I've gotten trees from home depot and i didn't know enough to trim them.....i've bought 4 peaches, 1 apple, 1 pear, 2 plum, a cherry, fig.....and ALL those non-dwarf ones that were in good spots in the yard (enough sunlight) are now about 15 feet tall and the others still bloom and do relatively well. I think it might be a bit too early for buds/blooms if you're on the east coast considering we've had a rough/looong winter that's sadly STILL here.
don't worry too much and give it time. don't cut anymore! lol

im southern CA, sorry i didnt specify ;) zone 10a. usually im all for waiting it out but when the online cherry shot out leaves so fast it go my worried. they are dwarfs and i'd like to keep them small. i have them planted next to a wall (south side) on the back of my yard. were your trees bare root too?

This post was edited by lettuce_grow on Wed, Mar 19, 14 at 14:36

The big box store trees can be a problem. First, in order to sell well, they are grown large. This is problematic even with a good bare-root harvest. Then, to compound the issue, the roots are in pretty rough shape. The combination leads to not enough roots to support the top. So, heavy pruning of the top is advised in order to balance them out until the roots can regrow. IMO, more cutting may be in order.

If you do cut them off low, be sure to check for live buds below the point you hope to cut. Most of my experience is with peaches, and doing this to an older tree such as those sold at big box stores can be lethal as there is no live buds along the trunk to grow out.

I think apples and pears may be more capable of putting forth new branches low on the trunk, but I'm not certain of that. Either way, I wouldn't be heading those off so severely as I would try to maintain the central form.

The shipped cherry, and the store trees may have been treated differently, causing the differential growth. It is possible the store-trees were cooler-stored until just before shipping to the store. Only time will tell. And if they are as dormant as you say, it is not too late to prune further if you so desire.

no....mine came in a pot....

thank you charina
ok, so...i kind of just went out and bit the bullet so to speak. i left my cherry and pear alone because even tho the buds havent shown growth that i can see, the branches still seem supple and when i planted them i did take the branches down to about 8 inches on the pear and maybe a foot on the cherry. that took off quite a bit of their growth and such. but the apple has truly been my main concern. even when i planted it, i thought the tree looked a little questionable but it was my husbands pick so i was trying to make due the best i could. i just went out and really looked at it critically and i saw that about half way up the central leader (which is all i left, thats what the dave wilson people said to do on their videos) there was discoloration and it just looked kind of dead. i loped it off :o i did it a bit above the discoloring and low and behold the wood inside looked dead! i trimmed it a bit closer to the color change and it looks ok. i kind of figure at this point, with this particular tree, if it dies i will just be getting a healthier one online but if it lives hurray! ;) thank you guys for giving me courage!