Those Brandywines are tasty but aggressive aren't they! Mine have surrounded a Meyer.
I'd do the same. Support it / push it in the direction that you want. Yes, i would use some green tape so it stays put in the direction / shape that you want. Longer term you will want to avoid the support to force it to grow strong on its own.

Hopefully some of the shaper / trainer experts on this forum can offer advice....

George K.

Can you submit a picture?

I think I would leave it alone; good chance it will recover with its own support. Last week I had a giant flor linda vine fall on top of my garden Meyer; it looked pretty bad for a few days, but now it is back to "normal"..

Thanks everyone!

I got home late last night and ran outside to take a picture. I removed the tomato cage support and the tree looks perfect. I even put a little pressure on it to see if it would fall over. I put the cage back for now and I'll give it a couple of days with it. Darned thing bit me. I didn't realize it had such big thorns!!!

That Brandywine could have fallen over in any other direction and wouldn't have hit anything. Crazy!

Yes...I have leaf miners. The trees on the canyon rim have leaf miners and the ones close to my patio door don't have leaf miners but they have aphids. Working on both. It's never ending.........

Oh, and I've had it a year not two. My concept of time is no longer functioning. :)

Thorns??? on a tree that size??? For my garden Meyers I cut off the thorns with a nail clipper; after that they don't "bite" me; same for my new efforts at container citrus. Every time one gets me, I cut it and any others I see.

Looks like I am not the only one to remove thorns on my citrus! Thanks John for posting that! I got tired of moving my trees and getting "bit" also!

Andrew

I definitly leave the thorns on my citrus trees. I think they make the tree. But then again I am not harvesting yet. Your tree looks fine. just let it do what trees do.

Oh wow! My thought processes never extended to the personal grooming of my tree :))))). I love the idea of clipping the thorns. Maybe I can get some use out of the nail clippers I bought to use on my cats. They run if they see them in my hand. I don't think my tree will do that. Lol!

That tree actually has 2 little baby oranges on it. I'm thinking its probably too small/young to be able to have fruit mature on it. Any thoughts?

Thank you all so much. Jude

I am in favor of growth over fruit any day. The fact that it is a blood orange with big fruit instead of a nagami kumquat with small fruit makes it more important to remove the fruit. The fact that it is a sweet fruit instead of a sour fruit, it will demand for more resources making it even more important. to remove. The fact that it is in a pot and not ground limits the tree even more to its ability to produce fruit. last but not least, the extreme amount of sun, heat and dry air will work against you if you ever forget to water your little treasure.

May the growth be with you