We planted an apricot tree last summer and it's just about to be spring here, so it's been in the ground 8 months. Should I prune the tree now or wait till next fall? I've read that you want to have a 2 foot trunk and 4 main branches when you're pruning apple trees. Is this true of peach and apricot trees as well? What if the first four branches are higher up in the tree than you want? Should you still cut off the main trunk and hope that this encourages branch growth further down the tree? Thanks a lot. I'm a newbie if there ever was one.
I've always found fruit tree pruning a challenge to explain on forums. The reams of pages in pruning books are indicative of how short replies can fall short many times. For form and structure, I'm not sure if apples compare to apricot. I've seen apple pruned into a half dozen forms. But I most commonly see apricot with short trunks and main limbs starting fairly low. But most I've seen of the latter were in small orchards in the rural country areas outside Portland.
