I have a similar problem and I fully intend to remove the side I need to remove.
The worst that can happen is the possibility of losing some, most or all fruit
for a season. A risk I'm going to take because the tree is going in a direction
I am not happy with. The entire center of my peach tree is open. When bare, it
does look like an upside down umbrella scaffold. However, the limbs are very
large now and this 3 year old tree is now 12 feet tall and 18 feet wide, and
bore 5 bushels of peaches, not counting all the hundreds which fell to the
ground and were eaten by myriad critters.

Victoria


On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 13:53:19 -0400, "EPPack"
opined:

My 3-4 yo 6-7' Elberta peach sustained fairly significant deer damage the
first few years after planting. They wound up virtually denuding one side of
the tree but the other side is fine. The problem is that it's now very
"side-heavy" and I'm afraid that sooner or later it could topple in a bad
storm. Add to this that the bottom of the trunk leans towards the heavy
side, and you can see disaster in the future

Is it feasible to heavily prune that one side (at the proper time of course)
in hopes that this might stimulate growth on the bare side to eventually
balance it more than it is? Or is it doomed to eventually fall over and I
should just replace it?

TIA






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