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Background: I am very new to gardening and only have minor experience maintenance pruning established trees (removing suckers and dead or crossing branches).

I was given a young Asian pear tree that has three different varietals grafted onto a central trunk. Originally, the three leaders were growing nearly vertically, so I was advised to spread them out which I did by tying. Unfortunately this snapped one of them, so now there are two leaders left. It's now looking quite odd and asymmetrical (see photo).

I've tried to find info on whether I need to prune the tree in order to make it grow in a healthy and aesthetically pleasing way, but am finding a lot of confusing information. Apparently new fruit trees need a "first" pruning that involves cutting down up to half of the initial growth. Assuming I cannot ask the nursery, is there a way to find out whether my tree needs that, or any other kind of (non-maintenance) pruning in its first few years?

enter image description here

Asian pear tree (5 ft tall)

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Apparently new fruit trees need a "first" pruning that involves cutting down up to half of the initial growth.

That advice is primarily for bare-root trees that lack the roots to support their tops. Given you show a potted tree, not really a concern. Not having planted the tree from the pot into the ground is more of a concern.

As for snapping the top, your ties are much too close to the trunk. Since you appear to have some foliage on the broken scion you might be able to grow it back to having 3 varieties. Be sure to kill off any rootstock foliage/suckers coming from below the graft point.

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  • Doesn't spreading branches refer to side branches, so the leaders are allowed to grow vertically?
    – Yosef Baskin
    Commented May 31 at 21:21
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    Thing being, it's a three-variety graft so probably do want some separation. Letting one be the leader will ensure the other two die out, letting all three grow straight up will be a bigger mess than spreading them sideways early. One graft per rootstock has some major advantages, but these things always sell well as they seem like a clever idea with limited space if you don't know the downsides of trying to maintain a multi-variety grafted tree over time.
    – Ecnerwal
    Commented May 31 at 21:25

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