Farmer, I'll offer a few general comments with regard to the peach. Most people don't prune their peach trees at all, or wait too long and then want to correct. After this it can be pretty tough sometimes, though not always impossible, to bring it back to the shape or size desired. Perhaps an analogy would be building a house. If the foundation received little attention, it's difficult to rectify a problem, if the rest of the house is already on top. The good news is your tree is still small enough you can train it any way you like. If it were my tree, I'd select three scaffolds, going in different directions and cut everything else off. Ideal scaffolds point more horizontal than vertical, are spaced uniformly around the trunk, and are separated by about 4" vertically on the trunk. This is going to get a bit complicated, but I'll try to give you some specific advice about your peach tree. It's hard to tell from pictures, but on your peach tree it looks like you could select the big scaffold lowest down (pointing towards the right) for your first scaffold. Take a tree saw and cut the scaffold from the underside about 1/2" away from the collar. Cut about 60% through the branch with your tree saw (again from the underside). Move up the branch and inch and repeat (cut 60% through the branch from the underside). Move up the branch another inch and do it again for a third time. Now that branch will easily bend down. Bend it down about 30 degrees from horizontal and tie it there with some string (make sure you tie a large loop, not a tight loop, around the branch so you don't girdle it). Don't pull so hard you break the branch off. Tie the string to something which will hold the branch at that angle. I strong piece of wire pushed in the ground makes a nice anchor, or a large rock, or a jug of water, anything. The branch cuts you made with the tree saw will heal over and the branch will be set more horizontal. Because of the cuts, the branch will grow a little slower, which is a good thing in this case because it's currently too dominant. Next there is a thin low branch pointing toward the left. Leave it. It should make a nice scaffold the way it's going. It is a bit too close to your first scaffold on the trunk, but these things happen. Lastly, go up the tree a little more and pick a scaffold pointing away from the camera. I can't tell where on the trunk that occurs, but I do see some shoots pointing that way. You'll need to tie one of those shoots down. They look small enough you won't have to use the tree saw. Again tie it down about 30 degrees from horizontal. Cut everything else off. As your peach tree grows, keep pruning the strong vigorous vertical (upright) growth and leave the more horizontal growth. As you get more growth on the three scaffolds you selected, don't be afraid to keep tying things down if you want. You can always prune upright growth off, but you can tie it down too, if you are short of more horizontal growth. Either way, just don't allow that strong vigorous upward growth. It isn't the most fruitful wood, and it gets your tree too tall. Lastly, it would be a good idea to put about a 4' ring of mulch around that tree. Young peach trees don't compete well with grass.

It's not too late to prune. You seem to have a good plan. Go ahead, that's the best way to learn. The Fruitnut

Katrina: You can find my posts about the fungicide by typing in the search box "liquid copper fungicide." But sometimes this can be difficult because only the overall topic that the posts are in comes up and you have to scroll through to find the posts about the topic you are searching. My posts are easier than some to find because I always end with "--Spruce." Anyway, I am more than happy to post again--this liquid copper fungicide treatment I recommend meets with a lot of skepticism, which in unfortunate, because I have been using it for more than 20 years now and it really, really works. I hate to see rot enter trees through wounds and large pruning cuts when it can easily be prevented. Anyway, enough of the sermon (for now!). Without a picture I am relying on your description of the cut at the top of this tree where you hope the new leader will take over. There should not be any stub that is more than an inch or so above where the new leader starts out. If there is, it should be cut back some. But an inch or so should be left above where the new leader starts to "stabilize" it--you don't want the new leader to be growing right at the rim of the main cut. If that happens it will be weak and liable to break. Also, the cut should be sloping away from the new leader somewhat. Maybe a 25 or 30 degree slope is enough--just what is best depends on the form of the new leader and the trunk where the cut has been made. If the slope is too much you create a larger wound unnecessarily. This slope of the cut serves two purposes--first it helps the water drain off, but perhaps more important it will allow the callus growth joining the new leader with the old main trunk to be stronger. OK, now you are ready for the fungicide. There were two brands I used over the years--the first, and the one I used the most, by Dragon, may no longer be available. The other I used was by Bonide. These were very similar with the exception that the Bonide brand had some kind of resin-like component that made the fungicide harder to use in a sprayer--the nozzle could become gummed up. But that is a minor problem and only a problem if you used a lot of it, which I did--at one time treating about 60 trees per year. And I did not always clean the sprayer after each days use. But now I use a paint brush except in rare cases when I canÂt reach the spot I need to treat. I use the brush now because it is easier to control the amount applied. These liquid copper fungicides may be a little hard to find in a garden center unless at really good ones with a broad range of products. You can also buy it on-line. I am not sure that any one brand is better than any other, but be sure it is "liquid copper fungicide." That will be the product name. You may find other fungicidal products that have copper in them, such as Bordeaux mixture, but these will probably not work. The key is the copper element has to be in a water soluble form. OK, now how should you apply it? First, you should wait about 4 to 6 months for the wood where the cut is has dried so it can absorb the fungicide. Then after a few dry days--no rain--mix the fungicide one part to maybe three parts water and then paint it on the cut. For the first application, give it a good coating like you would with paint. But give it just one coat--donÂt keep applying it as long as it soaks into the cracks in the wood--this is where there is a slight danger of doing some harm. And it is a slight danger, but if too much keeps soaking down into the trunk of the tree it can cause the inner part of the sapwood to die a little sooner than it normally would. At first I experimented with really large applications--I never killed anything with it, but I did notice some thinning of the sapwood as a result. A short time after you apply this, the blue/green color will fade and the wood will look normal. To be one the safe side, I would apply this again the next year, but this time and hereafter, apply lightly just so the surface is covered, and then a re-application maybe every other year will be enough. I have one red oak tree that I made a huge 13 inch cut on to remove a deformed semi-branch semi-second trunk, and after about 15 years now the wood on that cut is as fresh as the day I cut it. In a few more years it will be covered over with new wood and bark and I doubt any rot will be in this tree! And the tree will have a really nice shape. --Spruce

yes it WILL need to be pruned... but wait a year ... without links to the websites... its hard to understand why they want immediate pruning... MAYBE ... its production pruning vs amateur pruning ... what we suggest involves making decisions to make success easy ... if you want to experiment.. and perhaps fail ... go for it ... an orchard guy may plant 100's of trees per year.. maybe a bit more practice than us... and doesnt really care if he has a 10% fail rate .... he will do things we may not... if its your one tree .. and you are basically a novice... err toward the safe side ... good luck ken PS: looks just like my bing cherry that g-pa bought 2 years ago .... we did the surgery this season ... now if i can just figure out how to keep the jap. beetles away ...