Teach Me: Tree Trimming

I have 2 Bradford Pear trees in my front yard.  They are overgrown.  They are in danger of breaking themselves (too big for how soft they are as I understand it).  They cause dead spots in the grass below them.  And they generate a lot of leaves.

I need to trim them back, and I don't feel like spending $300 to make it happen if its something I can tackle myself.  Questions:

1)  What time of year is best to trim?  I've heard winter, and I've also heard after they bloom.  If I can do winter, I would rather do that.

2)  How far back can I cut something like this?

3)  Other tips for cutting it back?  I've heard I should cut at natural forks in the branches vs. lopping them off, but beyond that I can't find much about it.

1 crappy tree pictured below:

Save yourself a lot of trouble and just cut them down...those of us with allergies will thank you!

This site has some excellent advice specific to the Bradford Pears. That tree pictured needs a LOT of thinning out, way too many vertical branches competing in the center of the tree. To encourage a more rounded shape you will be pruning a lot of those out. 

Start by removing any damaged or dead limbs, cut them back to 1" from the live branch they are attached to. Cutting too close, such as trying to cut them flush, will open up the possibility for infection to spread in that branch. As the cut heals, the nub will die back and fall off, which is ideal. Make your cuts at a 45° angle to prevent pooling of water on the end of the cut, which will encourage rot.

Next prune out any branches that rub against another branch, or is within 6" of rubbing another branch to take into account for movement in the wind. When in doubt about which limb to keep, prune the more vertical and keep the more horizontal branch. 

You may notice that the blooms this year are more sparse, as the tree blooms on growth that is at least 1 year old, but putting it off until the tree has fully bloomed will just make the job more difficult and time consuming with heavier branches to boot. Ideally you would prune after the last risk of frost since the prune will encourage new growth and a hard freeze will kill the tender new shoots. 

Thanks.  So my question is, how far back can I cut it (in addition to the thinning)?  Which line would you cut at?  Or none of the below?

None of those lines are appropriate. If you want something that size you should get rid of them and plant something closer to what you want.

Damn.  Was afraid of that.  Is that just because these got too overgrown?  Will it kill them?  Make them ugly?  etc?

Well, I can at least thin them out.  If I were in this house for the long haul, I'd remove and replace with a less-E36 M3ty tree.  But in the short term I'd like to keep appearances up, so I'll deal with it the best I can.

I have an orchard and do this semi regularly. Either of those lines are fine.

You can't hurt them. Cut them back to where you feel comfortable. They will grow back.

Suprf1y said:

I have an orchard and do this semi regularly.

You can't hurt them. Cut them back to where you feel comfortable. They will grow back.

While I'm the biggest culprit of this, in the internet age I feel that we're way too concerned with doing everything perfectly right. I think this is the correct answer for a lot of things. Don't overthink it, use some common sense, and go for it. It is a plant. Plants grow. They'll outlive us. Go for it.

I would probably reach up as high as I could and prune at that level. Simply because I am lazy and hate pruning from a ladder. 

I also live in Chicago and have mostly native growth around my house and find that plants are really hard to kill.

If pruning with hand loppers, wear bright colored gloves - you want it to be clear that your thumb is not a branch before you squeeze the grip.

I would cut at the top line and follow what ECM posted.  Important point is to thin it out so some of the verticals should be cut lower.

In reply to Suprf1y :

I too own an orchard. Only one pear  one plum the rest apples. 

Im getting pretty old and SWMBO no longer wants to cook and bake all the apples etc. so I’ve been letting nature  have more fun.  Still plenty of eating apples that now that  I’ve stopped  spraying  to help bees can be eaten right off the tree. Although  I do use the fruit bait to reduce pests. 

Well mainly squirrels and rabbits who eat the fallen fruit. Then they attract Owls and I enjoy their conversation with each other in deciding which squirrel or rabbit is Midrats. Every once in a while a hawk or American Bald eagle will add to the enjoyment. And lately a red Fox is dropping around for a bite of Rabbit 

I am the farthest thing from an expert on this but I had a buddy of mine help me prune an apple and a pear tree at my old house.

His advice for the apple was to cut anything that slopes down.  If there is a branch that starts up from the trunk but then sags down, cut it at the peak of the curve.  Any little twiggy branches that are flat or pointing down should be snipped near the branch.  From there you can prune other branches up to about 1/3 of its length. (that is to say; don't cut more than 1/3 leaving 2/3)

For the pear he basically did the 1/3 rule since pears don't have as many down branches.

Long story short, the apple died and the pear tree made bushels of the best pears i have ever eaten.  We guessed that it had been so long since the apple had been pruned that we shocked it.

Somewhat related- my wife maintains our small cluster of fruit trees and I just bought something she is very excited to use:

Milwaukee Hackzall.  It runs on the M12 rechargeable batteries, and is smaller and lighter than a normal Sawzall.  I found a blade that has the same tooth pattern as a tree-trimming/ limbing saw; of course for thin limbs a finer tooth blade might be better.  My dad uses one to trim his fruit trees and loves it.  

In reply to Curtis

Hmm, I was taught to prune fruit trees the opposite way. Cut away anything growing straight up (those branches are called suckers).  I was also taught to never "shape" a tree by cutting branches to a specific line like indicated in the pictures. 

Bradfords are garbage trees and I have 8 huge ones in my yard.  They do alright if you cut away duplicate branches and many of the vertical junk in the middle.

****my uncles are arborists and I spent a few summers in the tree cutting biz.

Bradfords stink when they blossom.  Agreed, cut it down and plant something else.  I love Dogwoods for spring color.  Or Maples, for fall.  Or, if you're Zone 7 or warmer, Magnolias.  

KyAllroad (Jeremy) said:

Bradfords are garbage trees

Yeah, lesson learned here.  These were here when I bought the house, and I didn't really know anything about them until recently (4 years later).  

Next house I will assess all the trees/lawn/etc. immediately when moving in, so I can make changes right away if needed and let time work its magic.  Its too late to do anything about these IMO.

We also had a River Birch, which I removed earlier this year.  Talk about a garbage tree... it rained garbage.

KyAllroad (Jeremy) said:

In reply to Curtis

Hmm, I was taught to prune fruit trees the opposite way. Cut away anything growing straight up (those branches are called suckers). 

That is the correct way

I'd agree with several others here. Cut it down. There are better trees to have on your property.

(Do you have a wood-burning fireplace or outdoor firepit? It'll make great firewood).

Bradfords are like weeds, you can cut the crap out of them and they will not die.  I cut mine back many times, once in a snowstorm when branches hit the house.  Get a Harbor Freight pole saw, AKA chain saw on a stick, and go at it.  

In reply to porschenut :

I guess that's why people plant Bradford Pears.  They're basically the Toyota Camry of trees- they look OK, last for awhile, are hard to kill, and don't require much maintenance.  There's better trees out there, but why bother?

I would think the Camry would be more like an Oak.  Looks OK, requires zero maintenance, lasts forever.

By comparison, Bradford Pears will kill themselves just by growing too big for their own good, and they have short lifespans.  Seems (like a lot of things about my house) like a cheap/quick solution, but not so great in the long term.

ProDarwin said:

I would think the Camry would be more like an Oak.  Looks OK, requires zero maintenance, lasts forever.

By comparison, Bradford Pears will kill themselves just by growing too big for their own good, and they have short lifespans.  Seems (like a lot of things about my house) like a cheap/quick solution, but not so great in the long term.

To really stretch this analogy, an Oak would be the Mercedes W123 of trees.  Bradfords would then be, what, maybe a Nissan Versa?  

If these were larger trees I would just suggest have at and see if you live up to your screen name. 

Well, I went pretty agressive.  Probably too much.  Definitely one of those jobs I regretted starting 25 minutes into it.  A neighbor walking her dogs stopped as she passed.  "Does your wife know you did that?"

Hopefully it doesn't die.  Fingers crossed.

Now I need to decide if I cut the other to match or try something different.

I wonder if you can use any of the trimmings to build a canoe?