Recovering trees worth saving?

[Raccroc]

I planted 5 dozen or so fruit trees (5 gallon pots) this past sping and early summer.
Everything was going great until mid summer, when the grasshoppers matured. The trees are surrounded by coastal hay fields, and the leaves on ones closest to the fields went quickly. Even worse, they then began stripping the twigs of bark.
After losing (badly) in my battle to defeat the grasshoppers, I finally discovered kaolin clay (Surround WP). After coating my trees with that, the damanged stopped. While a few trees were too damanged and died, most fully recovered. A few of my apple trees; however, did sonething different...

The small branches are largely dead. The main trunk, and the two boughs v-ing off the trunk are not completely gone. The trees are beginning to sprout leaves right around the V of the trunk.
Question is, are they worth saving at this point? If they are going to be stunted, I would rather just replace them in the fall. Also, if they are likely to make full recoveries, should I trim them down?

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

 

[JeffGu]

Fruit trees handle pruning better than most other trees... almost like shrubs, in fact. I have had to whack a foot or more of every single branch's tips off to stop the spread of blight from killing a couple of young apple trees, and they came back the following year with a vengeance. You'd never know they had ever suffered such drastic pruning. I've had a Keefer Pear take so much storm damage it looked horrid... broken out top, many branches broken off... again, heavy pruning over a two year period and you'd never know it had happened.

It is unlikely that any of the trees will be "stunted"... the new growth will be every bit as big as anything the tree can grow without any injury. However, you need to let the new growth provide the trees with enough foliage to store energy in the roots before winter. You can start pruning them for a better shape at the end of next year.

Fruit trees are not maintenance free. They require regular pruning to maintain a healthy form, and for good fruit production (if that is your goal). I wouldn't give up on them if they have foliage. You might be really shocked at how quickly you can prune a disaster of a bent twig into a nice apple tree. My best looking apple tree is one that I pruned quite heavily for two years after it was hit by a snowplow!