Beginner Gardening: Cracks & lesions on pear and apple bark newly planted trees, 3 by Mraur

Mraur wrote:
Thank you, Diana! Very helpful - I will use this as a general guide for pruning :)

However, there is a new development - after a big wind and rainstorm, some leaves on the pears are turning black and curling, so I am worried this may be fireblight after all. I am new to fruit trees and hoping to maintain these as organically as possible... are there sprays that you would recommend for this? Or perhaps I should prune the pears back heavily to avoid further infection?

I'm glad to see that, for the time being, the apple trees seem to be unaffected.