I planted a contender peach tree on a semi dwarfing rootstock from stark bros in the fall of 2024. The tree I received seems to have been pruned to a central leader so far. I wanted
to prune it to an open center but the branching is quite high on the tree about 4 feet off the ground. I don’t see many buds lower on the main trunk so my worry is if I perform a heading cut this spring at the knee high position I would like. I would not get lateral branch growth. Any advise I how to improve this trees structure?
If you are protecting your trees from deer you may want to keep the central leader for a while and start the branches at least 3’4’ up, but if you want a conventional low open center you can remove the existing branches and cut the leader at the height you want to begin its 3 or 4 branches. Wait for the tree to begin growing so you are sure that the leader is vital0 otherwise you can tie the largest branch to the stake to make it straight
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I second @alan advice. Depends on your pest pressure. Pest in this case meaning mammals. I don’t have deer pressure so I start my branching really low, like 18”, but if you have deer (guessing that cage is for larger critters not rabbits girdling) you’re going to likely want a much higher scaffolding. So it’s going to depend on what your needs are to accurately determine what pruning advice to give.
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Thank you for the suggestions.
The cages are to prevent deer grazing as young trees I plan to remove them in 3 years. Currently the cages start 2 feet off the ground and go to 6 feet up.
So even though the nursery did thinning cuts to remove lateral growth and I don’t see any bud swells below the breaching point if I were to head it lower, cutting into old wood at say at 24-30 inches up the tree. Would new buds form below that cut or would I just get shoots growing from the heading cut?
Peaches often won’t generate new buds from 2 yr or older wood. Once the trees begin showing some green you will be able to see what wood is vital. Make sure you leave a few buds showing green. With peaches you can wait until you actually have small leaves and delayed dormant pruning is often recommended.
If it is on semi dwarfing root stock, I personally would cull the tree and start over with a more vigorous root stock such as Guardian. Buy the tree from a vendor that specializes in peach trees. In the long run, you’ll be glad you did.