Asian Pear tree with 3.5' skinny bare trunk
HU-659158916
last year
At a plant sale I saw this Asian Pear tree with only a few short branches and a few leaves on top of 3.5' of skinny bare trunk. There are countless of remnents of small buds someof which look like been shaved off.
There are several various shapes of white spots which remind meof white powdery mildew. Today is 9/15, the other tree still look full compared to thid tree on the right of the picture.
Does the condition of this tree sound unhealthy? Thank you.
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Comments (9)
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Initial pruning of an Asian Pear with two leaders
Comments (3)Unless one would make it easier to have a straight leader you'd of course want to run with largest one. In my brevity I didn't mention that pears are sometimes grown as 3 leader trees to allow you to remove a single one if it gets struck by fire blight. I still wouldn't want to use 2 codominant leaders to do this because it would make the union weak. Not to make it more confusing, but I've read that pears are less likely to break from narrow, inverted bark unions of the type formed by codominant leaders than most other species. Wasn't my original answer more functional?...See MoreAsian pear tree form training, help.
Comments (4)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....See Morebroken out of sync baby Asian pear
Comments (4)Draw a curve and imagine two downward forces at each end. Then put an upward force in the center of the curve. By tying to the center of the curve you effectively increased the weight on the curve at that point. It's hard to break the stick just by applying force to both ends, easy when you add the upward force of your knee to the center. Next time either tie to where the weight is or prop it up from the ground at the point of the weight. If you have strong crotches sagging branches aren't always a problem (although you may not like the natural training results of a "weeping" fruit tree). I have an apple branch that trained itself to a downward 45° angle, curved from crotch to tip. It's a 15+ year old tree and I think the branch did that around 3 years ago after I had given up on getting edible fruit and hadn't decided to start spraying yet so it was in a period of neglect. It was plenty old enough to be up to producing. In fact that tree is sagging more with every rain right now. My 20yr old espaliered McIntosh produces on skinny growths that shoot out between fruits. Some of those are hanging straight down and they're smaller than a child's finger. (I think the tree is getting old or it doesn't like the size I want it to be.) Knowing how much is too much is a live and learn issue. Like now you've learned not to tie to the middle of the curved branch. I wouldn't write off the later bloomer. The tree is young. The late one could be self-pollinating and the out of sync only matters for looks. I would figure the person who put it together had some clue about whether they would pollinate each other....See MoreHow long until kieffer pear tree bares fruit?
Comments (13)My Kieffer pear from Home Depot in Hooksett, NH went into the ground in Manchester (Zone 5b) in late spring 2017, Right now, fall 2018, it still has 13 of its 18 pears. They are large and basically unblemished. Squirrels and birds attacked my plums, peaches, and apples, but not the pears, so far. The Luscious pears were a bit too ripe almost a month ago, but these Kieffer pears are not ripe yet. They are tender enough to bite now, but not yet sweet, here. Not bad, but not sweet yet. I will leave them a couple more weeks. My tree was about 8 ft tall when I planted it, and is about 12 feet tall now, in about 18 months from purchase. Since my Heritage raspberries have gotten 10' tall, i suspect this pear tree also will get taller than predicted. That's it, the skinny thing in the center of the picture, as of September 9, 2018....See More
HU-659158916
last yearlast modified: last yearHU-659158916
last yearHU-659158916
last yearTo Bill of MN:
It is now planted!, mulched it more then 2 ft wide 2"deep, didn't bury the trunk at all. Picture attached.
I'll do a progress report by Fall 2023 at the latest.
To Ken of Adrien MI:No, there is no downside, this helps me to learn, it will be fun watching it change.
This is my first year growing fruit trees and vegetables, so I'm all for hands on learning. Since late April, I've planted an Ayer Pear, a Black Ice Plum, a Toka Plum, a Chicago Hardy Fig, 2 Thornless Blackberry, a June Yellow Plum (didn't survive), Nikita's Gift Persimmon (under the union side shoots survived), 2 Golden Currant, plus a lot of vegetables.
If I wasn't in zone5b, I would have planted a Mango tree also.
Thanks to you all, much appreciated.
.
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BillMN-z-2-3-4