http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sev6GrgLZts

Click on Slideshow Below

Bradybb has the right idea, but generally nursery container trees suffer from lollipop structure---tall, spindly and a puff of leaves at the top. Hopefully they left some branching structure for you to work with. Also hopefully it has not been staked these 3 years and flops around.

The last thing...3 yr old trees are likely to be pot bound. Hopefully you cleaned off the pot's "soil" and straitened out the roots. Otherwise the tree will simply circle the hole until it dies or gets blow over: About 3-4 years. It will look great up until then.

I've looked at your slideshow and basically your pruning height looks fine to me.

As Brady mentioned, I would tend to spread out your scaffolds a bit more. What I mean is that I try to keep 4 fingers between the pruning height of scaffolds (vertically speaking) on the trunk.

You have some scaffolds selected that will come out at the same height on the trunk. Instead of cutting some of the lower shoots you have marked, I would save some as scaffolds so the scaffolds aren't coming out at the same height on the trunk.

One thing I do differently than a lot of people is that I try to select scaffolds pretty much as flat (i.e. close to 90 degrees) as possible. I like it because it just seems easier for me to keep the tree lower and spread more. Ultimately the scaffolds start to point more upwards, but most of my scaffolds are fairly flat for the first 2-3 feet. It also makes for very strong joints. I've yet to have a 90 degree joint break, but have had narrower joints break. The only downside is that because the scaffold is so flat for the first few feet, it can make them more susc. to sunburn. It is only an issue if I prune the center of the tree very heavily in the middle of summer, otherwise I don't see any sunburn.

I wouldn't be afraid to select a 45 degree scaffold, if it was in the right place. I'm just saying given the option, I try to select flatter scaffolds.

Like Mr. Clint, I cut all my trees at knee height.

Fascist is correct in that peach trees can be killed if they don't have any live buds below the cut. However, I've found plum trees will throw adventitious shoots below the cut if the trees are healthy and strong, and the beheading is done in the dormant season.

In the case of your trees, you are leaving shoots below the cuts, so you have nothing to worry about anyway.

Lastly, I would probably leave the trees in the ground even if you didn't straighten the roots at planting. Drew is correct that it's possible the roots could girdle themselves, but I think the risk is low.

When I first started, I purchased potted trees and didn't know I was supposed to straighten out the roots. However, none of them died. Out of over 1/2 dozen trees, only one (a pear tree) grew slowly. The rest grew fine.

I still have the slow growing pear tree and it still grows slow, but part of the reason may be that I crop it pretty heavily.