I’ve done that with peach in particular. It will always turn back up after the part that is tied down. However, it typically leaves a prune-able lateral you can work with.
Well dang. Sounds like this peach tree is destined for the chipper. 
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I am at work today. When I get home tonight I will definitely look at the branch with no collar. I have trimmed back as many of the extra scaffolding branches as I could. I will take pictures of it and have you give me suggestions if there’s anything else different to do. The branch with no collar I will just keep and make sure that it always has a light load on it. I will just thin it extra good in the spring And keep it trimmed back more than the others. This peach tree is a starking delicious. I had one peach off of it last year and it was the most amazing peach I’ve ever had in my life. It was so good! So I am going to do everything I can to keep this tree.
Richard mentioned a hormone to put on the trunk and try and grow a new scaffolding branch below. Is there a specific type of hormone ? I have a growth hormone for rooting would that work? Maybe I could try this year and grow another scaffolding branch below that one. If not then I will just stick with what I have.
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Its not even close to over for the tree do not worry, Peaches take to training and chopping pretty well. Its just unique. Olpea will have pruning suggestions and i would listen to him.
People use Benzyl Amino Purine and cytokine or just kelp or a compost tea
Thanks for the reply. I will not them and look into the hormone.
Chris,
I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Your tree isn’t perfect, but that’s OK.
I know what it’s like to have focused intensity on wanting to do everything perfect on your new trees. But new peach trees will take lots of pruning mistakes and still go on to make lots of fruit. I know because I’ve made just about every pruning mistake possible.
One of my first peach trees I didn’t start scaffolds till about 5’. Then to keep it to pedestrian height, I couldn’t hardly let anything grow, unless the growth was horizontal or growing downward. It was a really funny looking tree. Looked like an umbrella. Because there was nothing to shade the scaffolds, the sun cooked the tops of them and the bark on the tops of the scaffolds died. Only the bark underneath the scaffolds was alive. Still that tree produced loads of peaches over the years.
So don’t fret, your pruning mistakes are nowhere near as bad as ones I’ve made. Your tree will likely go on to provide large amounts of peaches over the years.
And remember, when I commented on your minor pruning mistakes, I qualified my statements by saying, “This or that will likely happen if you make that pruning mistake.” Or, “This or that tends to happen if you make that pruning mistake.” It doesn’t mean it will happen, just that it’s more likely.
Peach trees don’t always punish us for our pruning mistakes. Even when they do, the punishment is often mild.
One the scale of one to ten (ten being the most severe things you can do to screw up a peach tree) I’d say your pruning mistakes are a 2. Even if the scaffold breaks off, it won’t happen for a long time, and even then most likely you’d just lose the one scaffold.
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Check this post out:
Thank you for your help. I have pruned it back quite a bit and I am going to see how it grows this summer. This year I will definitely keep on top of the vertical shoots that are produced.
Awesome post! Thank you.
Olpea, I am trying to choose scaffolds on 2yr old peaches, and I am being indecisive. If you have the time, i have questions!! I am trying to choose 3 or 4 limbs to keep and remove the rest.
From pictures you have posted, it looks to me like your peach tree scaffolds are in the 2’ to 4’ distance from the ground. Is that accurate to say?
You usually choose 3 scaffolds? Is there anything wrong with choosing 4 for better balance of the tree? After you choose your main scaffolds do you remove all other limbs on 2 yr olds , or would you wait until they are older?
If deer become a problem in future years (no deer now), is it feasible to plan on selecting more upright growth from present scaffolds, and develop/train new scaffolds higher up? Does that even make sense?
I would say 2’ to 3’. I don’t choose any scaffolds above 3’ on peach trees anymore.
Once I have my scaffolds selected, I remove all other growth off the trunk to keep the trunk directing energy to the scaffolds I’ve selected. The caveat is that, early on, I might keep one or two extra scaffolds, if I’m not exactly sure which scaffolds I want to choose. In other words, I might have a scaffold which is border line too big, or maybe a bit too steep on the crotch angle, but there is a new shoot somewhere on the trunk which looks to be in a better position. In that case, I might keep both scaffolds for a while to see how things play out.
Also sometimes keeping some extra scaffolds for a while helps push the lower scaffolds more horizontal, which is generally a benefit. We are talking about really fine tuning stuff here, so it’s not that critical.
I pretty much never choose 4 scaffolds on a peach tree anymore. The tree just becomes too crowded with 4 scaffolds. 3 is perfect. Sometimes I can’t get 3 scaffolds for some reason. In that case, I just choose 2 scaffolds. Even 2 scaffolds will fill out and make a nice tree.
I know other people have problems with deer occasionally eating their peaches, but I’ve never had that problem. They just don’t seem to like peaches around here. They will rut a young peach tree and destroy it. But once peach trees get some size, they leave them alone.
Once you select scaffolds on a peach tree, and they have a chance to size up, you can’t really change the angle of the scaffolds. I would just try to train scaffolds to a mostly horizontal level. Anywhere from 90 to 45 degrees (maximum) as an angle relative to the trunk.
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Thank you so much for your detailed response. This should really help me make better decisions. I had been selecting four scaffolds, trying to get one in each of the cardinal directions. I will be pruning them this week most likely, so I started marking the limbs I thought I should keep. I think I should relook at those and try for three instead, as you do. I have a couple of trees that are really leaning to the north and getting scaffolds on the south side into the prevailing summer wind is challenging.
Yes! There are a couple I am unsure about due to crotch angles. Good positioning otherwise but I am not sure if they will be strong enough for long term use.
With so many members here dealing with horrible deer issues, I didn’t want to ignore that as being a possibility down the road. I am glad to hear there are some deer that don’t like peaches!! I understand what you’re saying about the ‘permeance’ of the scaffolds once they size up. Thanks so much for your help and advice!
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Olpea always gives great info. He had really saved me a lot of time and frustration, thanks buddy!! I find peaches quite hard compared to just about any other tree. For example you can stub cut cherry tree scaffolds and regrow them. Speaking of pruning I have found pruning helps
in directing scaffold growth quite a bit. I’m having fun shaping scaffolds. Once you choose the scaffolds you are going to keep. Directing angle is done early all you have once scaffold is formed is pruning and it is much more useful than I first thought it would be. Now that I have grown stone fruit for almost a decade it’s become a lot easier to see how I need to prune. Advice helped me a lot most of the time but not always. As even experienced growers in other parts of the country are only experienced in there area. It’s hard to give advice to conditions you never grew plants in. Nothing tops experience so be patient. If you really want to grow various plants your own experience is going to be extremely valuable moving forward. I suggest keeping a journal. When I first starting growing stone fruit I was told I picked the wrong trees for my area. It turns out for most of the east the advice was valid but not for the lower pest pressure of the northern Midwest where I’m at. I still have all those trees from California and they are doing great and produce extremely well a decade later. Dave Wilson Nursery changed some of its zone ratings due to my feedback and others in my area. It’s always nice to help out. I enjoy it a lot. Patience is hard to endure but in the long run has served me well. I’m testing my patience this year as I added a shipova tree which takes 8 years to fruit. I planted it out yesterday. I must note that in my journal.
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Thanks Drew for the kind words! Btw, that’s some great advice you just shared!
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Drew thank you so much for your advice and encouragement! You and Olpea, and others here, are so awesome. Keeping an orchard journal is a great idea. I started doing that about 6 years ago, but haven’t put a lot of detail in it. I actually started updating it this past winter. Now I can see what kinds of information will be more helpful in the future.
You definitely learn a lot through experience. I have learned a lot of what not to do already!
Good luck with that one! That will take some patience for sure. 
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Yes, I planted it in my daughters garden. I’m not young, I may never see fruit. I wanted to plant items in her garden that didn’t need spraying as insects don’t bother shipova. I figure when she harvests fruits she will think of me. Besides shipova I planted Jujubes, honeyberries, mulberries, blueberries, black currants, service berry, hazelnuts, and blackberries, the new Ponca cultivar. All is in except the blackberries. Most I got in last year. Oh rhubarb too. The property had Montmorency tart cherries, 2 trees already. It’s on Russell island. A piece of property my daughter will never give up as “the rock” as we call it is in my family history forever. I have been there 56 years now.
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Drew that sounds like an absolutely lovely orchard! You have put in a very nice collection of fruits. Going with fruits that need minimal input was a really smart plan, that’s why you did it, right? Who knows if our kids and grandkids will want to carry on with the orchards… but if I could make things simpler for them, so it will bring them joy, that’s worth doing. You gave me some things to think about.
I knew from some of your other posts you were on an island, but I finally looked it up! So that is really cool. Do you fish the river or Lake St Clair? Do any residents stay year-round or is winter spent back on the mainland?
Hey, just curious, which black currant cultivars do you grow and do you have a favorite? I recall a post where you mention how good the syrup or cordial is, made form black currants.
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Yes it’s our cottage and most of the time we are not there.
Yes good perch fishing and walleye, salmon run the river in the spring and fall. This is a new development as the DNR released the fish about a decade ago. Also sports fish gar pike, northern pike, muskee, small and large mouths, Bluegill, Crappie, and Sturgeon. I mostly fish for perch offshore, and walleye by drifting down the river. I only fish the river and have caught all mentioned in the river, also channel catfish. The river is powerful and about 35 feet. Deepest point is 90 feet. Freighters go by all day. Up to a 1000 feet long.
On black currants I still have many im trying out. So far I like Black September, Titania, Tiben, and Ben Sarek. Many more yet to try. I’m growing these cultivars.
Ben Sarek
Black September
Consort
Crandall
Crusader (Ribes nigrumX R. ussuriense)
Colorado area Golden currant (not the Crandall cultivar)
Goliath
Minaj Smyriou/Minaj Shmyrev/Minaj Smyreu
Selchenskaya
Tiben
Titania
Boskoop Giant
Belaruskaja
Risager
Slitsa
I can’t really distinguish that much difference in flavor. At least not yet. I like the ones mentioned for size of berry, production and health and vigor of plant. Like Black September doesn’t produce the biggest berries, but it is loaded and grows like a beast. Quick to fruit from cuttings. About my favorite right now.
Seven cultivars on that list I have not even tried yet. This year will be the first year. So I may have different favorites in the near future.
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Thanks for the list of currants, @Drew51. I may consider adding a few of those. I am starting Titania this year, my only black so far. I do like the Red Lake and Pink Champagne that I am growing, but understand black currants are very different.
The fishing sounds great! Love those walleye and perch. I am also fond of Northern Pike, taken in winter. Not sure I would like sharing the river with the big freighters though. yikes!
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I’m having a hard time with this Glenglo planted spring 2020. I chose poorly when planting it, I think i should have oriented it with dominant limbs facing into the south winds. I have to pull some mulch back but I planted the rootstock vertical, the grafted part angles sharply to the north.
It leans badly to the north.
One small limb at 14” height growing to the south.
At 2’ height There is one branch growing north, and a limb growing east/SE.
Here’s a few pics of that spot where the two branches diverge, from different angles.
I am trying to decide if that crotch is ok and if I can keep both those as scaffolds.
The low 14” limb I think I should remove but Ihad originally thought i should keep it for balancing out the tree as it gets larger.
Are the pictures good enough that you give me an opinion on how to proceed?
As far as I can tell from the pictures, I’d cut out that big scaffold to the east. That one is going to split the tree anyway when it gets bigger. There is no way that scaffold will ever form a collar.
If I can interpret the pictures correctly, that will leave you with two scaffolds, pointing more or less opposite directions.
I wouldn’t worry about the lean. I have trees leaning every which way. I don’t recall ever losing a peach tree to a blow over. But the caveat is that I keep them low, so the wind can’t get a lot of leverage to blow them over. When peach trees are young they will blow over some. We then firm up the hole with sand and keep them pruned well. Less foliage means less of a wind sail.
Then when they get some size on them, the roots will stabilize and hold the tree in whatever position the tree is in. Again, these are trees kept at pedestrian height (no taller than 8’).
I’ve posted these kinds of pictures before, but here’s a couple more. I took these pics yesterday because a customer is having a hard time pruning his peach trees. He’s really not pruning at all, which is a sin.
So I was busy pruning young trees yesterday, and picked one for a before and after picture, to show him how much we routinely prune young trees to train them correctly.
The “after” picture isn’t a very good one, because it looks like the tree has two scaffolds. Really it has 3 scaffolds. One of the scaffolds is small and points toward the left. Hard to see in the pic because it’s so small, compared to the other two scaffolds. But it you look down from the top of the tree, you would see 3 scaffolds pointing 120 degrees apart. The tree is set up to become a nice tree with collars on each scaffold.
When it comes to pruning peaches. We don’t think a thing about cutting away 75% of a young tree in the summertime. We do it routinely. For a healthy peach tree in a good location, pruning aggressively just stimulates more growth. You wouldn’t recognize this tree above in a few months.
By the way, the trees in the background have not been pruned yet this spring. They were pruned some last fall, but badly need a spring pruning. They are way too shaggy.
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