You can't really do that with peach trees as it may kill it. Only new wood can be counted on to generate new buds next year. The tree was trained to be an open center from close to the ground. If you have squirrels or coons (and no adequate chase dog) and don't plan an electric fence you may want to tape up a branch to grow vertical so you can start your scaffolds at about 4'. This will allow you to attach something to the trunk which will prevent these animals from getting up the tree.

It is okay to do pruning now, but avoid pruning late in the summer. Pruning will stimulate growth when the tree should be trying to go dormant for winter. The link below from Raintree Nursery has a very nice short guide for taking care of young trees. It is a 16 page PDF file that is packed with information and diagrams. The PDF file is formated to print easily as well. Here is a link that might be useful: Raintree Plant Owners Guide

give the one in the pic.. a couple more weeks ... to see what happens ... then PROPERLY prune off the dead stuff ... better pix.. will get you better suggestions ... leave no stubs... try the link for better pic posting ... once your pix are there.. use the HTML code .. and paste it where you type.. on preview.. if you see it.. we will ... no where to go with the DR.. w/o a pic ... there is no hurry with trees ... ken Here is a link that might be useful: link

I'm no expert on this, but I think I would leave it. It's gone pretty far, and as said above, would probable do the same thing all over again. There is a larger Autumn Blaze in front of where I work that is about a 12" trunk, that does not have the standard central leader, and is branched repeatedly where several leaders originate from one location in kind of a disc shaped arrangement. Then in late Jan we had the worse ice storm at the location I have seen, and about the worst on record. Guess what, the Autumn Blaze lost 2-4 relatively minor branches not more than a couple inches thick, and that was all. This with some formerly large probable 30 inch diameter sugar maples reduced to mostly trunks. Now I'm sure, the tree not being nearly as large as the sugar maples made a difference, but still it's a mature tree that came through the WORST ice storm essentially unscathed. On a side note, I am currently working on one in my yard, that was just plain screwed up. Partly my fault, partly not. In fact it was a tree that I gave up for dead, as I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. Finally I remembered when we bought it that the nursery worked had sprayed "wilt proof" on it, for the ride home. Leaves got thick, and slowly disintegrated, and then died. Grew a few more back, but same think leaves, and very short internodes. Finally figured out it was probable 2,4 D herbicide damage, and that it had not been sprayed with wilt-proof at all. Last spring I noticed that buds set before I bought the tree were growing (all be it slowly), while the buds set afterward were not behaving normally. Little more research, and 2,4 D concentrates in the apical meristem (the growing points), and so could have concentrated in the buds set AFTER I bought the tree. So out come the pruners, cutting all the buds and branch ends set after I bought the tree. Low and behold the tree springs to life, and grows well till mid-summer. Added up to about 2.5' on some branches. Even got some decent russet orange-red fall color from it. So now the tree is still lopsided, still has a kind of crooked central leader that leans to one side, but it is on the road to recover, and I will be able to turn it into a very nice tree. This all is to say, that these trees are VERY TOUGH, and that it may very well turn out better than you expect. Also these trees seem to be more resistant to ice damage than many would give them credit for. Arktrees