I ordered my first two Japanese plums this year. One came in reasonable shape with obvious choices of scaffolds for vase shape. The second one was looking like a broom - tons of almost vertical branches(you can see how many cuts I made). After I removed all vertical grows I am stuck. I see several possible choices, but no perfect ones. The top tree branches(1,2,3) have a very good angle, but located at about 3.5 ’ from the ground and do not have enough of vertical spacing. Branch 2 is directly above branch 5. Branch 6 is vertical, but soft, may be I need to pull it down , but it will not fix the sharp angle anyway. Branch 7 is horizontal, facing north. 7 and 5 almost on the same level.
Issues
A: 1 & 3 crotches are close together, remove one of them.
B: 3 & 4 look same direction, remove 3, which also resolves issue A.
C: 2 & 5 are in same direction, remove 2, which gives 1 more space.
D: Doesn’t look like you have many choices for N facing branch, except 7.
E: 6 looks like it’s in same direction as 1, remove it.
So I would keep 1, 4, 5, 7. I would also cut back 1 & 4 by half.
1,3,5,7 - better 360 degree spread, but 1 and 3 are close vertically, so will be weaker.
OR
1,4,5,7 - not as good 360 degree spread, but good vertical spacing along trunk. My preference.
