Strangled a twig/branch on young pear tree

9 years ago

I'm new to growing fruit trees, so I'm not sure of the terminology. I planted 2 young pear trees in my back yard about a month ago. A Baldwin Pear and a Flordahome Pear. I staked them with some gardening twine to train the trunks to grow straight, and I also used some stakes and twine to start pulling the few branches down parallel to the ground. The two trees were sent to me bare root, and they pruned them before shipping as well. The Baldwin only has one branch, and the Flordahome has 2. On one of the branches, right where I had the twine goes around it, from that point to the end of the branch, the branch has started to darken. I pulled the twine looser on that branch, and moved it much closer to the end of the branch, to see if it makes a difference.

I'm not sure if I killed the branch, or not. I'm thinking that now that I've taken the twine off that branch, I'll give it a few days to see if it starts getting some color back. If not, I may have to prune that branch off. I'm hoping it's not fire blight, but it can't be a coincidence that the branch loses its color right where I had the twine. I'm hoping that I didn't do any permanent damage, and that the branch will come back to life. Maybe I should water the tree a bit, to get the sapwood to pump some nutrients up to that branch. Am I doing the right thing?

I guess I need to find something softer to wrap around the tree. The guy at the gardening store told me that this gardening twine would be perfect, but I think I may need something softer, at least at the point where it wraps around the trees. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to use?

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Comments (3)

fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
9 years ago
You won't strangle a branch that quickly especially now that it's not growing. Even if too tight the color of wood won't change that quickly. So not sure what you are seeing.

I tie down using cotton twine. But the key is don't wrap around the branch. Tie a short loop in the twine at appropriate height, say half way to branch. Then place loose end over the branch and tie off to the loop. This means twine touches the branch only on top side.

Wait till spring to do this. The branch only assumes new position when growing. It's when growing that new wood is laid down in proper position. Not wrong to do now but won't be any better than spring.
insteng
9 years ago
The darker color could be just caused by the water reacting to the twine. It shouldn't of hurt it any.
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copingwithclay
9 years ago
Another way of training your pear trees would be to sink into the ground beside the trunk a 6 ft. tall length of 1/2" galv. steel electrical conduit and to loosely tie the trunk to the pipe. After a couple years of mulching/feeding/watering, the side branches below 3-1/2 ft could be clipped off so as to leave a straight, upright, branchless lower area for the placement of a galvanized slit pc. of metal duct to keep climbing rodents from harvesting pears in the future. As the upper branches develop, you are likely to have numerous sideways-growing branches growing out from the central leader/trunk. You want the pear trees to have at least one central, tall, thick, dominant trunk.......Congratulations on your fruit tree growing decision. It can be done.