Pruning the pear trees

Luscious tree before pruning and after (sorry its blurry, i cant exactly go back and take another before picture)


Parker tree before and after


Summercrisp tree before and after


Patten tree before and after


i followed the pruning advice and pictures from a book on pruning fruit trees that advises to cut the branches back by 2/3 during january or february while the tree is dormant. i suspect that these trees i planted last spring are now three years old. i believe they were two year old baby trees when i got them, but they may have been only one year old, though the Patten tree thats more thin than the others may only be going on two years. they still need to be directing their energy into good strong roots, and pruning so severely will help them to do that when they wake up in spring. i may not have pruned them enough. i'm still uncertain how much i should thin branches to form a good initial shape to the tree so that branches dont cross in the middle and stuff.

edited to add i think the advice and pictures came from this book pruning basics by david squire