Chopping down a tree by hand will take you forever, and will not even begin to be as accurate as using a chainsaw. If you don t have a chainsaw, you shouldn t even consider doing it without one. Ask around with your neighbors and see if anyone has one that you could borrow. If that doesn t work, rent one from your local store. Just let it go and prune it as you would normally, and unless you have a strangely deformed tree then it should end up being a standard tree. It is possible to turn a standard tree into a bush tree through pruning. The branches take the same shape, but the stem or trunk of the tree is noticeably shorter. As soon as it seems like the wind is dying down around your area, look on the weather reports and see how much wind is forecasted. If the skies will be pretty clear for a while, you should at least temporarily take off the stakes. To wrap it all up, you should never deny your tree a good staking. It is a completely necessary thing to do in certain situations. If they all require the same amount of water and nutrients, you won t have to spend as much time catering individually to the different types of tree. As an added benefit, you will become very familiar with the process of growing that specific tree. You won t be overwhelmed by having many different types, but instead you will become a master of that specific type. The bigger hole you dig for the root ball, the better. Also when you dig out the soil from the hole, you should work it over well before you replace it. This will allow the roots to penetrate through the soil better. If you mix in all your fertilizer and nutrients to the soil before you replace it, you will end up with a superior tree. Sometimes branches will grow too close together and block each other out, so training them to grow away from each other can prevent the need to prune them later. This is highly beneficial even if you are just growing a tree in your backyard, in a non professional environment. To train a tree, you will need some sort of outside brace to push or pull a branch.