Just to clarify - we planted this tree today, so it would be relatively easy to shift it in the ground if we needed to...

It doesn't look very crooked to me either. Trees don't always (or often) grow straight as an arrow. I would leave it and let it establish. If the trunk were leaning at a 45 degree angle, then you would be justified in correcting it!

I 3rd leaving it how it is.

And another vote for leaving it in peace.

and yet another.

And yet another.

One of the things I have noticed about this forum is that many people expect a small tree like this, to look like the 20 year old tree down the street. When it comes to trees and bushes, you have to think in their terms years and decades not hours and days.

PS If it was in my yard I would not even think about trimming anything off until it had been in place four or five years.

Another...

Besides, there are nothing wrong with slightly bending trunks, especially on small trees like a crabapple. It just gives the tree character.

It will straighten out as it grows.

About 15 years ago I wanted to plant a Chinese pistache. The only one left in the nursery had a severe "S" shape to the trunk. The nurseryman said it will straighten out as it grew. He was right. As a mature tree it had a nice, straight trunk.

it looks fine on my computer ...

i stand at the 4 compass points.. and use the corners of plumb buildings, fence posts.. etc ..... to do the best i can ...

as noted ... when its 6 or 8 inches thick.. you wont know the difference ...

ken

Thanks everyone - I will definitely leave the tree as-is, based on all the feedback here. I'm glad this will save me some work, but I'll also have to face an "I told you so" from my husband... :-)

Seriously though, this is very helpful. We planted 10 fruit trees as bare-root whips a few years ago, and about half of them are now noticeably crooked (it was just so hard to get them to stay put at planting when there were practically no roots to anchor them with). Every time I look at them I grimace and wish I had straightened them out when I still could have...

We are planning on adding many more trees to our landscape, so having this feedback from all of you has helped greatly! I'll try not to stress so much trying to get everything perfect...

Decades ago my father planted some trees in our yard. Some one told him that to get a tree to stand straight up, you initially planted the tree leaning slightly to the north. As we got older we "occasionally" mentioned to him how "nicely" the tree had straightened as it got older.

The tree was still leaning after about 50 years when we had to take it out.

Leave it, I just planted a japanese maple (tamukeyama) this weekend, with a similar bend low in the trunk. When small trees are bent like that, they will always not be straight from one angle or another. Just have to deal with it.

Definitely just fine the way it is. If more people understood how trees grow-I'm talking just very basic info, like it seems we should all have learned in 7th grade or something-we'd get fewer such questions. I'm not holding my breath.

When it comes to trees, there are two types of people; straight tree people and crooked tree people. Straight tree people like straight trees and not crooked trees. They like straight lines and matched pairs. Crooked tree people like crooked trees AND straight trees and curves. Both have valid points and it keeps things from getting boring.

That may be true, but I'm not even talking about that dichotomy. Just the basic manner in which a new tree grows over and around the "old" tree each and every growing season...and how all of this is controlled by and subject to gravity....would go a long way towards settling the minds of peeps worried about minor and ultimately insignificant curves in the stems of their young plants. Likewise with re-leadering of conifers-all the people always thinking you need to tie something up to one of the side leaders "to get it to grow straight"....is all a reflection of not understanding the forces at work on these plants.