Detailed Explanation of Key Points of Winter Pruning Techniques for Pear Trees

When pear trees enter dormancy, it is a great time for winter pruning. The pruning techniques for different age stages are as follows:

1. Pruning of young trees: The purpose of pruning is to shape the tree well, cultivate a good framework, promote branching, expand the canopy, promote branches, and bear fruit early. Generally, long branches are lightly pruned and left to grow slowly, upright vigorous branches are bent flat, medium and short branches are retained, and the sprouted shoots are used as much as possible to expand the canopy. Apart from thinning out some overly dense branches, thinning is generally not carried out.

2. Pruning during the full fruiting period: The main purpose of pruning is to control tree growth, keep the tree within a predetermined range, keep the canopy from becoming shaded, facilitate ventilation and light penetration, maintain a vigorous and stable moderate tree vigor, and extend the full fruiting period. For plants with relatively vigorous tree vigor, vigorous growth should be controlled, with more thinning and less heading back, removing upright branches and retaining slanted branches, retaining more flower buds, and using fruit to suppress tree vigor so that it tends toward moderate tree vigor; for plants with relatively weak tree vigor, use heavier pruning methods, cut back strong branches at the middle, and thin out weak branches; for some medium and short fruit branches, use heading back, thin out some flower buds, turn fruiting branches into vegetative branches, and increase the proportion of vegetative branches; for plants with stable tree vigor, the focus is on pruning the fruiting branch groups; for pear trees with many flowers, cut off inferior flower buds, cut back axillary flower branches, and adjust the ratio of fruiting branches to vegetative branches.

3. Pruning during the aging period: The purpose of pruning at this stage is to restore tree vigor, rejuvenate branch groups, and extend the fruiting years. Retrench the drooping perennial branches, and the retrenchment position should select a good upward-facing branch; the leader branch should be a strong branch with strong buds so that it grows upward, and some flower buds should be cut off and weak branches thinned out. Use water sprouts as much as possible to fill in the incomplete canopy, restore tree vigor, and regain high yields.