How does the pollen get from one Asian pear tree to the other, by the wind? I have never seen a bee visit any of my Asian pear tree blossoms, while I see dozens of them on my nectarine trees. I have been trying to hand pollinate them using a brush but I think I spread fireblight doing that that killed my Hosui, so am not doing it anymore. The year I didn't hand pollinate I didn't get any fruit, maybe just a coincidence? I had a Shinseki, 20th Century, and the Hosui that died. The Hosui was the best producer, making full size fruit. The Shinseki and 20Th century make tiny fruit that ants usually eat their way into from the stem end, ruining the fruit. I bought these trees from a nursery that has a no return policy so I am stuck with them.

I think you can train any tree to an open center- what can be difficult and finally defeating is training some species, and or varieties to central leader. For a tree with an upright growth habit a central leader can be helpful in eventually getting to an open center- either for using the trunk to help push out branches to more horizontal with branch spreaders or using lower temporary branches to tie or tape higher branches to a more horizontal position. A 3 to 5' whip is the least tree I would want to plant to begin with- better when it's already got some branches to work with. I agree you shouldn't be thinking about fruit now and I wouldn't keep a single one on a tree that small. If you want scaffolds to start at 24 inches or any point less than your trees current height, I would cut the tree to the height you want the first branches. Several shoots should appear soon, probably all of them almost immediately below the cut. Rather than getting all your scaffolds at that point you should choose one shoot to be the leader and two other shoots to be subordinate to it and function as your first scaffolds. You can accomplish this by pinching those two shoots back a bit during the growing season. You can leave some others to be temporary branches but keep them subordinate to the chosen ones. If no other potential scaffolds form during the growing season from your new leader you can repeat the process maybe a foot up from where you topped the tree this year next season. For an Asian pear I would use 4 scaffold branches to create an open center tree because they don't tend to create a lot of secondary wood, but I agree with FN that the less you prune to eventually get where you are going, the better. You can leave plenty of temporary branches until the tree is bearing crop and then begin to remove surplus branches. I do prefer a central leader shape for all pears (at least for their first 30 years) and go open center with plums and peaches- even very upright plums which I may keep as central leaders for as long as 10 years Peaches I will usually convert in 3 or 4.

I'm no expert...still a novice, but I have a couple Asian Pears that are 3 or 4 years old. The biggest thing I've had to do was train the branches to grow some direction other than straight up. You can do this by tying them down, or using a branch spreader, or a clothes pin. It looks like the lower branches on the right side are off to a good start. I'd say keep all the branches as low as possible without them causing you troubles, like the lawnmower, the dog, the kid, etc.

Of the four Asians that I planted, back in '96: Chojuro is #1 - big, pretty fruits with great flavor, doesn't tend to overbear as much as the others. Shinko - close second. Heavy bearer, and needs thinning, but even without thinning the fruits size up pretty good(and will break branches), good flavor, but not as good as Chojuro. Niitaka - really overbears, and fruits will not size if you don't thin. Usually lacking in flavor - plenty of juice, but just sweet, with little character; they were good last year, but this year just so-so. Korean Giant/Don Bae - a real 'dog' for me. Never set more than 2 or 3 fruits in a year - they got huge, but were big watery, tasteless things. Kinda like eating a wet raw potato. I didn't shed a tear when fireblight killed it to the ground.