Corrective pruning may take several years to complete so the trees aren't too stressed by one massive pruning effort, but you can find tips on our apple and pear fruit care page for general pruning recommendations. These other resources may be helpful about how to assess and prune old, neglected fruit trees:

• Penn State - Pruning to Renovate Old Fruit Trees
• Oregon State - Restore Those Old Fruit Trees

Although UMD Extension does not maintain a list of landscaping businesses or collect information on their services (the list below is not an endorsement), we are aware of at least three businesses/persons in central Maryland that prune fruit trees, if you wanted to hire someone as a consultant or to perform the pruning themselves. (Contact them directly if you wanted to verify this is something they can handle.)

• Velvet Touch Rose Care (Montgomery County; Matt)
• Edible Eden Foodscapes (Baltimore City; Josh Rosenstein), <personal data hidden>
• Chelsey McBride-Gill (<personal data hidden>)

Miri