SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS IN ORCHARD DESIGN, TRAINING AND PRUNING SYSTEMS FOR PEAR TREES

Much of the information developed for training and pruning apple orchards has been used for pears because of similarities in growth and fruiting habit.
There are, however, major growth differences: there are no triploid commercial pear cultivars, which would present the problem of rank growth, nor spur-type mutants which maintain some growth control; few semi-dwarfing pear rootstocks have been available, except quince which can only be grown under specific conditions and is incompatible with certain cultivars; susceptibility to loss of leaders or laterals of a pear tree due to fire blight, and the greater physical strength of pear wood, allowing narrower crotch angles.
Cropping of pear trees can be altered more by pruning methods than can apple trees, because head pruning of pear trees can increase fruit set dramatically.
Lack of biennial bearing of pears requires less attention to fruit thinning and to corrective pruning measures than has been necessary for most apple cultivars.
Growth regulants that are useful for apple training and bloom promotion are seldom registered or active on pear trees.
These growth and fruiting differences are some of the considerations in research for the development of new pear orchards and pruning of pear trees.

III International Symposium on Pear Growing

Porter B. Lombard

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1982.124.22