Well, to return to the original question-"Should I try to have them grow like a peach tree with 3 or 4 main branches? Or do I need to do something different?"- I'd say do something different. Open center pruning was a response to brown rot on peaches in the south- it let sunlight and air circulation reduce the humidity that ruined the crop. The only reason I can think of to do it with apples pears and plums is that you don't like ladders. Modified leader is really multiple leader- you let two or three scaffolds turn upward and compete with the central leader. Eventually, you top them all off. There's more pruning of crossing branches than with with central leader, but you'll get more production out of apricots and plums with the additional branching, and pears just have a natural tendency to grow this way. Bart, you said "some (especially some apples) have 4 or 5 branches radiating out of the trunk on a few different levels so there may be nearly 20 branches spaced in 18" of vertical trunk." I'd take most of those off. Even if you later cut out the leader, you'll want at least 6" between each branch. And you'll eventually cut off everything below 3 or 4'.

Here's a few references which attempt to quantify potential cropload. Keep in mind that all of these articles are for high-density plantings, so I'm not sure how the numbers will vary for a home orchard. FruitGrowersNews article on Tall Spindle: "âÂÂVarieties differ in their biennial bearing tendency, and this must be incorporated into crop loads allowed on young trees,â he said. âÂÂFor annual cropping varieties like Gala, we recommend crop loads of 15 to 20 apples per tree in the second year, 50 to 60 apples per tree in the third year and 100 apples per tree in the fourth year. For slow-growing and biennial bearing varieties like Honeycrisp, crop loads should be half that used with Gala.âÂÂ" Last year, my best trees were at about half their number in the 2nd leaf and several dropped all their apples. This year, I can see 50-60 being reasonable in 3rd leaf. Given that you had only 4 last year, you may want to aim for 50-60, rather than the 100 they list for 4th year trees. UMASS and Cornell recommend 3-6 fruit per square CM in cross sectional area. That would work out to 3.14*((2.5/2)*2.54)^2 = 95-190 for your tree. This same formula would give me 40-70 per tree (on the 4 largest trees). I had been shooting for 30-50 (depending on tree), based on the the blooms and how much space I had planned to leave between apples (I'll try for 8-12"). Yes, I counted on each tree and wrote down my predictions :)

I grew up in Sebastopol, CA, near Santa Rosa. It was covered with apple orchards, mostly Gravenstein. The main highway through town is named Gravenstein Hwy. Years ago, nearly every jar of apple sauce (Apple Time), bottle of apple juice, even the dried apple bits in Apple Jacks cereal came from Sebastopol. 20 years ago the Washington apple growers got together and bought the Vacu-Dry processing plants in Sebastopol and shut them down, effectively shutting down the apple orchards. Every spring they still have an Apple Blossom Parade for nostalgias sake, even though the apple orchards are untended and out of production for the most part.

Hello... Althea...thanks for your link..I just got back to this forum and noticed another post to my question. I agree with you about leaving the sunflower heads for the birds. I tried growing sunflowers many years ago, but my yard just didn't get enough sun and the only place that had the most sun was in the root zone of some trees, so it didn't work well. They didn't thrive so I stopped growing them. I do have one large 15x15 full sun perennial bed in my front yard, but not a great place for sunflowers [g]. I grow cosmos that the goldfinches also love and it is great watching them swaying on the stems to get them. That sounds like a great tip about the paper bag. I think they recommend that for corn from the raccoons too. oh..thanks for the link to NN...It looks like they are a part of gardenweb ring. that will come in handy...didn't know it was there. ftm...well you have more tolerance than I do for nests. I love bumble bees and are not afraid of them at all, but having them in a work area that I needed to access would be intolerable to me. Interesting story of the one that bumped you..[g] I tried googling the miday clavatus, but came up empty. Not sure if it could be a fly, but if it is, it looks exactly like a wasp. [g] Actually just re read your description and this insect has all bright orange legs. Thanks for the try.. :-) Adam