reducing/heading vs removing temporary branches

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Mossy Dell

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Joined
Jan 17, 2023
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Southwestern Virginia
Today I trimmed this little Saijo persimmon behind my barn here in SW VA. 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 uprights. Note this branch's thick base, showing it became codominant, almost the size of the tree's leader.

Barn persimmon 2-7-23.jpg

So far, my cuts have just been large heading cuts to the two upright branches, one to the former leader and one to the branch fighting it for dominance:

Barn persimmon pruned 2.jpg

Should I just go ahead and take them off? 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. I hedge on whether it's a "reduction" instead of a heading cut because the branch seems just under or maybe barely 3x smaller than the diameter of the stem.

By heading the branches but waiting on cutting the stem, I hope to slow their growth and thereby shrink the trunk-like branch section below them in relation to the tree's main trunk. But will that work is my second question? If the headed branches go wild, I can head them again this summer.
 
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