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