Nursery blue spruce trunk defect

Beginners
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First post, so I hope this works with pictures. I bought a curvy dwarf blue spruce from a nursery I thought would be interesting. I tried to find trunk and nebari problems before I bought it, but when I got home realized I would have had to unpot it to find this trunk defect. I am not convinced I have found the nebari yet, but this defect was half way into the nursery post. Am I stuck with this or is there a way to “fix” it? I have thought of planting it in my yard for a few years on a severe slant to see if I can get the top to grow “up” and accentuate the curving. I understand spruce are not amenable to air/ground layering very well. If there is not a fix, I’ll pretend it is not there and just practice with it.

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That is the graft union of the Sester Dwarf Blue Spruce on to generic Colorado Blue Spruce root stock. My guess is that the understock is more vigorous than the dwarf and it will catch up and perhaps get larger than the grafted dwarf in the future. Getting the tree potted into a shallow pot to start to expand the nebari will will speed up that process, but it is apt to take several years if it happens.

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Thanks, Marty. That is helpful and hopeful.

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You could also try to ground-layer above the graft union to remove the CBS roots altogether, but I’m not sure how well spruce take to air/ground-layering…

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Thanks. Did think of that, but I understand spruce don’t move enough water to build the carbohydrate accumulation needed above the cut line to push new roots. Maybe someone has had a different experience.