Okame Cherry: bad branching structure?

stevefisch

Hi Arborists!

I bought an okame cherry from a large and (presumably) reputable garden center (Waterloo Gardens, Devon, PA, USA).

The tree is about 16' tall, 6' wide.

The problem is that almost all the major branches have an S shape where they leave the trunk in a nice arc to the exterior but then change direction and arc towards the interior. Some of the direction changes are very severe. (There is no evidence of pruning.) The result is that the major branches are bunched together midway up the tree, and then rise vertically from there, rather than forming a vase shape

There are plenty of smaller branches but not many form a nice arc going outward.

It is hard for me to imagine how this tree will assume the expected oval.

Finally, there are a few spots where it seems the bark split a while ago and now there is a kind of knot there.

Is this okame normal, and can it be expected to have a nice shape as it gets older? Or is this a tree that will always be stunted horizontally? Should i take this issue up with the nursery?

Can you explain why major branches would suddenly change direction and grow towards the interior?

thanks, steve

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Eric Frei

Personally I would not have picked out that one, must have cost a bundle for one that size.

Form is very hard to fix. Why the branches are doing the S bend thing?

I have a hunch.

Two things.

1. Positioning of tree in nursery
2. Periods of rapid growth due to fertilizer, perhaps applied in large dosage inconsistently

Looks like it has had some tip pruning up the top for it to be so dense up there compared to bottom.

Certainly looking through many pics via google yours seems to be on it's own.

Okame Cherry - Google Search

As a kid we had a regular cherry tree, it had straight branches, very straight. we used to use the prunings as arrows.

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