The only way I know of is if the tree is very young, to leave two or three
smaller ones on, and cut the rest off. I would wait until it was dormant
though. Another rule I was taught was, if the trees are older to only cut
off 1/3 of a tree per year.

Mine didn't scaffold either. I pruned them just above a bud pointing
outward, to point the growth the directions I wanted it to go. It worked,
but they start going up again. I will do it each time I prune and see what
happens. My pear trees are worse.

Dwayne

"woodwrkrz" wrote in message
oups.com...
I just planted a Stella and a Tartarian sweet cherry trees in my yard.
The trees are about 7 feet tall and are supposed to be dwarf or semi
dwarf. I bought the trees on sale about $7.00 at a Big Box Store.
They do not appear to have been pruned properly, branches are very
upright and competing with the leader and the lowest branch is about 4
feet from the soil. According to the pruning book I have these trees
should develop scaffold branches about 24 to 30 inches from the soil,
is there a way to force these trees to develop lower more horizontal
branches and "start over"?