Some trees are more resistance than others. I have had it in my orchard on a number of trees, yet other trees were not affected. At times I have had fire blight so bad I could see the bacterial ooze dripping off the blossoms. But, as mentioned no infection on other trees. If I felt like I needed to do something, my first action would be to do just what you suggested. I have thought about trying to remove the canker tissue, but never have tried it. Canker blight that overwinter can cause water sprouts to become systemically infected by the fire blight bacteria if its on a nearby overwintering canker. If I cann't remove the whole branch because the canker is on the trunk, I just leave it alone. However, I do spray the trees with Kocide (copper) along wih my dormant oil spray and maybe it helps, but I am not sure it does much for the fire blight. There is a lot of information on fire blight and all of it does not agree. Studies have been done where it has not helped even to cut out the first strikes, just leave it alone until you do your dormant pruning and then cut out the dead branches. I used to put a lot of time and energy into fire blight, but now I take a more casual approach to it. I have had a lot worst looking trees than yours and one time ordered a new tree to take the place of the fire blighted one, just to pick a couple box of apples off of it this summer. I sprayed painted all the strikes with red paint, then pruned out all the branches during my late winter purning. The tree looked like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree, but is now doing well. Go ahead and try what you suggested. Unless you completely girdle the trunk, it should not harm the tree too much. Use it as a learning experience. See what works and what does not work. I have had some trees die from fire blight, replaced them and they again died. Now, I avoid that particular variety.

I see one trunk with green stem that might come back. The other trunks look like they are on the verge of death, and probably will not survive. A couple trunks are outright dead. Given the condition of the tree, it is impossible to say if any part will survive. But to give it the best chance, move it outdoors into the bright shade. If there is life, you will see new growth within two weeks. The next step after that, if leaves appear, will be to separate the dead trunks and re-pot the healthy trunk in new mix that is porous and free-draining. Josh

Golden delicious have such light colored bark in youth that I find them very prone to SW Winter Injury if that is what caused the bark damage. Since it was tree wrapped over the winter, it should have protected from this. Either way, your photo shows good callus tissue forming around the wound and it should close the wound off in 2 years. I think the tree will be fine. From my experience if the wounded bark is over 50% of the diameter of the trunk of a young tree then it is questionable on long term survivability. Since your wound is less than that, the tree should be fine. Years ago I used to paint the trucks of young golden delicious with interior white latex paint watered down. That would work too for winter bark protection.

Nigel, Multiple trunks on large specimen trees is never a good idea. I see so many yard trees left to themselves, with extra trunks coming out of the base and branches going in every direction. My BIL has a huge Silver maple with 7 trunks and now is worried about any one of them toppling over and crushing his house and looking at around $3000 to remove. Like ken said, you can do what ever you want but as far as structure, support and health of the tree goes, young specimen trees should be kept single trunked, single leader tree as long as it's feasibly. Your Red/Blue line photo is basically right and there's plenty of structure pruning of small trees tutorials on the www if you want to look them up. Your picture after that is some sort of Japanese maple. Certain ornamental trees can be multiple trunks and look better in that form so this is apples to oranges. I cringe when I see large trees like your last picture growing near a residence. Those multiple trunks aren't as well connected together as you might think, leaving crevasses where disease can fester and the trees can break apart during storms. And remember to plan on what trees you want growing in what location for your yard. Some trees can easily out grow their space in a short amount of time or look 'out of place' in their setting. Consider your neighbors also, what they think when your once little tree overhangs the fence infringing on their yard. You may not be able to grow much of anything under a large maple tree because of root issues is another consideration. Not to mention seeds sprouting up everywhere over the years. Also, all landscaping will eventually get to the end of it's practical usefulness and have to be redone at some point. Something else to keep in mind.