Young tree advice

[user 151794]

Hello! Wondering if I could get some advice on how to handle this tree. I think it's a silver maple, or something similar? It's about 10 years old. When it was just starting to grow in a flower pot (about a foot tall) it was a small trunk with two branches evenly sprouting out, so I moved it into my yard. An animal ate one of the branches the first winter, so then it became a trunk with one branch out to the side. Because of that, as the tree has grown it's always had a severe lean. to the south I like it though so I never got rid of it.

As you can see from the pictures, about 90% of the tree is to the south of the vertical center of the trunk. The base of the trunk grows straight for about 4 inches, but then the lean starts. Do you think it would be possible to straighten this? If so, how?

Or, is the best advice just to trim? From the first image, there is a branch split at about 2.5 feet off the ground. The second one is at 7 feet. (For some reason the main branch grew really tall before sprouting more branches again). The top of the tree is about 15 feet off the ground just to give you some perspective.

The bottom split has 4 branches - pretty symmetrically on each side. I was thinking to keep it more even, I should remove the smaller 3 branches, which are all on the heavy side. That would leave a 2 branch split at the 2.5 feet mark. Then leave the rest as is. Thoughts? Overall it seems to be in good shape, it's growing really fast these last couple, about 4 feet per year.

The first picture is looking east, the second is looking south.

 

[JeffGu]

The tree just needs to be staked for a year or two. Three T-posts driven into the ground, equidistant from each other, just outside of your mulch ring. You can use rope or even light chain to secure the tree in position, but where it goes around the tree you need to put some pieces of hose around it to protect the bark/cambium from damage. Do not choke the rope/chain tightly around the tree... use loops that allow for easy movement and growth of the trunk diameter. I would leave it staked like this for two full growth seasons. Adjust the tension of the ropes/chains as necessary during this time.

You will be able to visibly see the tree react over two seasons... it will quite literally put resources into thickening up the trunk as it assumes a more upright orientation. After two full growth seasons, remove the ropes/chains and ensure that the tree, in fact, doesn't try to return to the lean direction. Occasionally, I have to leave one staked in this manner for a third year, but that's rare.

 

[Jason Douglas]

Subordinate and remove concomitant stems while training one as a leader.

Cuts made during the growing season tend to result in less sprouting than dormant cuts.