prunners. They do this prunning when the ground is covered with a foot or more snow and nothing else to eat (other than cedar hedges which they don't eat). There is something in the fruit trees wood that attracts the rabbits for food. They leave their pooh as fertilizer for the tree as reward. I knew this may happen so I put burlap around one of the new bing cherry plant and I saw squirrel pulling down the burlap and cutting pieces from it, collecting it in the mounth and later taking to the nest for decoration to make it comfortable for the coming Ontario harsh winter. So, it is going to be the chicken wire next year which may allow me to do some prunning to my liking.

Dormant pruning will allow your "bad" wood to feed the roots a little longer which should generate somewhat more vigorous growth out of dormancy next year. For young trees I tend only to prune with tools when dormant and steer growth by pinching when they're growing. Once trees are producing adequate crops I prune "when the sheers are sharp". It is only dangerous to prune when wounds have inadequate time to harden off before severe cold weather. For apples I've often read that 2 weeks and -25F are the 2 important numbers on this issue. I would guess that cherries are more tender. Late winter or very early spring would be safest. Around here, peaches are best pruned around bloom to reduce the risk of canker, although I usually prune them well before without apparent consequence.

I have a comice pear tree that is overgrown (probably 12 feet tall). I don't think it has ever been pruned before. There's no main trunk that goes all the way to the top. Instead, the main trunk goes up to around 4' and then as it continues up, it successively branches into 4 "trunks", all pointing vertically. Also, there's another smaller comice pear tree growing out of the ground right next (touching) to the trunk of the original comice pear tree. That sucker(?) is around 7' tall. I don't know how old the original pear tree is (it came with the house), but it bore 6 fruit last year. How do I prune the original comice pear tree such that it is not so tall? What do I do with the smaller pear tree growing right next to it? Do I chop it off at ground level or try to dig it out? The cherry tree (came with the house too) was trained to be an espalier, but then neglected, so that the main trunk and topmost branches shot upwards until it reached about 10'. How do I prune the cherry tree? Can anyone help? Thanks so much!

While I respect your considered opinion, gg, (thank you for sharing your knowledge) pruning when the tree isn't growing is very much advised against when it comes to stone fruit. No orchard owner here in the PA fruit belt prunes the stone fruit until the very last thing. A snowy winter when it's hard to get into the blocks means that in many years peaches, plums and cherries are pruned when in bloom. It is pretty, but pretty jarring too, to see the orchard floors spread with pink and white bloom. This from Maryland: Stone fruit trees are also very susceptible to a disease called Cystospora canker. If pruned in late winter, the tree cannot protect the pruning wounds from infection by this disease. Prune your trees from budswell through petal fall in the spring. (The bold type is from the MD Extension Service site.) This from Penn State: "The best time to prune is from just before bloom to 2 weeks after petal fall. Do not prune the trees from January through March, and do not prune before budswell. Stone fruit trees are very susceptible to a disease called cytospora canker. If pruned in the winter, the trees cannot protect the pruning wounds from infection by this disease. The exception is sweet cherries, which are best pruned after they have fruited or in early July.