The trees arrived with perfectly straight trunks, but no branches. He said they are "whips", which I guess is another word for sapling? Anyway, I thought saplings had branches? I can tell these trees are healthy, so I'm not questioning that, just curious as to how these 3 foot tall trees have grown this tall without branches?

Thanks in advance..... Oh, I should say that a few years ago I bought a Golden Raintree from an online nursery and it was 3-4 feet tall, and it was full of branches. So I was surprised when I opened the box and saw a stick.

and to grow in rows close together???

and to encourage vertical growth rather than canopy development???

ken

It's hard to get some folks to understand this but you don't want your baby tree to look exactly like a miniature version of its full-grown self. Especially if it be a "shade tree", the early goal is to help it maintain a single leader, for as long as possible, given that where it is being planted is probably not in a forest, where the surrounding shade would normally keep it growing vertically longer into its life.

+oM

Others have already posted as to the benefits of this.

Wisconisitom, thank you for telling me that this is actually the ideal, because I erroneously thought that the trees were of lower quality for not having any branches yet, but instead it's the ideal for this age. That's great news!

Thanks everyone for responding!

+oM