We planted this Jonathon semi-dwarf tree early last fall. It is ~8' tall. I moved the irrigation as this area is eventually going to be mulch/beds, so it is not watered by the lawn heads. I kept it watered through the winter and wrapped it to the lower branches. This spring it budded and then leafed out, so I thought it was doing well. Then the top started to die back, until the whole top was dead. I saw no signs of disease or bugs. The bottom half is doing fine, lots of new growth and even a few apples. In pic 2 you can see a split in the bark that is ~20" long. It is on the SW side of the trunk. Everything at or above the split died, everything below the split is healthy. Is it possible this was sun scald? We had a few snows that were ~12-18", which would have put the top of the snow ~6-12" from the bottom of the split. The Honeycrisp we planted at the same time is as happy as can be, lots of fruit. The Red Haven peach we planted made it through the winter, then died after the buds froze with the spring cold snap we had. I'd rather not replace the Jonathon, if possible (especially since I replaced the peach tree). I'm thinking I can prune the dead top off and wait for it to fill in. I'm not worried about the height, but am concerned eventually the mature tree will have to deal with excessive weight on the branches from growing up from the horizontal branches as opposed to out from the trunk. Any help or insight would be much appreciated.