There was an old thread about this, but it dealt with an old tree. I’m going to post a marked-up photo that I took this morning - of my new little Red Haven Peach. I hope that someone will kindly jump in and tell me which branches to take. I want it to be vase-shaped / open center. Should I take off the #1 strong top branch? (Would that be the central leader?)
And which others? I tried to make this as painless (for YOU!) as possible. Numbered from the top.
Also . . . should I wait until after the last frost to do this? Or right now? I was going to keep it in the pot . . . but changed my mind. It’s going in the ground as soon as I can do it. OK to plant it now? Thanks.
I always think - I’m ready to do this. I can do this.
“Just do it!”, I say to myself. But, you know, maybe if I had a dozen or so of these trees - it wouldn’t be such a painful decision. But once that branch is gone - it’s gone. I hope it gets easier and easier. Please tell me that it does.
I’d clip off all of number one, clear down to the other branches. Then I’d plant it. But as far as the planting, I don’t know much about container trees.
Wow that has nice branches! Very horizontal! I would take one and maybe 2 off too, if it is going in the same direction as 5. then graft new varieties on all of them except one to stay Red Haven
Yes number one is closest to a central leader, looks like it might have been pruned already once.
I will graft all of them . . . just as soon as I get back from that workshop! LOL
And . . . I thought that this little tree had great branches, too. I walked by it at Lowes, and went back to take another look - and then took it home. All the rest were tall stringbeans.
I live close to a large Mennonite community. Years and years ago, one of the couples planted a very nice ‘home town’, but commercial, peach orchard. They had the most wonderful, beautiful peaches! I asked them which varieties they grew. One was Red Haven. I always remembered that. So, now I’ll have my own!
6 appears to be the only branch going in that direction about 2 O clock if a clock was on top with 12 O’clock going directly back. The photo has some compression, hard to see 4 and 6 do not cross.
4 is at 5 O’clock.
You could do that! It would work, my only concern is no other branch is even close to going in the direction of 3, a large open plane without it. 5 and 6 could fill the area in with laterals. If you want to graft I would keep more than 4 Four branches is ideal. Still I would want more for grafting. Their is a problem though because 2 and 3 are going to go up and try to be dominate unless you tie them down.
Since Olpea is a professional i would follow his advice, and i would advise to tie 2 and 3 down to make them go horizontal, I use a brick, rock or stake and some kind of rope. I have paracord around for my bean trellis, so I would use that. I pad the rope on the tree to prevent any girdling, Don’t pull it down enough to break, try 45-90 angle, with 90 being horizontal. You can always prune other branches off anytime you want, you do not have to finish the scaffold right now.
Red Haven is a great peach, developed right here in Michigan.
Here is another view - from the top. 4 and 6 don’t really cross. 4 is higher and 6 is kind of ‘around the corner’ from 4, on the trunk. But 4 IS growing directly over 7.
I do wish that there was more space between branches - Only an inch or 2 max.
And it is hard to see in this photo . . . but #7 is actually a second tier branch which grows out of an extremely short scaffold. See it? For that reason, shouldn’t it definitely go? Does that make it very weak?
If it were my tree, I would definitely take 1 and 7 out first.
Then, I would decide if I want to keep 3 or 4 scaffolds. I want all scaffolds to have good angle aganist the trunk and none were too large to dominate others.
OK - I think I agree with those who suggested removing 1 for sure . . . and #7. No narrow crotches. Keep the widest angles. Make sure there is adequate distance between the remaining branches.
Ma - I am apt to want 4 branches - going in as much a N-S-E-W position as possible.
Hearing that you lost 2 grafts . . . that only leaves you with the 2 branches? Can you not save the part of the other two - closer to the trunk and start over? (I don’t know how this works - grafting, I mean. That’s why I am going to a workshop!) Now my final question would be - should I do the surgery soon? ASAP?
Mine has been in ground the whole time so I pruned them in April before I graft.
How cold your area will be for the next few weeks? If not freezing cold, you can remove them now. You may want to think about planting it now and hope that it will have sometime to establish in ground before you graft.
It could go down to freezing again - before this winter is over. Would there be harm in planting it - and then waiting till next year to do the first prune? Or just wait until the chance of cold cold temps has passed?
Re. Losing branches when grafts failed. Don’t worry. Peach trees grow like weeds. By the summer, I had several new branches showing up. I selected new two scaffolds to go with my two that grafted took. A young tree like mine just wants to put out more growth.
