This is my 5 yr old peach Elberta. First few years I didn’t prune at all. I didn’t know about trees needing pruning. Last year I cut off the very tall central order. I’m gradually trying to make this a vase shape tree. I’m debating whether to remove the branch that starts close to the center of the tree and the sort of curve to the right of the picture. I’m hesitant to cut this off since this will eliminate most of my fruit for this year. One reason to do that is there a very little branch coming right below this curved branch and I can make it one of the major branches. It is pointing in the direction I want it to go. To sort of balance the tree. The other reason is this large branch is damaged and has what could be canker? See next few pics. Any feedback is appreciated. Should I chop it off at the trunk? Should I keep it and pruning to reduce height?
Looking at that picture it doesn’t look too bad. Here are few different angles to show you how this curved to the right.
I meant central leder not order.
I won’t remove that big branch right now. I might shorten it some. What I’d do for sure is shorten all those little wispy shoots. Any peach out on the end of those will be to heavy. So they might as well be shortened leaving the one fruit on each with better support.
I’d also clean up those stubs you’ve left so that they heal over faster.
Thanks Fruitnut. Those stubs I kept because I was thinking about grafting to it. Is that a bad idea?
You could graft to those under the big branch, maybe even the short stub going left. Then if they take, shape the rest of the tree accordingly.
Sounds good. Will do that. Thanks for the input.