Straighten a tree; establish a tall trunk

[edlank]

I bought an elm tree, Dutch elm disease resistant, the spring of 2022. I did not pick the tree...it was delivered to me by a conservancy. It has a short trunk and 2 dominant low branches. It stayed in the pot until I planted it last fall. To my dismay, this spring, deer munched on the leaves and nearly stripped it completely of leaves. I put protection around it, and it nicely recovered. I had meant to post this message last year, but procrastinated. I wonder about trying to turn one branch into a trunk. Can that be done, or is the branch already established as a limb with an orientation that cannot be reprogrammed?

Images of the tree last summer follow. It has grown so it is now ~8 feet tall, and the short trunk is about 1" diameter. Can I splint it so that the tallest branch can be made into a single trunk, using something like what like the cartoon shows?

 

[Mad Professor]

Does it still have a central leader?

If so you could prune the side branches

New pictures?

 

[edlank]

These do not show the limbs well, partly because the posts with screen is still around the tree to protect the leaves. The two limbs originate at about 2 feet and 2.5 feet.

 

[edlank]

Should or could this be straightened?

 

[edlank]

Now that the leaves are gone, the bends and branches are more evident.