The last time I wrote about this tree was here. I just purchased this tree last year and had cut it back pretty far when repotted it from what I think was a 3gal nursery container. I let it grow freely all year without doing any additional work to it.

After getting another year under my belt and gaining more of a critical eye I can see I didnt do enough when I chopped it. I also made the mistake of letting it grow all year without trimming it a few times. Now I’m left with straight braning with no small shoots near the trunk. Just long, leggy, growth with no ramification gained. Shit.

I also don’t like the forking branches that are relatively similar in thickness. I need one to be more dominant than the other and right now it’s just uninteresting. The tree only has 1 season of training so I’m not expecting a perfect tree at this point but I want it to get started on the right foot.

The one thing I DID do ended up terribly. I tried to wire a new leader vertically, but again, I waited too long and it was too thick. It snapped.

I covered it with cut paste but it didn’t recover.

Now several months later you can see the discoloration hinting that it’s dead around the wound.



A scratch confirms my suspicion. You can see it’s still alive a few inches up but there’s no coming back for this branch…it’s a goner.



Probably good news with the bad wire scars. I left on them on longer than I normally would have as not to disturb the healing process. Lesson learned.

My only option now is to rechop and start again with the left trunk. Truth be told, it was too long anyway.

I left a lot of branching on the right trunk to get some life into the branches and promote some back budding. It will all come off later once I pick a new leader. Im hoping to get one below the wound on the right trunk so I won’t have to look at that scar on the front. Oh well…time will tell. We’ll check back in once the buds really start pushing.