I have chip budded in spring when I had very little scion. What I did was after the bud was on I would take the pruners and mostly, but not completely, cut above the bud spot, enough to bend the top of the rootstock to the ground. This makes the just-grafted bud dominant so it will sprout as soon as it can. You can also just take the whole top off right after the graft, but this former method lets the roots get some energy from the leaves. Chip buds work fine in the spring; I think the only reason why people don't do them is you get only one bud growing. Scott

night pix .... hey.. wait a minute.. did you dig it up ... lol ... night pix throw off color ... it looks like a bird sown Juniperus virginiana ... which I CONSIDER an invasive weed in my MI ... [not a spruce.. nor a picea.. nor a pungens] down south.. they are natives.. go figure on that ... peeps around here ... dig them from gardens.. and sell them on the roadside ... i wish i had a ditchdriver.. and could mow them all down as i drive down the road ... unfortunately.. that is highly frowned upon ... lol you could probably leave this one on the driveway.. with no water for the rest of the summer.. and it will prosper ... it does not need fert.. as they grow in my mineral sand w/o either, like weeds .. and it should.. most likely.. be allowed to go dormant in winter .... compare yours to google images, especially in regard to actual color ... ken ps: probably sown by the bird who keeps landing on your pungens leaders and killing them ... see the vicious web we weave ...

Considering you have so many sprouts from below the the first branch set, you can select ANY of the sprouts from the trunk and make that into your new tree. I have had two instances with the same tree of a similar but different situation: I have a red/silver cross (Acer x freemanii) that I dug as a 6" seedling from my grandmother's garden. Planted it into the ground in late October of 2009 to over-winter it safely. A rabbit came during that winter and ate the stem to 1" from the ground. Determined as I was, I dug it up, potted it up and let it sprout last spring. I nubbed off every sprout but the one closest to the cut end, and let that sprout shoot up for the duration of summer 2010. It grew almost to 3' tall. In December 2010, after the little tree had turned the most amazing shades of hot red, we had a 4 day unprecedented snow fall (snow squalls, lake effect snow) the likes of which snapped the stem to 6" from the ground (in a new pot, in the ground again for the winter). As soon as the ground was thawed in March, I lifted the pot and kept it on the deck/patio. Again, the stem was enthusiastic about leafing out, and all the dormant buds were activated. I nubbed them away, only keeping the highest one on the stem. It has grown nearly 2' in the past 6 weeks. The wound has healed over completely and the stem is growing like a weed. Moral of the story: I'm determined to grow this silly weed of a hybrid. Moral 2 of the story: Even when you lose the top of a tree for an uncontrollable reason (weather, animals, etc) you can still succeed. Pick a vigorous stem and cut away all others. This stem will become the new trunk and will grow a considerable amount this summer. Remove the entire dead top to about half an inch from the shoot you will keep. The removal of all others will force all the root energy into one stem. It will hopefully prepare for winter and drop its leaves in October. Your one stem will branch profusely in the spring next year. It will look a little funny (well, a lot funny) but you won't have thrown away a perfectly good plant.

I would check that those branches are still green - scrape a tiny bit of bark and see if you see green. Also -check those roots - if there is root rot and the plant is regrowing roots, then it put out leaves right away.