Unless folks with experience in dwarf in containers can respond, I'll probably do half of them per the book and the other half as Harvestman has advised. Yeah the "leave em until they fruit" is what you've suggested before and gave me a lot of peace about doing nothing. Until I started reading and reading.... so much of "textbook" advice is to start at Year 1 to do it correctly, esp. for pyramid shape trees b/c you don't another chance to have so much vigor focused on the bottom half of the tree. The American Horticultural Society Pruning & Training book (the 1996 version, not the older one at many libraries) has a good section on pruning fruit trees and esp. the section on making Dwarf Pyramid trees for pears and apples. That particular section diagrams in detail what to do in each winter and summer following the Lorette method. They do not cover container pruning; it's all in-ground examples using either Quince A or C (yeah, a little outdated) but I am assuming that section is accurate and worthy of the praise & various recommendations the book itself gets. I'm guessing a 333 pear in a 10gallon container (first 2 years) may show similar growth to a Quince A/C in ground? What do you think will happen if I over-prune like I described above? Does the tree weaken and lose vitality. How much "energy" was expended leafing out on the tips, since I'm going to cut it off. I really don't know how sensitive these apples/pears are. Thanks

I was looking for suggestions about pruning my lemon tree because I thought it was getting too tall, but according to what I have just read I guess i’ll Let it continue to grow. It was started from an overripe lemon that I had about 3 years ago and right now it is almost. 4 feet tall. I pinched it back several times in the past to try making it bushier which it did and now it is growing rapidly again. Hopefully if I let it grow I will get some fruit to go with the beautiful foliage.

EW - The best time to repot F lyrata is around mid-Jun if you're N of the equator, and mid-Dec if you're south of it. If you're less than 25-30* N or S latitude, it's not particularly important when you repot. If you want to achieve that look, and especially that look combined with that ht, you'll need to make some sacrifices. Trees thicken and trunks strengthen in a direct relationship with foliage mass, The more leaves, the faster the tree grows, thickens, and strengthens. To replicate that look, your job would be to try to make sure the terminal bud on the main stem doesn't get damaged or removed until the plant is about 3/4 as tall as you want it in the end. In the meantime, you should only tip-prune any branches that occur, so you maintain as much foliage on the tree as possible. As the tree approaches the desired ht, you'll start removing the lowest branches and working your way upward over time. If you allow any secondary branching (branches of the main stem, to grow 2 - 3 leaves, then remove the apex (growing tip), more branches will be forced to grow from the leaf axils. You can then keep those oriented toward growth that flatters the plant, and remove those that spoil your vision for what you'd like it to be. Often, growing is a catch 22. If we maintain a plant so it always looks its best in the immediate, we might be destroying its future. If we're serious about having our plants grow into something that is going to be pleasing to the eye at maturity, we usually need to make some sacrifices and stick with a plan as the plant moves through the formative stages. I realize how much that is to ask of a grower because of how long it took me to develop the ability to look ahead. The good news is, though, I didn't have anyone to help me learn to see into the future or explain all this to me, you do. ;-) Al

I'm guessing the tail graft on the head didn't take, Sandy? I've been having fecal results from my grafting as well. The scions I was using were from Rinoa plants. The plants themselves are very healthy but the branches need time to mature. Anything less than half a centimeter in diameter just dried up too quickly before they could attach. Pagan