I planted two yellowhorns from Burnt Ridge Nursery 3 years ago. One died the first summer, the other winterkilled to the ground the first winter. However, I left it alone and that survivor resprouted into a multi-stemmed tree/large shrub; today it is 6 ft tall. It flowered last year, but the few pods fell off when only marble-sized. This year, one pod did mature fully; I just picked it yesterday as it was starting to dry and split so as not to lose any nuts.
I'm 30 min. south of Minneapolis, MN, in the country with no heat island effect here so we're still a zone 4 (lucky city dwellers are zone 5A). My particular tree is therefore self-fruitful and hardy to at least -22F. However, I am thinking it would be more fruitful if there were another one nearby, so I'll be germinating the dozen seeds I got for new specimens next spring to incorporate into my edible windbreak/living snow fence on the north side of my property.
Question: Should I consider pruning off the smaller branches to grow it as a single-stemmed tree, or leave it as a 4-5 stemmed tree/shrub thing? I'm not so much focused on the look of the plant, only it's health and bearing ability.