Pruning trees

Hope this isn't too far off topic. I have some realy large and OLD pear trees. Might be 100 yrs old and getting petty rotten inside. I am afraid of a disaster if the wind blew real hard while they were laden with fruit as they produce like mad every year.

So, as an experiment, I topped one of the trees (I have 9 old ones and a younger volunteer that bears fruit.) Well, that tree didn't have fruit this year and just added lots of slim limbs growing vertically as if to replace what I removed.

I have been cautioned to be less agressive and take 3-4 years to remove as much out of the top of the trees as I intend. What I want to do is remove the limbs that are up so high that I can't get to the pears with a 20 ft extension ladder. If I could end up will all fruit within 15 ft of the ground that would be great.

Any suggestions?

Pat

Here's a link that might help.

orchards

Slamfire: Thanks for the link. The fine print says "*Adapted from Home Orchard Management, West Virginia University Extension Service Publication OM100.
Schedules are based on Mid-Atlantic conditions. Adjust dates for other regions. "

So I just need to find out a reasonable correction factor for the difference between Mid-Atlantic climate and south central Oklahoma and I have a great reference for dealing with our pear trees and any other fruit trees we should get.

Thanks a lot, man, this is really good info.

Pat

I'd imagine OU would have a similar site, but most seed packs have a climate zone chart on them. That'd give you a start anyway.

OU is, of course, important for several reasons, some of which may not relate to football if you can believe that. OSU at Stillwater was, I believe, originally Oklahoma A&M (Agricultural and Mechanical) College, a "land grant" school. OSU is ground zero for our county extension agents. OSU doesn't seem to get much attention outside our state borders unless they do something unexpectedly wonderful on the gridiron.

Life was simple when I lived in San Diego. Open up the western gardening book, determine your zone and then your applicable microclimate(s) and everything just worked dandy. I had tomato trees, i.e. tomato plants outside in the garden that lived and bore fruit for 3-4 years and were still going OK when I ripped them out and changed varieties.

Here it is a tad more difficult with weather and climate clearly under the influence of chaos. Of what value is a seasonal average when the temps pop up and down more or less at random by 30 degrees or more in less than a day's time. Not complaining, mind you. It is interesting to have to meet the challenge but it takes some getting used to again.

We have some palm trees in the backyard. They got singed pretty good by a grass fire but came back strong. I will cover them with trimmings and hay and see if they survive their second winter. You don't see many palm trees around here. We brought them from California where they were bird dispersed volunteers coming up where they would have been considered weeds and destroyed. Did it on a lark just to see if they could make it and so far so good but I'm pretty sure when (if?) they get too tall to cover easily they'll freeze.

Pat

Might head over to Arboristsite to see what the pros say.

Scott, Thanks for the arborist site link. Whodathunkit? Looks like T H E place.

Thanks again for your sage advice!

Pat

The Forestry Forum is also a neat place. It's more about logging and small scale sawmilling. Mucho info to glean with similar humor and standards to TBN and CBN.

HTH...