You can't maintain apical dominance when competing scaffolds are nearly the same diameter as the the leader. Those upper scaffolds appear excessively vigorous as a result of excessive diameter and will probably best be removed next dormant pruning. Relative diameter represents relative access to the root system (water, N. and other nutrients) the greater the diameter the more access. It is difficult to subdue growth of scaffolds like those although if you really want to keep them you can pinch all new growth back this season. Never works for me, but should in theory if you stay on top of it long enough (like 2 years or something). You seem determined to get trees trained in a very specific time frame, but trees usually have other ideas. I suspect those scaffolds should have been removed during dormant pruning which is what I'd do next time. I don't think 32 inches is enough distance anyway- I'd give them almost another foot myself if the trees are on something at least as vigorous as M7. I like my trees pretty open. In the end, you are better off removing any scaffolds more than half the diameter of the trunk at the point the scaffold is attached (to the trunk). I generally remove anything more than a third with a vigorous grower like Jonagold. I'm talking about dormant pruning here. During the growing season you might want to start to choose 3 peramanent scaffolds for the first tier (I prefer 3 over 4 on Jonagold because of its relative vigor). Pinch back growth on the temporary branches. Once the permanent ones have dominance you probably could start pinching them a bit to develop secondary branches as you thin out the temperaries. Follow the same ratio rule with secondaries as I suggest for scaffolds and maintain a central leader on your scaffolds as well with much thinner laterals coming off it. Looks like you're doing a great job of getting trees to grow.

Thank you everyone. All things considered I feel pretty good for a week post op and I'm behaving quite well. doing only what I'm supposed to do. Drippy, those chipmunks are not funny and they sure aren't "chip and dale" either. Never mind the garden bed destruction that they create, the holes that they dig can be dangerous if you get your shoe or foot caught in one of them and go down. A year ago I did just that and tore ligaments in my ankle. The little boy that used to live next door got his foot in one when he was 4 and broke his leg. Now if that isn't enough insult here's more to add insult to injury. An article in the newspaper a few weeks ago said that chipmunks are a major carrier of deer tick now, more so than even deer and that could be the cause of a massive increase in the number of Lyme Disease cases being reported. Not that i needed an incentive to do everything I can to get rid of them, but that sure added a whole new layer to doing it. Then a friend called me last week the day before I went to the hospital to warn me that she was working in the gardens a month ago and she unknowingly disturbed a chipmunk that jumped on her arm and ran off. She didn't notice that she had a tick on her arm till the next day because it had attached right on top of a birthmark. 2 weeks later, bingo she has the classic bulls eye rash on her arm and has lyme disease. Chipmunks are not very smart. They can't swim, but will be more than happy to dive into water to get sunflower seeds and drown in the process and that's fine with me, right along with eating my datura as well. e-mail me if you want some info on chipmunks that like to dive for sunflower seeds. Bonny, the livingston daisy was WS by a friend of mine. There are 3 of us that share the WS for 3 gardens. We cane up with the idea to share it all after a couple of years of all of us sowing the same seeds then coming to my spring plant swap and all having the same extra seedlings. Didn't make sense so we split it up now. We end up with the same number of containers, more of each kind sowed, but the total variety is split between the homes and we end up with an even bigger variety of plants for the beds. Vera the color of that viola is beautiful. If you have any seeds for trade in the fall, I'd love some and will send you some of mine. PV, sow those seeds for next year. No matter how many of them you have, sow all of them cause they are a funny seed to germinate. My experience with them has been strange to say the least. My first seeds where from valueseeds.com. got 3 packets, 30 seeds in each packet and sowed them in early March. just sprinkled on the top of the soil cause they are small and tannish in color. Out of those 70 seeds we got 6 seedlings. Not a very happy camper that there, but I collected every single one of the seeds I could get my hands on from the plants and it was a ton of seeds, more than 1/4 tsp. Next year we sowed every one of those seeds, and I kept thinking OMG, what will I do if thousands of these seeds germinate. Well, no such luck, we got 20 seedlings last year. Figured ok, better than the year before and we will always have to sow every single seed we get. So this past year I had more than 1/2 teaspoon of seeds. We sowed 4 mushroom containers of seeds, the 10 ounce size container, put each one in a ziplock baggie and put them out in mid April this year. just an experiment to see if a later sowing would make any difference in the germination rate. They began to germinate on 4/29 the exact same day as the prior to years, and they where slow. But this year we saw how the seeds germinate. they swell to at least twice their original size and all but germinate 1 seed at a time. honest. But there was a huge difference in this years germination. We had mushroom containers totally covered in seedlings. so many that we couldn't separate seedlings and planted hunks of them every where. My neighbor across the street still hasn't planted hers out yet and the entire container is covered in flowers and seedlings covering the container. We have to have thousands of seedlings this year. On top of that, we have seedlings of the viola popping up all over the place in the lawn and my neighbor has several popping up in her yard as well. Doesn't make any sense to me why on the third year with the seeds, second year of collecting seeds we have mass germination and the prior 2 years including the first year from commercial purchase the germination was very poor. Fran

It's too early for it to have come from this years spawn. They probably won't be spawning for several weeks yet. At 2 1/2" it was probably hatched last summer.

Please, see the new thread for all wish lists posted as well as games and fun... link below... Blessings, Angela Here is a link that might be useful: Secret Santa Swap, thread 3