thomis, good work on that Apple orchard. But, in the photos the sun does appear on the other side from the N direction on the layout. One year tree growth seems fair not great. Fertilizer may double the growth. Cutting the tree down to 30". In the last photo your holding a tree that looks like a 48" whip that grew one season. It won't hurt the tree to cut it to 30". I'd leave it that high so not have to duck when mowing. You can spread the vertical tree branches now and in a month or two they will hold that angle. Clip the branch tips off to an outward facing bud.

Al: Planting a few trees always gives one a good feeling. But when it is sweet cherries, that feeling has to be tempered with reality. I don't know about your climate, but in mine (Northern Virginia) sweet cherries are about the most difficult fruit you can try (leaving aside nectarines and pluots). Sweet cherry trees require a special level of care, especially effective dormant spraying to slow the onset of diseases like bacterial canker. Depending on the varieties you chose (but did not specify), sweet cherries can crack during the heat and humidity of summer and ruin an otherwise good crop. If your trees are on one of the usual cherry rootstocks like Mazzard or Mahaleb (often humorously called "dwarfing" by the nurseries that make them), they can grow up to 25-30 feet in 10 years, making it impossible to obtain spray coverage or even pick the cherries. That is why my preference would not be central leader or even modified central leader, but a vase shape, with low, spreading branches. There never seems to be any difficulty in getting a sweet cherry to grow upward. I would whack those sweet cherry trees off at about 2 feet and try to get some lateral branches going. Your Northstar tree is a curious case indeed. This variety is a genetic dwarf, which will normally top off at about 10 feet, even with minimal pruning. How a nursery could get a leader of this variety to grow up to 6 feet in a pot with few to no side branches is a mystery to me. I guess they figure people will pay more for a taller tree, and they are usually right. The trouble is, all those feet of 1/2" leader are essentially useless. I would whack that little tree off at about 24-30 inches, and try to encourage a lot more side branching, and I would have no problem leaving branches that are a foot or more from the soil line. A multiple-branched, spreading tree will be a lot more fruitful and easier to care for than a taller, more vertically oriented tree. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

When you begin to try to harvest fruit you may find that wildlife questions are as essential to your quest as pruning. The whips don't need to be topped now, and may branch without prompting, depending on cultivar. The least pruning you do the faster your trees will establish. Commercial orchardists sometimes prune nothing except branches that exceed 1/3 the diameter of the trunk at their point of attachment for the first several years untill trees begin bearing fruit. This works well for some free branching cultivars. It is cultivars that are uncooperative that need to be manipulated with the sheers to encourage propper branch structure. When you make cuts shortly after bud break it encourages less vigorous secondary growth behind the cut and actually creates a better tier structure according to literature and some personal observation. By this I mean you are less likely to get a response of equally vigorous growth from several shoots just below the cut that have to be sorted out by selecting one to lead. Instead you get more response from buds well below the cut. Tell me what you're growing and I may be able to be more specific. Training is dictated by cultivar.

Everyone has different ideas on this. Me, I don't prune too much until they start to bear, but I do tie down limbs. For you though, I think you would like to remove those extra limbs. You probably want a nice looking tree in your yard or area and there is nothing wrong with that. I don't spray year old trees in my area, but I don't know where you are or what happens there. Glowingstar is a nice peach.