You needn't cut off the whole branch, just nip out the tip.

Never heard that before, how much? Not sure I want a branch that low to the ground, but I can always take it off next year or the year after.

think of every leaf as a food making machine ... there is no hurry.. on a babe tree this small.. to cut off half of its food making machines ...

yes... i would start limbing it up ... but i might give it a year or two before i start that process ...

i am more concerned about what root surgery you might have performed... after its too long life in one pot ...

did you untwine.. the roots ... or just jam it in the hole???

part of your problem.. is the worlds need for instant gratification... if you start thinking in tree time... you very quickly should understand. there is no hurry ... period ...

ken

ps: i just noted that you already removed a part of the canopy ... jeesh .. thats enough for one year ...

It wasn't as root-bound as you might think but I did take the time to "untwine" the roots. I planted the ball, such as it was, an inch above grade in a hole three times the size of the ball, backfilling with a mix of soil from the hole and some store-bought topsoil with more organic ingredients (my soil is pure, red clay).

I'm not a noob when it comes to trees.

I can wait for it to grow, but its my understanding that working on the tree's structure is something you can do from the beginning, and in fact it's best to do it from the beginning. That co-leader is only going to get bigger and become more of the canopy. I'm not necessarily in a hurry to take it off, just trying to think about when it is safe and most effective for the tree's health and structure, to do so.

I can wait for dormancy, or ten years from now, whatever works best.

If I nip the secondary, should the cut be just above or below one of the compound leaves?

Nip the secondary now and do the rest after leaf drop is my vote. It looks well established.

Are you sure that's a walnut and not a sumac? When I saw the photo my first thought was sumac.

I guess I feel a bit silly.

So I'll admit that I thought it was black walnut because it had pinnate compound leaves, black walnut is ubiquitous in the area it came from and it grows easily from seed. But now that you've made me look, my tree is even pinnate, while Black Walnut is odd pinnate.

I can see why you might think it's sumac, but I had a sumac tree when I lived in Alabama and this tree does not have the large flowers, or at least it hasn't yet. Rhus typhina, Staghorn Sumac, appears to grow in a small area of central Kentucky, precisely where this tree came from, but those leaves are alternate pinnate while my tree's leaves are not. It also is not "densely covered in rust-colored hairs." I also cannot find any sources where Sumac leaves are even pinnate, though there is a wide variety of them and Sumac info is surprisingly sparse. So if it is a Sumac, I can't determine which of the genus Rhus it would be.

I'll take some closeups of the leaves tomorrow and y'all can help me figure out what I'm growing here.

My first thought was Ailanthus...but it doesn't quite look right for that, either.

Andy, some members above are recommending you shorten up the codominant branch at this time. This is known as subordination pruning. If it is truly a codominant, there will be no branch collar present where it exits the main stem. Removing a codominant whole at this time, with no branch collar present, can result in a wound which the tree has difficulty closing. So, by reducing the size and removing the growing tip of the offending branch, its growth is slowed down and usually, a branch collar will form. Thus, it will be time to remove the entire branch once this has all taken place. No need to be in a race.

+oM

smooth sumac?

Now I don't have many young walnuts, but does it lose its leaves early and with little color like my big walnuts do?

Last fall was the first time it had enough leaves to really notice, and if I remember correctly they were bright red. I'm pretty sure now that this isn't a black walnut. I'm going to start another thread to try and ID this tree.

I trimmed the end of the subordinate leader and will take it after the tree goes dormant.

Why do you even have to prune the tree?

Just let it grow naturally the way it wants to.

Because I want a single dominant leader. Co-leaders inevitably weaken a tree. I've seen what unpruned trees look like and they are rarely healthy. I don't let my toenails grow the way they want to.