Arnie:

25 feet is way too tall for a fruiting pear. How do you get at it to thin and pick? And 10 feet is plenty for your Seckel. It should not be allowed to exceed that.

I can't see your trees, but are they growing pretty much straight up, as pear trees tend to do? If so, prune them down, with particular attention to opening up the middle, and spread the branches with limb spreaders, weights, or tiedowns. You can do the major pruning in the dormant season, but after that limit pruning to late summer only. That will reduce the vigor of the tree and encourage the formation of fruiting wood.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

My "Savannah" pear is eight and it has just had it's first blossom this year... but only one! I thought I was going to have A pear this year, but alas. Incidently, I just grafted "Warren" and plan on "Seckel" grafts next year. I applaud your choices and share your impatience. "Plant Pears for your Heirs" is the saying fitting our situation. I have trained my pear to have wide spread scaffold limbs and for the first time since I planted it I removed the limb spreaders and was thrilled to see the branches STAY in the desired angle! Limb spreading works! Now if I can get it to blossom...
Herbert

Herbert & Don:

Thanks for your tips. I do open up the middle each dormant season and did put weights on the branches the first couple years. I tried to cut the leader of the 25-foot Warren last January, but I couldn't reach anywhere near the top. Can you cut the leader 10 or so feet from the top? I thought it was too radical to do that.
"Plant Pears for your Heirs" is a saying that I just heard for the first time on this site. Growing any fruit in the N.C. Piedmont is a struggle, but we had out first homegrown apple pie last year so it was worth it.
Arnie

Arnie:

You can cut down as much of that leader as you like. I doubt that anything would kill a tree that vigorous. A fruiting tree 25 feet tall is just not practical except as a landscape specimen.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Thanks, Don. One more question... can I cut the leader now or should I wait until next January when the tree is dormant?

If you're pushing these trees with fertilizer - even 'organic' stuff, as your name suggests, STOP IT! Heavy fertilization may be contributing to excessive vegetative growth at the expense of fruiting.
I never fertilize my pears - ever; they're lucky if they get mowed around.
My Warren is maybe 7 ft tall at 10 years of age, and began fruiting at 7. Seckel was about 8 ft after 10 years, and had never fruited - then fireblight killed it back almost to the ground.

Arnie:

If you are trying to control vegetative growth of trees and promote fruiting, prune in late summer. That would be mid-August or so where you live. Pruning in winter will give you a burst of vegetation the following spring.

You're not fertilizing these trees as Lucky suspects, are you?

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Thanks, Don and Lucky. I put a wheelbarrow-full of compost inside the drip line once a year, usually in the fall. I don't add any extra fertilizer. I'll try pruning in mid-August to see if that helps promote blossoming next year.

Lucky, since your Warren started fruiting at age 7 maybe that means my Warren isn't far behind.