That's exactly the way it works. Lop off the tree at knee height at first planting. It will look like a stick in the ground while dormant in the first year. When it leafs out it will develop low branches.

hey mrclint,
thanks for your response...
I shall then prune the plants when i get back from work.

just curious when you say "It will look like a stick in the ground while dormant in the first year. When it leafs out it will develop low branches." ...
So will it be completely dormant this year and not leaf out/push out low branches until next year or did i mis-understand that?

I think he meant in the first few weeks or month. If it doesn't get leaves for an entire year it is probably dead...

Also nicking/notching is another option to promote low branching without cutting off the upper branches. If you search the forum on that, there should be a couple good threads.

One caveat on peach trees in particular is they have a harder time pushing new buds on larger stocks. I have lost a couple peach trees I lopped at 15". I would first look for clear marks of buds on the main stem before lopping off; if the tree is a 2-year tree it will have plenty of those and you should be fine. If it is an older tree you may want to leave some of the branches. Note that this is only an issue on a freshly planted tree, the combination of just being transplanted and needing to push new buds is the problem. Also it is only a problem on peaches.

I have many rows of 3' or 4' spaced trees, its my favorite fruit growing arrangement. I see you are in zone 6b so you are probably in the midwest or east where it is more humid. In those environments you need to do a lot more thinning than the California-centric DWN backyard orchard culture method will give you; if you don't you will get significant disease problems. I know because I spent several years fighting various disease problems that could have been avoided had I known how to prune properly. Basically what this means is to keep plenty of spacing between the various branches. A very rough guide is that a 1" diameter branch should be about 2' from the nearest 1"-er, a 1/2"er should be at least 1' away, etc. If there is too much density you just pick one of the two that are competing for the same space and remove it. It doesn't matter if it is from the same or a different tree, the same principle applies.

Scott

I planted peach trees for the first time this year. I was very hesitant to just cut my tree to a stick in the ground so I moved my cut mark higher then ideal to have 2 branches or so there. After a while, new branches grew below the 2 branches just fine. In fact, new branches came out from where there weren't even buds. I don't quite know how that works or if that would always work.

okay, thanks everyone...
I shall cut the peaches low then :).

scottfsmith:
Thanks for the advice. I am on the east coast near Philadelphia so I shall take that advice.

nguyena1: "After a while, new branches grew below the 2 branches just fine."
Thats nice to know someone else was successful with this :). How long did it take for those new branches to pop out for you? Guess it was few weeks to a month like bob was sayin'?

bob_z6: I will look at that nicking method after work and decide which option to take.

I feel so bad throwing away the leftover top of the tree. Can you root these easily? Think i saw on the forums here some peeps were successful rooting peaches with rooting hormone and sticking in the ground(but wasn't sure if that will work on a coming-out-of-dormancy bareroot tree).

I just realized for my one question about rooting the leftover cutting ... the branches won't be on the semi-dwarfing Citation rootstock, so even if they did root, it would become a very big tree. whoops. Guess I'll just throw them away.

Yeah, you'll get branches right away. Chop the tree off at knee height just like the DWN site recommends.

{{gwi:79324}}

Note the newly planted trees in the foreground and mature low-profile trees in the far background.

Here is a link that might be useful: What Is Backyard Orchard Culture?

Mrclint, like I said I had two peach trees die that I cut all the branches off so I think you are jumping the gun a bit on that. The stocks that didn't make it were about 1 1/2" in diameter; the guys in the picture above look small enough that it should not be a problem.

Scott

cool, I think I should be fine...
They are bareroots i got yesterday from RainTree so they aren't that thick i beleive. maybe .75in max in diameter, but prob smaller.

mrclint, thanks... i already read that link. That kinda sparked all my questions.
I just wasnt sure if all bareroots can re-grow from bud so i wanted to be 100% sure :).

Thanks everyone,
i trimmed all the fruits trees to about 15-20in off the ground. Noticed they all lil' repetitive bumps i guess where the new branches will pop out of.
Had 1 small branch on a couple trees too just below the cut so i guess these will keep growing plus new ones will form.

I'll post some pics so other people can follow along later how they turned out.