Pear tree: when and how to prune

Pear tree: when to prune it?

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Winter pruning, from December to March, shapes and rejuvenates the tree: you can then see the crown and the fat flower buds clearly. Don’t prune in frost.

In July–August you shorten long shoots and remove water shoots; for an espalier or cordon this is the most important prune.

Prune in dry weather: fireblight, a dangerous disease of pears, spreads in warm, wet weather.

What else to prune in those months? January · February · March · July · August · December

Pear tree: how to prune it?

1. Remove dead, diseased and crossing branches and keep the crown open, so light and air reach the fruit.
2. Bend young, upright branches down or tie them in at an angle: they then form flower buds sooner.
3. Keep the short fruiting spurs. Thin out old, crowded spur clusters, so the pears grow bigger.
4. On an espalier, cut the new side shoots back to three leaves above their base in July–August.
5. If you see blackened, scorched-looking twigs with a hooked tip, think of fireblight: cut well back in dry weather, a good way into healthy wood, and disinfect your secateurs after every cut.
6. Cut just outside the branch collar, without a stub, and saw a heavy branch off in three cuts.

How much to cut, and how often?

• No more than about a quarter of the crown per winter; pears take slightly more than apples, but too much pruning mainly gives lots of water shoots.
• Renovate an old tree over two or three winters, each time part of the branches.
• Summer pruning is limited to the new shoots: every year on an espalier, and on a free-standing tree only if it grows too strongly.

What does it mean for wildlife?

• Pears flower in April, early in the year: an important source of food for bees and bumblebees after the winter.
• Summer pruning in July and early August still falls in the nesting season (15 March–15 August). Check first for an active nest in the crown, as disturbing it is against the law; prune in the second half of August and you are outside it.
• Windfalls feed blackbirds and thrushes in autumn, and butterflies such as the red admiral, which drinks from rotting fruit.
• Put the prunings on a dead hedge: shelter for hedgehogs, wrens and insects. Branches with fireblight don’t belong there: they go in the general waste.

Common mistakes

• Leaving the steep branches upright and shortening them: the tree then grows even more upright and flowers late.
• Shortening all the one-year shoots in winter, which gives a thicket of new, upright shoots.
• Cutting branches with fireblight in wet weather, or not disinfecting the secateurs.
• Taking off too much at once, so the tree mainly makes wood and few pears.

Nearby: related pruning guides

• Apple tree
• Nashi (Asian pear)
• Quince tree
• Plum tree
• Cherry tree

Similar to: Difference from apple · Difference from quince · Difference from nashi pear · Difference from wild pear

Plant profile: Pear tree · Pruning calendar and basic rules