not now..but in late fall if they were mine I would ...tree #1 and #2 seems to have suckering coming from the ground level that shoud def. be removed but all three i would take off any branches toward the lower third of the trunk or below the actual "tree" part unless you weant a combo treebush ;>) BTW I would not leave the mulch up against the trunk although I have never personally had a problem but then I use cedar nulch that is thicker and airy-er than yours seems to be... many here and in the JM community have warned agaist this as a good way of having trunk and root ball rot problems down the road ...just push back around the trunk 6" or so to be on the safe side

I definitely want trees (not tree-bushes):), so I will remove later in the fall then. I will move the mulch away from the trunk right away, thank you so much for the advice!

Like many trees these grow as low-forking shrubs in the open. Tall, bare trunks are produced by reaching for overhead light in the competitive environment of the wood or forest. Since you are starting with small ones you will probably have to continue the training yourself for awhile to get treelike shapes.

I have a few like this too I got this year. Good advice. I was wondering what to do as well.

Your tree has very good vigor and is still very young--I would not do much drastic but I would remove the lowest shoot at the bottom.

As for the rest, PINCH back the lower and middle just a bit more, say up to 50% of the new growth and maybe only 30% on the top. If there are any shoots your really like leave them as intact as is desireable and pinch the rest lightly to try to direct the growth in the way you want it to go.

It is the same process as developing a scaffold structure in a large landscpe tree, the process being not to remove all the growth at once, but work up to it over a few seasons. I used to clip whold shoots off of young trees but you can force them into stagnation or strees and they often can take a few seasons to come out of it--some never. While Japanese Sunrise will grow like yours is doing, it probably has a little more nitrogen than it needs, so cutting back on any fertilizing might reduce the vigorous growth although most looks well formed.

Prune as soon as you can, but not much later in my opinion. The next best time would be after the spring flush of growth, probably in June. You can do your corrective pinching now and then try to keep up with the tree in subsequent years as the spring flush of growth is hardening off.

Regards,