Spruce trees in nature grow with a straight trunk with no help from anybody. This is all in spite of being buried in snow and stomped by animals when they're seedlings.

Of course, of whoever grafted it did so with a weak lateral shoot, the resulting clone is going to grow like a branch for several years until it sorts things out and develops apical dominance.

Oh even if they are severely curved now they will become straight? Its not like its slightly curved, those trees are like super curved like a bonsai tree, if you can tell from the pics. So I'm guessing the stake isn't really necessary if thats the case. Would you suggest taking them out if they're going to straighten by itself?

I'm also worried because of the age of the trees.. they were grafted in 2006 so they are 11 years old. So shouldn't they be straightening by now? Or does this happen even in their later years

Another option you could do instead of using stakes is when you plant it in the ground you can angle the root ball until the tree trunk is straight.

Personally though I think the tree will eventually straighten on it's own without any stakes. When I planted (around a 7 year old) Skylands Tree in 2003 it had a bent/crooked trunk at the top. After a number of years (I don't remember exactly) it eventually grew straight on it's own.

Apical
dominance pulls the top of the tree straight up, but what growth mechanism
would straighten a bend in a lower portion of the trunk?

Although the bend will
become less noticeable as the trunk grows thicker and the bent portion becomes
relatively smaller as the tree grows taller.

The bends may give the specimens
character, though, apart from individual preferences, straight and plumb can be
boring.

Once that trunk has an 18-inch gauge to it, a 1-inch wobble 4-inches from the ground will be invisible.

Personally I'm wondering what's wrong with these plants. An 11-year old species tree should be 8-feet tall and 5-feet wide after so much time. It also looks like the adaxial surfaces of the branchlets are all facing outward rather than up. Pagiotropic maybe?

As time goes on, more wood will build up on the insides of the curves than the outsides & will gradually become straighter.

that plant isnt 11 years old.;. count the whorls ...

leave the stake .. because you have it in a pot ...

your base problem .. is NOT thinking in tree time.. as glacier notes.. when its 18 inch caliper.. in 50 years or so.. it will appear straight ...

looks like you have a very peaty media ... err towards allowing it to dry ... before watering again ... do not water it.. like a water loving annual or perennial ...

ken

I used a 5-1-1 mix. Well verkade(the nursery owner) told me he grafted them at March of 2006. And it was in a one gallon pot ever since. There was even a label on it that showed the date it was grafted. He said that since no body buys this specific spruce he didn't really take care of it and he didn't even know he had them left until I called him and asked if he had alcoquiana spruces! Although I'm confused as to why it wasn't root bound at all when it was in the same small pot for 11 years..

Because to me they look good as straight trees. The curved trunk imo should only be on bonsais or in ground niwaki Japanese black pines

Your comment is curious to me, as it is the goal of every Bonsai/Niwaki artist to replicate nature as closely as possible. Do you dislike a natural look to your trees?

I would like you to consider this well-known forest in Poland. It's quite awesome.

Something isn't right with the timeline of this plants life...11 years? The caliper of that trunk isn't even as thick as the stake.. I dunno...

Anyways, you can't fix the bend the has already set in the trunk. It irritates me when trees have crazy bends like that also. Attempting to will the old growth won't work, so just focus on keeping the new leader staked. Once the bottom fills out you won't even see the trunk. Long term, it will fill out as the caliper expands

It's not just apical dominance that determines how a tree is structured; plants are heliotropic (growing towards the light) and geotropic. Roots exhibit positive geotropism, which means that their response to gravity is to grow downward. Shoots exhibit negative geotropism, which means that they grow upward. That is pulling botany from 40 years ago out of my head but I think it's still true!

Also, trees will put on wood not just as they age, but also in a response to environmental conditions, such as wind or steeply sloped ground. It's all quite fascinating. You ask a lot of questions that make me think that you would really enjoy learning more about botany and plant physiology. There are some good books out there if taking a course is too time-consuming.

"Something isn't right with the timeline of this plants life...11 years? The caliper of that trunk isn't even as thick as the stake.. I dunno..."

I'm inclined to agree. There is no way that looks like an 11 y.o. graft! I also have a great deal of reluctance in accepting that a large growing conifer.......not that these individuals appear to be growing all that quickly.........can remain in a 1G nursery pot for that length of time without being densely rootbound. Even if it had been root pruned (and I have no idea how likely that would be with the repertoire of a conifer grafter) a couple of times, the roots would still fill the pot. Heck, my dwarf conifers will do that in a single growing season!!

There IS something kinda fishy here.......

btw, a "straight" trunk is a human construct, not necessarily a natural one :-) Plants will grow in response to their environment in addition to their genetics, both of which can encourage bending, twisting, drooping or contorting of any or all parts. They are living organisms afterall and differing appearances and growth habits or tendencies just add to their individual characters. Other than a few vines, I have never staked a plant but aways allowed them to assume whatever form or natural growth habit they were inclined to follow. It smacks to me of something akin to plant bondage..............

If you lived here you would have to stake many trees initially; we are windy! If not staked, they blow over. But we stake them low and for as little time as possible, to allow them to develop strong trunks. It's rare that a stake stays on for more than a year.

Staking to protect from wind is a whole different ball game than staking as a training process. And yes, that should be a very temporary situation, if necessary at all.

Yes, just clarifying.

But the Christmas tree.. They're all straight! I've never seen a curved spruce, fir or any conifer other than pines. So is staking pointless here?

Also, in regards to the tree being too small for an 11 year old.. I agree. But what could be happening here? He told me that they were in smaller pots for the first 2 years after grafting and switched them to one gallon pots. He told me he hasn't done any maintenance on it since then. And he just happened to find it in his field or something. But what other reason could there be that made this tree abnormally small as an 11 year old? Im thinking it took a long time for the graft to actually link to one another.

Could any of you also tell me how to tell the difference between alcoquiana and omorika and jezoensis? When you first looked at my pic, were you able tell that that was an alcoquiana right away?