Remove 1 and 2 and train your tree from branch 3 by removing all secondary branches attached to it that exceed 1/3 diameter of the central leader at the point of attachment. Don't be afraid, peaches grow more based on their rootsystems than the wood you leave, they're the rare species that is not dwarfed by aggressive pruning.

In a couple years or even next year you can decide if you want to train it to an open center or as I prefer, a central leader tree (yes it can work well for peaches). By sticking to the smaller ratioed scaffolds the unions will be strong.

Kirk,

Since you are new, you may not be aware peach trees are unique in that they will not grow new wood unless you can see a bud. This makes them very unforgiving with regard to pruning. So when pruning, remember that if you cut out all the wood that has visible buds in an area, it is very difficult for new wood to form. This is probably the cause of mortality of your first tree. A certain percentage of peach trees die when headed back to 30", if there are no live buds below the be-heading.

Wow, great information! I suppose with a few years of growth, a person may not even know that the main trunk shot off to the side at a 45 deg angle, but it sure is obvious now. I did not know about the peach trees not growing new wood unless there is a bud. I did read somewhere that if you nick the bark, it is likely to bud in that spot. I tried it in two or three places just below where it had been headed back in green wood, but nothing has come of it yet. Due to the price, and my budget I purchased the majority of my trees from mail order magazines. Although I have found a one or two small opperations that I believe everyone there knows what they are doing, some of the bigger opperations I believe may only have a few people who know what they are doing...that is probably how I ended up with two peach trees with no branches/buds on them. The first one had the roots pruned back pretty good. The replacement, I requested no root pruning. Looking forward to a great spring in '09. Happy New Year!

kw

Trees from mailorder nurseries in this country are usually stock that is all 1-year wood above the graft line and peaches usually have buds all the way up from this point. The whole system is based on selling the tree immediately after growing it for one season.

I order about 100 peach trees every year for my nursery and there are always a few, for reasons unclear (probably dehydration in storage, I suppose), that are barely alive although they grew well the previous season. There are always many more trees than this that have badly butchered and almost non-existent root systems- most of these recover adequately.

Such trees may have only 1 or 2 viable buds. When these buds are a distance below the point where they were cut back for shipping they may grow horizontally and need to be tied to a more upward growing position the first season as soon as they are strong enough to bend.

This is important only to establish a straight trunk, it is quite possible to create a strong scaffold structure from a crooked tree, but such trees are hard for me to sell.

If you have recieved 2 consecutive weak trees from a nursery, I supect it is one of these middle-man operations that order and store trees from larger nurseries. Or you may have ordered late or had the tree shipped late. The earlier in the season you can safely plant the better your trees are likely to do.