seggert: Yes, cut them back. This will encourage lower branching and stimulate the tree to grow. Don't worry about the feathers. The trees will grow their own new feathers, and when they do you can begin to choose your scaffold limbs. Good choice of rootstock. Depending on the vigor of the cultivar above, you can end up with quite a large tree or a nice, compact little tree. Next time you post, mention the varieties. Someone may recognize them and provide useful tips. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

the guide the local orchard gave me was specific to prune during the first year. this is why I did this. there was specific directions on what to do when, but I didn't do it when I first planted and now I'm not sure if I need to chop the header or what. All I know is that it isn't growing new branches like the other trees are.

There are so many possible ways to train fruit trees. The christmas tree shaped central leader is now the most proscribed method for free standers (M26 and on up). It is a relatively efficient shape for harvesting light throughout the tree to get the maximum yeald of maximum sized fruit. The funny thing is that the home orchardist often doesn't need to maximize space and harvest. The christmas tree (the academics call it pyramid) shape is not the easiest to maintain. Once branches get overloaded with fruit and bend below horizontal you almost have to replace them to maintain the efficiency of the shape. As mentioned, some varieties just seem to want to weep. Ginger Gold is the one that breaks my balls this way. Also, with this shape the upper scaffolds must be periodically removed once they get to be too large diametered. I believe that very few hobbyist ever really master this part of maintenance. Shaping a tree like spokes would be fine, although I agree that it would require support for a few years. It's actually just an open center shape. I think you are imagining a tree without secondary and tertiery wood. You are really better off with just 3 spokes for most varieties of apples- maybe 4 for plums and apples that spur up a lot and dont produce a lot of secondary and tertiery wood. The only drawback of this horizontal, open center shape is the requirement for support. The easiest shape to maintain in my opinion is an umbrella shape. Once you make the shape all the decisions are easy-just prune to the weakest wood to create a weeping shape. Trees are productive, tend to annual bearing and can be maintained at a height above deer if you want, which makes mowing easy also. It leaves room in the yard for other things. You have to like the ladder dance though. That said, I usually train trees to the before mentioned christmas tree shape. Not only is it efficient, but the fact that it requires skillful pruning ensures that I will always have lots of work.

What you have is a whip - a very young tree with not yet any lateral branches developed. The suggestion you received is pretty standard for newly planted whips and is worth following as it encourages the development of a strong branch system. And that's were the fruit will grow. What you want to do is make a heading cut where you want the branching to begin and just above one of the buds. You do not need to take it down as far as they said - that is normally the practice for semi-dwarf or larger growing trees. And you don't want this tree to start to set any fruit until it develops a proper habit with some branches and a basic structure. So remove any flowers for at the least the first few years. And you should continue pruning in subsequent years but not in this same manner. This is pretty much a one time shot. You might want to research apple pruning or maybe a local nursery or your extension service has classes you can attend. Apples need routine, preferably annual, pruning to stimulate and encourage the development of fruiting spurs or those little nubby protuberances that the fruit grows on. 6-8' is really short for a dwarf apple. I'm thinking this is a mini dwarf, which only get around 6' tall - dwarfs typically get about 8-10'. Do you have another apple for cross pollination?