Hello,

I am trying my hand at growing a potted Compact Stella as an espalier. I ordered my bareroot tree for this spring, and gave it its heading cut. I left one bud at the top, and two buds facing opposite directions below where I wanted the laterals. It looked like this:

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After this I was away for a month or so and had someone watering my plants for me. When I came back, my two "laterals" had a couple leaves, and a bud below them grew out a couple feet. I pruned off this branch, and now it looks like this:

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All fine and well, but now I have an "espalier" with no laterals! Is there any way I can force branching at this point? Do I need to head it back again to do this?

Sorry for the basic questions but this is my first attempt and I'm not sure where I went wrong.

Thank you for the help!