Homeowners and gardeners enjoy the symmetry and flowers of the Bradford pear tree. This tree attains height very quickly, and is one of the earliest flowering plants of spring, making it highly popular with landscapers and city planners. Its quick growth is quite reckless, though, and shrewd pruning is necessary to help these trees live a long life without enduring significant damage. Knowing how and when to prune your Bradford pear will make all the difference in how successful the tree grows over time.
Pruning Is Essential
One of the main features of the Bradford pear---the symmetric, conical shape that grows so quickly---is also the principal flaw of the tree, according to Marc Montefusco of the Frederick County Master Gardener Program. The tree produces such a high volume of aggressively growing shoots from the trunk that they often cannot support their own weight, and the angle at which they grow predisposes them to breakage, particularly in high winds and ice storms. Pruning is essential guiding the plant into a healthy and sustainable growth pattern.
When to Prune
The best time to prune a Bradford pear, according to OrchardsEdge.com, is in late summer. Doing this will stimulate the least amount of growth before winter. If you live in an area where there's a chance for winter damage, counsels this website, wait to prune until late winter. Additionally, pruning Bradford pears is most effective if done in the early years of the tree's life. Walter Reeves of The Lawn and Garden Show with Walter Reeves points out that early pruning will help you to guide the tree into a healthy shape from the start, rather than disfiguring the tree when you have to go back and correct errant branches later. Keeping up with this task yearly will also lessen the possibility of branch and limb breakage during the winter, which will ultimately ensure a stronger, more healthy tree than if it were left alone.
Prune
The primary goal when pruning is to hand select the strongest of the branches and eliminate the weakest. First, you need to look at your tree and select the tallest, strongest branch to select as the leader, or main extension, of the trunk. Reeves advises that you shorten by half any branch that is growing parallel to the leader. As with any tree, eliminate dead or dying branches as well. Additionally, eliminate the weaker of any two branches growing right next to one another. This will reduce competition in the tree, allowing for increased branch strength as well as less pressure at the base of the branches (where breakage often occurs). Finally, choose branches that grow at least at a 45 degree angle from the trunk. More extreme V shapes are weaker and more susceptible to breakage.
Long-Term Health
By routinely pruning your Bradford pear in late summer each year, you'll systematically help the tree overcome its greatest flaw. Though beautiful and initially gratifying, their aggressive growing pattern is self-destructive, and, without the help of a consistent gardener, these trees are bound to suffer bad breaks. These breaks often lead to the death of the entire tree, far exceeding the trouble of regular pruning. Your late-summer efforts in the early years of the tree's life will help make it a permanent fixture in the yard for years to come, and the beautiful early-spring blooms will still have dramatic effect each and every year.
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