Too late to prune pear tree?

At the moment, only the large blossom buds are opening on my pears - I can just make out several matchhead-sized flower buds and some tiny star-like leaves.

Do you really have new soft green shoots and leaves already?

If the only buds are the blossom buds, then you'll be OK to prune - but do it within the next week or two!

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You are correct; upright shoots tend to not be fruitful for many years (although they will eventually fruit and grow side branches; that's how trees get taller). However, the upright shoots can often be pruned back, which will cause them to produce side branches which will be more fruitful.
Or if the uprights are badly placed, then cut them almost (but not quite) flush with their point of origin, to reduce the likelihood of re-growth.

No, I meant the new growth was last years new growth, but I just hadn't pruned it over winter.
I haven't seen anything on it this year yet, just barely the first signs of budding - but not sure if these are blossom buds or what.

It's pretty packed around the centre of the tree. This may be because I pruned back last year pretty hard (it was getting too big) and now it's fighting back with a vengeance! I think I'm going to need to cut some of it out, else it won't be able to breathe once it's in full leaf.

Thanks.

You can prune as long as the leaves are not beginning to appear.

If your tree is over-vigorous, prune the new growth (only the new growth!) back to just a couple of inches (2-3 new buds) in July. It never fails to make my trees crop heavily the next couple of seasons and slow down to a manageable growth rate.

When you prune it in the next week or two, bear in mind how it will re-grow and how you could make it an even better shape with the July follow up pruning.

Hmm, I'd never heard of that. I'd always been told not to touch it during summer. But that sounds like exactly what I need, since it produced fewer pears last year and I just put it down to a bad year.

I'll put it in my garden diary now!

Thanks FB.

The summer pruning technique is mainly used for cordons, espaliers and other trained forms, where they need to be kept within a certain space, while remaining as productive as possible.

The summer pruning must be complete by early August at the absolute latest, otherwise it may simply knock the life out of the tree without the benefit of fruiting the next year.

Essentially, summer pruning serves several functions:

1. Keeps new growth in check and restricts the size.

2. Takes away a lot of leaves (hence light-gathering ability, reducing the power to the roots; if the tree is already growing rapidly, it doesn't need more roots!).

3. Fruit spurs are usually produced on two year old wood, although can be produced on early-season growth if the summer is hot, dry and the soil quite low in nutrients (i.e. the tree is slightly stressed).
In normal circumstances, stems which grew in 2009 will be converting some "dormant" side buds into fatter fruit buds during 2010 and those spurs will flower and fruit for the first time in 2011. During 2011, these fruit spurs will grow additional fruit buds for 2012, which gradually builds up a spur system. After several years, the spurs are best removed and new ones allowed to grow - the fruit quality slowly declines as fruit spurs get older and the spurs can gradually get a bit of damage or disease.
Canker disease likes to enter in autumn via the wounds on fruit spurs where the fruit stalk was attached.

If the tree is well-watered, well-fed and in good soil, it will not fruit well. Trees that are slightly stressed are more fruitful.
By pruning the new season's wood, you force the tree to "vent out" the nutrients coming from the roots. The new growth is stopped by the pruning and the older wood doesn't have time to activate buds to grow new branches before the end of the season (trees can tell that daylight hours are getting shorter, therefore no point growing with autumn approaching). This means that the previous season's growth is stimulated to switch "wood" buds into "fruit" buds to "vent out" the supply of nutrients the next season.