Pruning Peach to reshape?

[EPPack]

My 3-4 yo 6-7' Elberta peach sustained fairly significant deer damage the first few years after planting. They wound up virtually denuding one side of the tree but the other side is fine. The problem is that it's now very "side-heavy" and I'm afraid that sooner or later it could topple in a bad storm. Add to this that the bottom of the trunk leans towards the heavy side, and you can see disaster in the future :(

Is it feasible to heavily prune that one side (at the proper time of course) in hopes that this might stimulate growth on the bare side to eventually balance it more than it is? Or is it doomed to eventually fall over and I should just replace it?

TIA

[escapee]

I have a similar problem and I fully intend to remove the side I need to remove. The worst that can happen is the possibility of losing some, most or all fruit for a season. A risk I'm going to take because the tree is going in a direction I am not happy with. The entire center of my peach tree is open. When bare, it does look like an upside down umbrella scaffold. However, the limbs are very large now and this 3 year old tree is now 12 feet tall and 18 feet wide, and bore 5 bushels of peaches, not counting all the hundreds which fell to the ground and were eaten by myriad critters.

Victoria

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[sherwindu]

Fruit trees occasionally need some staking to keep them more erect. This is particularly true of dwarf varieties, which do not have the strong root structures of the full size trees. I have also been proping up the heavily fruited branches of my Elberta, to keep the branches from breaking. I would only cut back a tree if it is impinging on a neighboring tree or some other valued object. To straighten a tree, you will need a very strong support driven at an angle away from the tree and into a spot near the drip line. I have used large metal fence posts available at your home building centers. My Elberta is not leaning, but my Moorpark Apricot, Stanley Plum, and a few apple trees have required some straightening.

Sherw> My 3-4 yo 6-7' Elberta peach sustained fairly significant deer damage the