I’d wait to see what those top buds do before going after the side shoots. Did the plant have a label?

tj

It did, it was just a standard norway spruce - at least that's what the tag said. Like a 4-5' b-and-b. It flushed out a lot of growth last year and survived our bad drought with a lot of manual watering. It did have a lot of excess roots that had 'escaped' the burlap and was quite a nest of roots. In hindsight I probably should have cut them back to avoid a risk of girdling, but I ended up shaking out the wood chips and really watering it in well. Hopefully that doesn't come back to bite me.

You think those hard brownish 'lumps' may end up shooting too? Yeah I'm in no rush... I'll at least wait until the other one I have shoots and see what happens.

The tree will do more in the way of producing roots than anything the first couple of years. I agree, give it some time to flush out and make a good root system before tackling the top growth.

Anything that resembles a 'bud' could shoot out with new growth either singly or forkedly.

Gregg, You can't go on what your other tree is doing...this one isn't even fully established yet in its new home.I'd wait and see how this one shakes out on its own before I started pruning or 'helping', especially since there's already a lot going on with new growth pushing. Your tree is small enough to address the leader situation later if the tree doesn't.

It looks healthy. Let it be.

That's reassuring, thanks... I'll leave it be and see how things go.

trim out the dead branches ... properly ... down lower i mean ...

tree time is counted in decades ... so whats your hurry on cutting on it??? .. but i think you already made the right decision in that regard ...

notice its already outgrowing it shorn nursery shape ... reverting to a more natural growth pattern ...

ken