I’m having trouble deciding how to prune one of my young peach trees (planted in spring 2023).
First issue: I’ve attached photos showing that the leader, when pruned off at planting, didn’t heal well (maybe pruned too high above scaffold?). The bark around that top scaffold has shrunken around the trunk and I presume it is dead, leading me to believe I need to prune off that scaffold altogether (note that I live in a very humid area where both fungal and bacterial disease pressure are very high and stone fruit growing is dodgy; and…don’t laugh…I’m trying to do this with as little spraying as possible). So that’s the first question – do I prune off that top scaffold? (Factors I’m considering here are: 1) the aforementioned bark death and possible disease present now, or imminent, 2) if I cut off this scaffold, the tree will be horribly lopsided (though I might be able to remedy this over time by directing growth from other scaffolds into that space. 3) the scaffolds are uneven in size (massively so), which I recognize is not ideal, and I’ll say more about that in a moment. 4) I am not super confident that removing the top scaffold will remove all the damaged and/or diseased bark and/or trunk – topping the tree may reveal disease/damage lower down, which would possibly necessitate removing more scaffolds…at which point I think I might as well just remove them all and hope for new buds to push. We are almost two full weeks after full bloom now (I waited this long to prune because it’s been raining hard and often – 9" in just a couple of weeks). If I cut off that top scaffold only to find that I might as well just cut off all the scaffolds…is it just too late in the season to hope for a good result from this extreme operation? (Excuse my ignorance – as you have probably guessed by now, I’m rather new at this.)
Second issue: As I mention above, my scaffolds are not even of remotely similar diameter (I know, I know…I should have corrected this at planting). I’d love to fix this problem now, and I’d even be happy to sacrifice my two big scaffolds (especially since that top one may have to be removed anyway). (Side note: the lowest/largest scaffold, though it appears not to have much of a branch collar, actually does seem to have formed a collar – it’s just not visible in the photos.) If I left only the small scaffolds, I’d still have three, which is great…BUT two of the small ones originate at the same place along the trunk, both vertically and horizontally. This doesn’t seem good at all…am I wrong about that? Best course of action, considering all of these unfortunate facts?
Third issue (relating to this tree and other trees generally): Forked scaffolds. Is forking of a scaffold a bad idea, or is it a viable option for filling in space around the tree? As the pictures show, two of my scaffolds are forked (one with a three-“prong” fork, which I know I need to correct for sure – but I’m waiting for the answer to this question to decide which one (or two) prong(s) to remove). In case it’s not clear from the pictures, the forked areas are within 6-10" of the trunk, so not good placement for secondaries. So unless keeping both “prongs” of a forked scaffold is a viable option, I will remove all but one prong. Secondary to this question are further questions: 1) is there a general rule of thumb about the angle of forks? I’d think the wider the better…but is there a definite minimum…I know, this seems like a dumb question even to me…but…? 2) is there a minimum or maximum distance from the trunk a fork should be allowed (if at all)?
As much as I try to imagine a tree as it grows into maturity, I’m still not really able to take everything into account…just too new at growing fruit. So…thank you in advance for any advice!
