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.

Do not get your info only on the internet, read the label carefully- you don't want to spray green tissue within about 24 hours of a freeze- one side or the other, as I recall but I will be reading the label again to refresh my memory before I do any spraying. I manage an orchard of old apple trees that lost a years crop and some trees lost some huge scaffold branches because some idiot sprayed green tissue when there was frozen dew on the ground. Thank God I wasn't the idiot...THAT TIME- it was an employee of a very well known tree care company. If you are using horticultural oil and the label says it's good on green tissue then you are better off spraying at some point from half inch green to tight cluster for scale and mites. Aphids are apparently best to spray at green tip. The only thing I spray for when trees are dormant is pear trees for pear blister mite. There was another question about oil recently that covered a lot of the info on the subject if you search for it.

Alright, so thanks for all the good advice, though in the end that way didn't work out for me, as I will be out of town for the next two weeks and couldn't get things in time to get them into the ground before leaving. So I decided to make do with what I can get locally, and try to make the best out of it. There's always next year and better planning to extend or do over what I started now. So I got three apple trees between 2 and 3 years old, I think. It'll give me an opportunity to compare the different local sources. Tree 1, the cheapest one ($19) is from Home Depot, Golden Delicious (Dwarf). What was very noticable when planting is that the tree was apparently just stuck into a pot a short time ago, there were was not much on it in terms of roots at all, and the potting mix fell right off. Because of that, and the kinda screwed-up structure, I pruned that tree heavily: Golden Delicious before: and after pruning: I got a $59 Dwarf Honeycrisp tree from a local expensive-ish nursery. However, that tree is 3 if not 4 years old (can't remember now). It had a couple of fruit buds on it, most of which fell victim to my pruning. This tree was in a big pot with an extensive root system, so it must have been grown in this pot for quite some time. I had to untangle / cut lots of circling roots. The shape still isn't that great, the lower branches are at 45 degrees, but I'll keep them and see how it goes. A second, higher, scaffold was started, but it's only short spurs at this time. Honeycrisp tree before pruning I didn't prune it that heavily yet, but looking at the close-up, I think I need to prune off most of the leader (down into two-year old wood) in order to get the 2nd scaffold to grow (hopefully). Does that sound right? I'll try to train down the lower branches, though they're not very flexible anymore. Finally, I got Liberty, semi-dwarf from another nursery at $29, and one to hopefully give me a break on disease. This one is two-years old, has a well developed lower scaffold made from 3 branches. Root-wise, it was so-so. Apparently it is a vigorous grower, as last season the central leader grew more than 3, if not 4 feet. I headed it quite a bit down to start a 2nd scaffold, and I'm trying to train the 1 scaffold to grow more outwards then up (it's currently kinda curved, leaving the trunk at a good angle but then turning upwards. Should I head the side branches? If so, at what point? Liberty before pruning: That's what it currently looks like (except that I used bamboo stakes to straighten the branches): I got no experience with pruning at all, other than what I learned from the internet, so any advice is very welcome. Also, I already got bugs on the Honeycrisp, some very tiny beetles or something, all black, which are apparently munching on the just opening buds (small holes in the new leaves already). Should I do something about them? If so, what? Thanks ;)

Its better to spray when the buds have swelled some, such a spray timing is called "delayed dormant". Up to 1/2" of green leaves showing and you are fine. Scott