So, I ended up collecting a small VA pine seedling as an experiment last weekend. I’ve collected a red spruce in last Sept and a pitch pine in last August, so I felt confident that if I could find enough feeder roots near the trunk that it would do fine. I’ve been obsessively reading about how to transfer pines “from the wild” to pots in autumn and the rationale is that they are actively growing roots to store sugars as preparation for winter and that the cooling temperatures create favorable conditions for recovery.
Since I’m in zone 7b where there’s mild winters I believe I may be able to get away with autumn collections better than someone living in, say, Denver.
The tree is currently staked in a terracotta pot with a lava rock-turface-pumice mix. The native soil was a mix of humus (decomposed organic plant material) on top and heavy red clay below. There was literally a round cake of whitish microrhizae that consumed the fine feeder roots on top as well as within the red clay below. I tried to keep as much of the roots as possible while removing the heavy clay where there were no roots present without breaking apart the rootball.
The tree had been growing in a dappled light location receiving only direct sun in last afternoon and evening, so I’m providing it a similar exposure in my back patio only with a bit more afternoon sun, which I’m hoping helps reinvigorate the tree. I’ve head differing opinions about how to treat newly potted trees. I take a bit more of a middle-ground approach, giving them some direct sun during the day but only for 3-4 hours. I’d be very interested to hear how others have successfully cared for their newly collected pines immediately post collection.
