I just planted a 2" caliper Green Mountain Sugar Maple and am trying to decide if it will require pruning. The lowest branches are currently about 4' off the ground and one is pretty big. I plan to prune all of those as it grows.

There seems to be a pretty big split about 7' off the ground that I am concerned with. Not sure if it is wide enough to be OK or not? This shows the low branches as well as the split I am talking about:

Tbis shows the split close up from the other side:

Woukd be easy to remove the smaller two but the bigger ones account for a large portion of the canopy.

I was also thinking I would just not do anything for the first year or two u til it gets established.

What at do you guys think?