Silver Maple Pruning

[jroros]

I have a silver maple that was planted by my builder 1.5 years ago. It is about 2.5 inches in diameter. The tree has very few branches and has a poor shape. It is getting very tall 15 to 20 ft, but it is not growing new branches. How can I prune this to make the tree fuller and have better shape. How can I encourage new branches to grow. I live in New Jersey.

 

[treeclimber165]

Sounds like a typical builder installation. I would suspect that the tree is root bound from not being planted properly. Check out the thread titled 'burlap and twine' in the Nursury forum. Perhaps carefully digging next to the tree to determine if it has burlap and twine on the roots. If not, then fertilization would be my next step.
Minor pruning probably would not hurt the tree, but I wouldn't do much more than deadwood at this time. Get it growing first.