How NOT to prune a Tree 2: Take me to your Leader

The Branch at the top center (with a fat healthy terminal bud) of a conical-shaped evergreen or shade tree is the Leader. When you buy a tree, it should have one - and only one. If it doesn't have one because something happened to the terminal bud, it will try to grow a new one or two or three. This narrow crotch will be weak and prone to splitting.

The picture is of the top of an Austrian Pine that lost its leader two years ago. I should have removed all but one last year, but they were both looking a little "iffy" (at least that is my excuse). I will have to cut one back this year.

Here is how NOT to do it.

When I picked out this Redbud at the nursery, the angle between the two branches was narrow, maybe 20 degrees. The other trees were worse, I should have not bought one at all. But here is what I did: I bought it, I took it home, and it split right down the middle of the trunk when I unloaded it from the truck.

I drilled two holes through the trunk and put 2 bolts through to hold the split trunk together. Then I spread the crotch out slowly, I changed the spreader for a slightly longer one every two weeks.

The best that can be said is that it worked, but seriously, don't do this.

Here is a shot from the West showing the split where the bolt heads were. After the tree seemed to be knitted back together, I cut the bolt heads off. The bolts are still in there.

Here is the other side, which has healed better. There it a lump over one bolt, the other has completely disappeared.

And here is proof I almost learn from my mistakes.

I bought this little apple tree because of its nice branching pattern. However, there was one branch competing with the leader near the top. I tried to spread it wider, forced it too far, and it started to split. I bound white grafting tape around the injury. Instead of spreading it wider, I am going to prune it back to an outward facing bud. It isn't established enough to prune yet, which is why I didn't do that in the first place.

The picture also shows the nursery ID tags. A word of caution about those: I had a tree where the tag underneath was so tight it girded and eventually killed the tree. I didn't realize what was happening until too late because the outer tag was looser and hid the tag underneath.