"jonperry" wrote in message
s.com...
snip
That's the intro. Now to my question. Two of the trees we planted are
pear trees. I ordered them from the Good Housekeeping magazine and
planted them in February (I think!). Both trees are doing well.
Essentially they resemble beanpoles with numerous short shoots and
leaves sprouting all the way up. I want them to be 'bush' (?) trees
eventually but I'm not sure how or when to prune them. I've searched
the net for advice but the only info I've found seems to be about
pruning more mature trees.

Any advice gratefully received.

You don't say how old these trees are.

If they are one year old 'maidens' then they will just be a vertical thin
trunk with lots of side growth awaiting your choice of structure - bush,
espalier, cordon.

If they are 2 or 3 years old then someone will have made the initial
decision for you.

From the pictures they look like 'maidens'.

According to my book (a venerable Readers Digest Illustrated Guide to
Gardening) the planting and pruning should really be done in winter
(although I guess February is still just winter) :

"If you buy a one-year-old (maiden) tree, cut the stem back to 18-24 inches
high, just above a bud, after planting in autumn or winter. The buds or
small shoots just below the cut will grow out the following summer. There
may be only 3 or 4, perhaps more. Choose 3 or 4 to form the first branches.
They should be evenly spaced round the stem snip. Rub out with your thumb
any unwanted buds or shoots."

However, it is a bit late for that now :-)

The general principle is pretty straightforward though, and similar to
getting most plants to bush out.
With trees the timescale is years; with annuals this can take place over
weeks.

You take out the growing tip just above a bud or shoot, and this prompts
several side shoots to grow out.
Aim to have three or four, equally spaced around the main trunk.
These form the base of your 'cup' or 'goblet' shape - the clear space in the
middle allows light to get into the centre of the tree, and the top of all
the main branches.
Once these have grown out they are also cut back, and side shoots grow out
from these, forming a denser network of branches but maintaining the symetry
of the 'cup'.

You also remove all the side shoots below your chosen branches, to leave a
clean stem/trunk.
This gives the classsic bush shape - clean trunk then bushy head of
branches.

Looking at your pictures, tree 2 looks reasonably O.K. but should have been
shortened to encourage the formation of a bushy head. tree 1 looks a bit of
a mess with some long low down branches.

I assume the choice of 18-24" given in my book is allowing for growth in the
trunk which will raise the lowest branches to 4' or higher in the mature
tree.

With the usual disclaimers, I think that probably you should take the
'better late than never' approach and shorten the top and clean up the trunk
to give you the shape you should have had to start with.

This will set back your trees because they have invested quite a bit of
energy in growing the bits you didn't want, but it is probably better to do
the shaping now instead of waiting until winter and losing a whole season.

The book also says "Ideally a tree should not be allowed to bear fruit in
the first year after planting.." so I guess that with the late pruning and
everything you should ensure that there are no fruit this year.
You may however wish to let any blossom set into small fruitlets, just to
prove that you have a fertile combination of trees, before removing them.

Caveat emptor etc. - I should not take just my reading of a fairly old book
but cross-check with other advice.

However my feeling remains that you should be pruning for structure a.s.a.p.
to allow most of the growing season to be focussed on froming the new
branches.

HTH
Dave R

P.S. If you don't priune a pear then you can get some really interesting (!)
results. Our neighbour has an old pear tree next to the fence which has been
allowed to grow upwards. It is now nearly as tall as our house (24'-30' I
guess) with a main single stem, and only bears fruit on the last 10' or so.
No chance of picking fruit without the aid of an atomic pogo stick, and the
autum nights are punctuated by the soggy thump of over ripe pears dropping
onto our shed roof.