HEY DAVE .... et al ... i liked your planting system .. including the twine .... and with your experience level ... left your thoughts be ... i intended no comment in any way .. especially no contrary opinion .... in no way.. was anything i wrote addressing anything you wrote... if you somehow read something between the lines.. that i was disagreeing with you ... relax.. i wasnt ... i have never had a twined BB ... i have seen the nail system ... regardless. i buy cheap and small .. which normally means one gal pots.. which sidesteps the whole BB issue .... i am also of the opinion .. that i dont care if the ball falls apart ... which it often does since i buy small even when BB ...i want all the ball soil.. and michronases ... that the plant has in the ball ... i dont recall how ot spell that ... move on .. lol ... in the hole ... but i dont care if it is attached to the roots ... if the ball shatters.. that is just all the better to prune or straighten and roots that need it ... the ball .. as far as i am concerned.. is just a shipping method ... and if it fails when removing burlap ... it doenst really matter to me ... since it will be buried in minutes ... ALWAYS keep in mind.. in theory ... you can bare root EVERYTHING.. and if timed properly .. and cared for properly .. have a 90% chance of success ... it just isnt all that important.. if you know what the heck you are doing ... i learned this lesson.. on planting tiny stuff in my sand in a nursery ... and growing it on for a few years.. and with hundreds of attempts at digging a BB in pure sand.. having failed 95% of the time ... and having a success rate over 95% ... it just doesnt matter .... but i am only moving them 500 feet max ... if it has to be shipped from OR to MI ... well .. they better perfect that BB shipping method ....but once its hovering over the hole ... it has done its job.. just get it covered with soil.. and properly watered.. no matter what happened ... if it dies .. it is always the guy who dug its fault ... because we never fail .. lol ... which is probably why the ball failed in the first place .. because he hacked all the structure roots ... lol ken .. PS: the way to do it in sand.. is to throughly flood the sand for a number of days prior to the dig... the biggest problem being.. i cant lift the darn thing out of the hole with 200 extra pounds of water .... you can easily lift a dry bag of sandbox sand... fill it with water.. and try the same... and then go see the back surgeon.. a real catch 22 ...

TJ, yeah the "bad crotch" would be a big concern down the road for me too. It will literally be a narrow V shape that grows into itself. Right now the Norway seems to be the lead, dominant, and straight trunk, and the columnar blue spruce is kind of growing out of it off to the side at an angle that is also almost straight up. Below is a closeup photo of the graft. The trunk on the right is right is the Picea pungens f. glauca 'Fastigata' (Columnar Blue Spruce). The Trunk on the left is the Picea Abies (Norway Spruce). At least that is what the consensus seems to be on what the root stock for this graft is. So, knowing that one is going to be removed, and that one is likely to be the columnar blue spruce, when would be the best time to do this? Also, given this is not a standard branch prune, anyone know about how close to the trunk I should cut it off? I was thinking of leaving about 1/2". Thanks for all the help!

David, unfortunately my recent checks about a month ago weren't helpful in identifying this fungal pathogen, so it continues to devastate trees and shrubs. Not just blue spruce trees are affected, but so are maple trees and oaks, and people around here are having many of them cut down. Just last month my two neighbors had 5 of these large trees cut down. Mountain ash trees are dying too. And I'd say that 50% of the white pines in this area (southern New Hampshire) are either dead or in decline from this disease. I don't spray mine since I consider them somewhat of a weed, and mine are slowly and continuously losing needles. I expect them to die within a few years. The good news is that this year I've kept up spraying with Mancozeb every two weeks since May 1st. Every tree and shrub I've sprayed (where my spray can reach the foliage) is very healthy. I'm now also working on my grown son's 4 dying spruce trees to see if I can restart growth on the now bare trunk and on other branches. But don't try a "ground drench" with Propiconazole - I tried that last year and it killed off beneficial ground bacteria, harming the trees & shrubs. Fortunately, they're recovering this year with fertilizer and spraying. Norway spruce and linden trees seem to resist this disease best.

Grafting or air layering would be preferred methods to obtain more blue spruce. Air layering can be done by scraping the surface of the Cambium, applying root hormone to it and wrapping the area losely w/ moist Spagnum. When that's done, cover the whole area w/ saran wrap secured by twist ties top and bottom. Here is a good site to show different types of grafting methods. Paul B.