Bill: I think your tree will resprout and grow in new branches on the bare side. It will take some patience on your part, since the process may take 3 years, but if you spread out the new growth and prune out competing growth, you can build a couple of new scaffolds. You may have to guide them into place. Normally, I favor taking out severely damaged trees, but that one still looks pretty healthy, and if you like the peaches it produces it may be worth saving. I would probably shorten those remaining scaffolds, and would not allow them to become so long again. A more compact tree will hold up better in high winds. And, of course, never allow a peach tree to become "loaded" with fruit. That's often what takes them down. I speak from bitter experience. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Thank you for your responses! Ashleysf, i'm sure your pots were beautiful, and i've always admired landscapes that are accented with potted trees. Having said that, i'm kind of eager to get new trees established out in the field, preferably in the same spots. Also, summers are very very dry and hot here, and i'm not eager to have to keep pots sufficiently watered. :) Olpea, this information really eases my mind. I think i'll just proceed, then, as i ordinarily would for planting, and not worry about "decontaminating" the holes. Do you think smaller trees will establish more easily and eventually "catch up" to the size of the larger ones, or should i make an effort to find the largest replacement trees possible? By the way, for anyone who remembers my Tomcot issues, many of you said the problem was probably with the roots. Sure enough, when i dug it up today, the roots were really wonky. Some of them had spread normally, with one in the center that had really dug deep into the earth. But oddly, some of the roots, one thick one in particular, was growing inward and around into the root mass - it was really odd. I know when i planted, i tried to score the edges and sort of make sure there was no visible girdling, but i either did a horrible job planting this one, or something weird just happened in the way the roots developed. One of them looked pretty black compared to the others. /shrug

You're such a sweet ... well-behaved ... lad, Ron. o j P.S. The machine rejected my message ... as I'd already spoken once. So ... I changed the subject line to " ... took every stinky thing ...", but realized that she hadn't said that the things stunk, so it would be inaccurate, so deleted that word ... and it let me Preview, so I expect that it'll register, as well. Interesting. (still) o j

They're all getting so big and seem to like where they're planted. I didn't know Bressingham Blue got that big. Nice to see your kitty on duty and making sure that all is well with Paul's Glory.