Yes, I would prune them back. Asians tend to set way too much fruit. Mine need a huge amount of thinning. This yr I cut off about half the spurs, they have way too many, and some of the bloom. I still had to thin off 80% of the remaining fruit.

The Fruitnut

Cutnrunn:

I remove easily 95% of the small pears from my Asian trees, and that is no exaggeration. If I don't the fruit will not size up, though it will surely break branches. Even after such radical thinning, my branches are still sometimes overloaded. I use a small children's scissors to thin, since the little stems are tough and difficult to deal with any other way.

Yes, prune the leggy portion of your Asian pear trees prior to thinning. Open up the center of your tree if at all possible. This will serve to remove a lot of fruit, and save you some thinning time.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Thanks for the replies - I'll thin the pea-sized fruit asap. Would it be ok to top prune as well? By that, I mean, basically cut around 3 - 4 feet off the tops of the trees in that they are getting quite tall (and "leggy" as I previously mentioned) I did prune low spurs earlier this month. many thanks