You can let it grow this season without topping it but next season you can top it at the height you intend to keep it. If you're concerned that it won't form branches below the current top you can take off about six inches from the top at about tight cluster to bloom. This will encourage lower branching, but you'll want about 4' between tier scaffolds that are similarly oriented direction-wise, unless it's on something less vigorous than M7.

Hi Jiver! I live north of Detroit and also have a HoneyCrisp. This is its fourth year of life. The first year that it fruited we had about five gorgeous and tasty apples (that is all it gave us). Last year it was full of apples, but it was also full of every pest and fungus known to Michigan apples (Cedar Apple Rust, flyspeck, Plum Leaf Curculio, apple maggot, web worms, leaf roller, and more)! I was a newbie and had no clue how to prepare for it or what to do about it. This year I have read up and am hoping for better success. I want to avoid chemicals so am climbing uphill. I would love to keep up with you as we both attempt to keep our apples healthy to harvest so maybe we can learn from each other. I cleaned up every leaf and dropped apple, threw away all the bad apples from the tree, and carefully inspected the tree (often) for signs of bad leaves or bugs (which I pinched off upon discovery). I semi-thinned (left two or three on each bunch) my apples out a few weeks ago but hadn't yet learned about bagging. I sprayed it with copper soap and a soap spray distributed by Gardens Alive to control fungus. This method requires reapplication every 7 days AND after every rain. This is high-maintenance but not a big deal when you only have one tree. I just bagged my tree this week and noticed as I was out there that several of the baby apples had bug bites already. I am afraid this means they've been parasitized, so I clipped them off and threw them away. I thinned to only one or two apples on a bunch and bagged all that looked healthy. I hated to clip off all those with bug bites, but I should still have over 100 large apples to harvest. I think next year I will be sure to bag it the week BEFORE Memorial Day since this week (the week following Memorial Day) there was a fairly high incidence of insect activity. I look forward to hearing of your success.

rob, generally you are right , but I have seen where a few have had leftover rootstock that was to large for toung and whip and they used cleft instead of budding.....though it is usually only done by someone that they are teaching to graft and since they normally start by having them grafting pear and apples it's no big deal to them to trim it following the first seasons growth. Ive worked with some of the large nurseries and seen it tho once they learn to bud they wont use cleft again unless topworking and even then only if it cant be budded.

Harry: My first concern would be to get it in the ground in a permanent place or if keeping it in a pot, you would have to go to a much larger pot soon. I am worried that if kept too long in that #3 container it will become so root bound that the tree will stunt out. Deal with the roots first then work on the shoots. As Calistoga suggested, you need to decide what form you want the tree to grow to. Growing with a central leader on a standard apple may give you an awfully tall tree that is very hard to prune,pick,spray. Years ago many growers of standard apples would vase prune (also called center prune) where they would pick out 3-4 lower lateral branches and then cut the main leader off at 4' in height. This would help to reduce the tree height when full grown. These days vase pruning is commonly done on peaches but not so much on apples because of all the dwarfing rootstocks available. I have apples on dwarf and semi-dwarf rootstocks. Some are pruned central leader and some are vase pruned. In your case it depends on how tall you want your apple tree to grow to. Since standard apples are slow to bear and get so big, I would also take a tip from the modern method of tall spindle growing and tie down or put weights on any lateral branches that start growing too upright so that they are totally horizontal. I have done this on a few apple trees I grafted on a crabapple rootstock. It works! Laterals that I tied down to be totally horizontal by using a soft string and tying to a stake in the ground had fruit buds the following year. My goal on these was to get them into fruit bearing mode as soon as possible. Producing fruit will slow the growth rate down so the trees do not get so large. Glad to hear your son is interested in fruits! He is now a modern day Johnny Appleseed. Who knows? It could turn out to be a really good fruit. I know of a family whose grandfather did some hand pollinating on apples and saved the seed. He came up with a large very juicy apple variety that they have since grafted to replicate. It is now their "family variety" since both grandpa and dad have passed away. A true family heirloom. They named their apple 'Chin Dripper'.