Orange Pippin Forum Board

Anyone tried this variety yet? It is a new release from Ontario Canada. Supposed to be a very nice pear, anyone try this yet? What type of prunning systems have people tried with pears?

Cheers,

VistaBellaFarm

I use branch spreaders made from sticks with sharp nails protruding from the ends. Some pears want to go straight up, so early spreading of branches works pretty well.

These spreaders are kinda fun to make. I usually drill a tiny pilot hole in the end of a stick, then pound my nail in. Next I clip off the head of the nail with bolt cutters and resharpen the nail on a grinder.If you leave an inch of nail shank showing, that is about right.

The sharp ends poke right into the trunk of a tree and then you bend a branch and use the other nail to poke into the bark and voila, it holds. After a summers worth of that they pretty much freeze in position and you can use your spreader somewhere else.

I planted a Seckle and Magness pears. Thanks for the tip about straightening the branches appledude; already do on my apples and quinces. I was hoping that the weight of the pear branches as the tree matures would be enough to weight it down.

Mike

Interesting, but that seems a very "cruel" style of making spreaders. Why wouldn't you try to use notches and ties instead of poking nails into the young bark? I'm sure nails would hold but gosh, may open up nasty wounds to let in diseases etc.

I take 2-3 foot lengths of old branches from my burn pile (they are dead and dried) and tie the tree branches to this dead wood. The dead wood straightens out the branches and weighs them down so that they are mostly between 45-60 degrees off the central leader. With apple trees and new growth, this treatment can be removed 4-6 months (at least that is how long I keep them on) later and used on other branches. This year I am trying this method over the winter into the next growing season. Plan to remove as the tree really starts growing so not to strangle the new branches as they expand radially.

Prune all branches that point inward and never let the branches get over 5 ft long as pears bear heavy and will break out the branches on the tree. also if you cut the branch where a bud is pointing in the direction you want the branch will grow in that direction.