Split pear tree - help please!!

[Barrawarra]

We’ve had a bumper crop of pears this yr. This is only our second summer here and I am totally clueless. Last night the trunk split near the ground, under the weight, a bungee cord supporting the tree to a post snapped. I’ve watched a few YouTube vids that look like it could maybe be saved, possibly with glue and/or rods and bolts? I’ll attach a pic, if anyone has any experience or advice, I’d be grateful thanks. Tree is around 8ft tall.

I’ve now managed to get it up and supported, now looks like this:

I rather fear that is not going to recover. If you leave it, it is going to attract fungus, disease and probably not very nice insects, all coming to feast on the decay.

if it is grafted and the split is above the graft , you could cut it off neatly and put some wound paste on it. You will then probably get some regrowth from the stump.

Did you plant it? Because it is very near the fence so probably quite lopsided, maybe not with a good root run under the fence? If you remember that a deciduous tree generally has a root run the same size as the canopy, you get an idea of the space needed. A reasonably young tree shouldn’t just snap like that (unless someone has been swinging on it?)

Thank you for your answer. No, they were here when we bought the house two years ago. I don’t know how old they are, but all the trees are trained along the fence.

It has a neighbour pear tree beside it, I think a different variety and a big branch laden with fruit snapped off that a couple of weeks ago but I didn’t even think of trying to repair that. I wish I’d given more support. The fruit really is heavy, but sounds like this indicates a problem? The trunks on the pears are very slim compared with the plum and apples.

How do I know if it is grafted - is it a join in the trunk? If so then the split is just under it…

Once DH is home I can maybe have help to close the join more flush - is it worth a try or do you think better to cut and try and regrow the stump?

I wonder if it was originally planted as an espalier? It would have been pruned and trained to grow flat against the fencing behind it.

I'm sure someone will be along with more knowledge.

My understanding is so long as at least a strip of bark is unbroken it can be saved. I'd consider giving it a really hard prune above the break, to reduce the weight. Then read up on grafting and use the stuff recommended for that to bind the bits back together. The split may not heal but it's worth a try.

Yes having looked at what espalier means I think that could be it! Thanks, I didn’t manage to get out today but am going to buy the stuff tomorrow and try. Poor tree. And then to try and use all the pears…