Top worked crab pruning plan

[gunfun13]

I grafted this double trunk wild crab this past spring, I circled where I cleft grafted a branch.

Originally I bark grafted this a few years ago, it grew great but broke off the following winter as I didn't support it. Hence the cut trunk above the latest graft.

I cut off about half the limbs on the non grafted trunk at the same time I grafted, but as you can see quite a bit still remains. I also pruned some sucker branches this summer that were starting to grow.

What's best course of action from here? Gradually keep taking out limbs? I'm temped to just hack that entire trunk off, just feel that goes against conventional wisdom.

 

[Telemark]

Depends on your goals. If you just want it to be a single trunk of the variety you grafted, you can remove everything else. It will probably throw a lot of growth below the graft, but you just have to rip it off as it grows. Hopefully it pushes a lot of growth into the graft.

Might be a good idea to support that new graft at this point as well.

 

[Rubee]

That double trunk might give you problems in the future. I’d consider cutting the whole tree off just below that split this Spring and cleft grafting a few scions.