my best advice.. is to post a pic ...

all conifers releader ... and if they dont themselves.. we can force it ... but that can take a few years ... it really comes down to if you are interested in watching it do such.. or if it will drive you crazy ....

pic please if you want some relevant opinion as to your specifically

ken

Remove the broken top. You can not coppice (cut down to ground) this tree. It will not come back. It will, however, produce a new leader and pretty quickly. In texas, it is very strong growing, probably less so in pa., but in any event it will recover, and should not become shrubby. It has strong apical dominance (a tendency to grow one strong trunk. In two years you won't even notice. But, It might be worth pointing out that, stake or no stake, it could very well break again if weighed down by lots of ice and snow. They are native to hot arid regions in the southwest and are probably not well adapted to that.

Oh one more thing, not only will it not become shrubby, you will notice a lot of new growth growing up as opposed to out. Breaking off the top changes a chemical balance in the tree that causes it to send more shoots vertical. And more than one shoot may try to be the leader. If so, pick the most vigorous one at end of season remove weaker one, so you don't get two competing leaders making a forked trunk.

Send a photo of the full tree plus close up photo of the fracture.

Dave

From my limited experience, Blue Ice as mentioned above has a strong tendency to have one leader and should releader after awhile. Good advice by winterfell. Mine has had leader tip killed by grasshoppers and releadered by end of summer. It is about same age as yours. How thick is your trunk?
I would not try to transplant it at this point if this does not work to your satisfaction, as your chance of success will be low.

Thanks for all the advice. I took some photos this morning, but they are being rejected because the files are too big. I can't figure out how to save them in a smaller format -- I'm better at gardening than messing around with computers. I think I understand what to do with the tree anyway. I appreciate the information all of you have given me.