Hard to say from the unknown size of the tree how much 1.5" is but going by my 3 year old trees I would say it will be fine on its own. I think even my 3 year old dwarf tree could deal with 1.5". But that would be enough to plan on replacing my 2 year old dwarf grafts. My roommate is good about weed eating trees to death. It's only a whack here and there (except for the new tree that he debarked clear around once), but a little bit every week for 6 months adds up. It took a lot of yelling to get him to stop weed eating the trees at all.

The palces oozing try poking around in them with a straightened paper clip. That will kill a borer and it will heal up. the other may just be splits from the amount of growth. You are doing a great job on shaping your tree

Not shipping damage? what are you talking about? Even the seller agreed those trees were damaged during shipping. What I am talking about is the fact that the second photo shows mending tissue in the split. It didn't begin to heal in transit. I do not understand why some people make some strong statements about something they do not even know... Interesting.... What I find "interesting" is the fact that you say you took pictures to show the damage in your post and chose to upload photos of the "two best trees" for example. What do you expect...viewers to infer that other trees must have been damaged more badly? If they agreed to replace them. then good for you. I agree the shipping method sounds a bit iffy and there "IS" an issue with damage regardless of how it happened.

+om.. is that you .. lol .. made a similar comment in maybe 5 posts yesterday .. using the above.. but noting further ... its called encapsulation ... lol.. of course i would be called on the carpet on the one i didnt use the proper term ... i blame the cat ... lol np tropic ... just mocking myself.. and blaming the cat ... ken