Can you post a photo?

When you look at a tree like this, with the portion of the top without little branches, it is natural to imagine as the tree grows it will just be a larger version of what you now see. But that is not true. The tree will not grow so that the bare area remains an obvious feature of the tree. The branches above and below this area will grow longer, and because of the "bare" area above and below these branches, they will grow very full to fill in the space. Just stand back, imagine the tree 15 feet taller, and these branches above and below 6 or 8 feet long. After a few years I bet you would have to look hard to notice this bare area anymore. And then as the tree grows, the branches above and below this area will be 10 feet and then longer and longer and fuller and fuller. At that point it will be really impossible to notice anything.

No, don't cut off the top. Don't worry about how the tree looks now--just enjoy watching it grow and become more and more beautiful.

--Spruce

I agree with spruceman. Much better to let it normalize over time than to further disfigure it.

I agree. I just heard a story from a landscape designer who had a 15 foot tall blue spruce in his front yard. Someone cut off the top 6 feet for a Christmas tree. He showed me a picture of the tree 5 years later and you couldn't even tell that it had over a third of it's top cut off. It's amazing how resilient trees can be...especially fast growing spruce.

I have taken a picture of the top of the tree with a digital camera - I need advice as to how to post a picture from a non-website source. I cant copy and paste for some reason

I also have a weird growth on my norway spruce and have attached a photo.

Any ideas?
Thanks,

Kelly

Here is a link that might be useful:

Interesting. Wonder if it could be Arceuthobium?

Here is a link that might be useful: wiki entry

Chester,

Find the very strongest leader at the top and remove any shoots (not many!) that have any potential to become a leader.

This spring I disfigured a Black Hills spruce because I could find two leaders which made--up 1/2 of each side of the tree however I could find branches after I removed an entire half to keep the tree on even kiel. Other prior nurserymen shaped this tree each year to make it become more full. Yes, this was a big-box store purchase but one my mother brought to me last fall. I'll be it took me a good 45 minutes to sort through the branching habits to make a successful tree out of it. It was a bonsai project no doubt. I'll be when I put those pruners away I had removed a potential of five or 10 new limbs that could have forked. It's a great tree now because I guess I know what I'm doing.

To add photos here: >>>>>>>> you need the "HTML Code" of a photo you uploaded to a free website such as Photobucket.com or Picasso or whatever. I'll bet 90% of the public uses Photobucket at GW. When you get to your photos being uploaded and after you've created an album or multiple albums you'll see (4) LINES OF CODES below Every Photo, choose the third one. Left click the mouse until it turns blue then right click and choose copy. Then paste that info right here in this box I'm typing in right now >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>insert here for example>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Dax

Kelly,

That looks like a witches broom and not Arceuthobium. It appears to have needles and it looks like some of the old wood appears to have normal bud development. If you don't see any growth other than the congested needle mass I don't think you need to worry. Brooms are fairly common on Norway spruce and I doubt that it has any value to anyone unless there is something special about it.

Bill