Today I trimmed this little Saijo persimmon behind my barn. I am letting it develop some low scaffold branches and will select for some higher on the tree. See the branch on the left: I want to turn the low, lateral shoot into that branch's leader and ultimately remove the two upright leaders. Note this branch's base, almost the size of the tree's leader.
So far, my cuts have just been major heading cuts to the two upright branches, one the former leader and one fighting it for dominance.
So why I didn't just go ahead and take them off, and that is my question. Should I? I am trying to decide. Taking them off now would result in a large, awkward wound, I think. It would be like heading a sapling or majorly reducing it to the lateral, but I think orchardists do that all the time. If I turn the branch upright in my mind, the cut doesn't seem quite so major.
By heading the branches but waiting on cutting their stem, I hope to slow their growth and thereby shrink the trunk-like branch section below them in relation to the main trunk. If the headed branches go wild, I can head them again this summer. But will all that work is my second question? I think I don't have much to lose by leaving them—unless the diameter of the stem below them increases.
