I am in Colorado, about 50 miles north of Denver. My mulberry trees were here when I moved in 12 years ago. They were large then, 25 ft at least, Four trees covered a large area of our yard. We have removed all but One now, and are considering taking that one out as well. My concern is that, as stated above, the birds and squirrels love them. To anyone wanting to know why grow a mulberry, that is the answer. They totally ignore the cherry tree right next to them. I would love to keep them in some form, but don't have room for the large tree. I have potted up a few of the seedlings and am going to try them as bushes. Wish me luck.

Beesneeds: I have 11 apple trees on various rootstocks. I prune with Felco pruners, loppers and a pruning saw. I also use a stepladder. I try and keep my older and larger trees no taller than 15' as I cannot pick ,spray or prune anything taller than that with the equipment I have. I feel your pain as I had one very wide apple tree that is difficult on one side to even work my ladder into. I ended up just cutting out a few large limbs to make this happen. I figured that was the best way as what use are apples that I cannot get to and pick when they are ripe (unless you are letting them drop and picking up the windfalls for harvest). Saw away is my advice and open up the tree a bit. Better light penetration will give you apples with better skin color and better flavor. Also a more open canopy promotes better air flow so the fruit/foliage will dry off quicker so hopefully less prone to scab, mildew, sooty blotch ect. IF you have not pruned much the past few years, I would advice not removing LOTS of wood the first year. Pruning old trees too heavily can result in a lot of water sprout formation. Best to remove lots of wood over a period of several years instead of all at once. I often summer prune out water sprouts when I see them instead of letting them go and doing it during the dormant season.

I had a large one in a pot that failed some scratch tests and I thought it had died, but my husband talked me into planting it in the ground, and the dang thing came back. But now, a few more years later, it is struggling and half-leafless, and beginning to resemble the tree in your photo. It gets a decent amount of water, too. I've never been very impressed with the flowers (ours is Prunus cerasifera 'Krauter Vesuvius') but the foliage really adds to the landscape. I hate to replace it with the same species, considering their many health issues. But I cannot seem to come up with an idea for a suitable replacement with that level of dark foliage impact. I'm open to ideas, if anyone has suggestions! Zagyzebra, I hope your tree continues to improve with the additional irrigation, and surprises you with some lush foliage next year. After my experience, I wouldn't be surprised. Good luck.

" Am i pruning all those back to the trunk each year to encourage it to keep growing upward? " no, you want to build a nice full crown by shortening some of the branches that are trying to dominate, so they still have leaves to feed the tree. You may remove some of the branches, if they are too closely spaced along the length of the trunk or too many spaced radially around the trunk, or come out of the trunk at a very sharp angle upward. Those are the ones that will try to dominate by growing up through the branches and becoming an entire tree by them selves. And you don't want to remove more than about 30% or so of the green each season you prune. "And am I still encouraging a leader when it’s a multi trunk tree? " Multi trunk is a little different. The goal there is a shorter tree with a wide crown. With the tree up against the fence, that style may not work unless you can get the crown above it so it has room to spread. Not impossible but will take more time and effort. :-) There are plenty of articles on how to 'structure prune both kinds of trees on the www but you basically want strudy branches coming straight out from the trunk, at least as straight as you can get. You want even spacing between the those branches so as the tree grows they are not barely inches apart to get light for the leaves. And you don't want crossing branches or branches that grow inside toward the center of the tree. And don't over prune. Be patient! :-) This picture shows some of what we are talking about. Not the best but all I could find on short notice. :-) The temporary branches, will be your lower branches that will not be pruned until there is enough crown above so the tree won't miss them. This all takes a couple to a few years to accomplish but the result is well worth it. :-)