Thanks to all the advice here and DWN’s Youtube channel, all the new trees I planted were lopped off at knee height. All but one have come out of dormancy and I can see nice low branching which can become the future scaffolds. I have a question about the crotch angle and thinning the shoots at this time. Here is the Cot-N-Candy aprium with new shoots
The top 4 shoots arose out of two buds (or 2 shoots per bud position). They are quite close to each other. Its more clear from this top-down view
When these shoot develop into scaffolding branches, would they be too close to each other, causing the bark to crack? Given that I have shoots sprouting up below them, should I pinch one of them in each bud position to allow for more spacing between future branches? Let me know what you think.