I purchased a red maple early this fall. It's about 8 feet tall. When the leaves fell I noticed that the actual trunk at the top had been broken or cut off and a branch closest to the top had been banded to the trunk to grow upright next to it. Will this branch become the new trunk, or will my maple not have a normal looking crown? Should I get a replacement?
It sounds like it should be OK. It will probably look normal. It seems like trees have a shape they want to be and it takes repeated pruning to change that.
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