Help with Scotts Pine root mess

[The Warm Canuck]

I bought 8 of these Scotts Pines from a big box store this year, for $12 each, and planted them in the ground in a grow bed. They've exploded with growth, with tons of new buds at the base, which I'm really happy about. However, the root balls are a mess, it looks like the roots where left to circle in a small container before they where transplanted and now the roots are a mess ball.

How should I go about fixing them or removing them, with out killing the trees?

Here's some example, all the trees pretty well have the same issue. This one was planted high, so you can see the issue.

 

[ptolomeo]

Assuming they are relatevely young trees, bareroot them on your next repoting season spreading the roots as good as possible.. I went through the same process earlier this year and all of them survived the 60-70% root ball reduction

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I'd like to chime in and say that it can really help to jam some wires or toothpicks into the soil to help keeping them spread out after that bare root. They're going to want to bounce back.
Leave those helpers in place for at least 3 months.

 

[The Warm Canuck]

Assuming they are relatevely young trees, bareroot them on your next repoting season spreading the roots as good as possible.. I went through the same process earlier this year and all of them survived the 60-70% root ball reduction

Oh, OK that's easy enough.

I thought barerooting pines was a no, no.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Oh, OK that's easy enough.

I thought barerooting pines was a no, no.

It is. But you have two options: accept the roots as a mess and spend 5 years hoping for new roots from the base so you can cut the old ones off, or try to fix them ASAP and apart from a few losses never have to worry about the base flare again.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

That being said, young pines can handle this pretty well. Especially in the <10 year age range.

 

[Bavarian Raven]

A related question if I may, if one is going to chance bare rooting the young pine, what is the best time of the year to do it? Early spring I presume?

 

[Wilson]

A related question if I may, if one is going to chance bare rooting the young pine, what is the best time of the year to do it? Early spring I presume?

Spring is good, just don't get screwed your early springs that get cold and wet. Many people up here enjoy repotting conifers in late August, as we get great root growth in the late summer heat.

 

[0soyoung]

A related question if I may, if one is going to chance bare rooting the young pine, what is the best time of the year to do it? Early spring I presume?

No. Right now.

It has a canopy full of new, highly productive foliage to power root recovery/growth/re-growth and plenty of new cuticle on the needles so that they can control water loss by just closing their stomata --> back into full sun afterward, where that foliage will do its job. .

 

[The Warm Canuck]

Spring is good, just don't get screwed your early springs that get cold and wet. Many people up here enjoy repotting conifers in late August, as we get great root growth in the late summer heat.

No. Right now.
o re
It has a canopy full of new, highly productive foliage to power root recovery/growth/re-growth and plenty of new cuticle on the needles so that they can control water loss by just closing their stomata --> back into full sun afterward, where that foliage will do its job. .

Well I guess I have some work to do!

I was hoping to wire them all this fall, is this still possible after bare rooting them? They'd have a month and a hlaf or more to recover between the repot and wiriing.

 

[Shibui]

These are pretty young trees. I would bare root, root prune and wire and bend in one operation before repotting.
Wire and bend even a couple of months after bare root and repot pines could cause problems as the trunk and roots move in the pot while you apply wire and make bends.

I would certainly bare root pines in spring. I know there's an increasing number of growers moving to late summer repotting but I haven't tried that yet. I know it is Ok in spring, at least here.

The curling roots is typical of mass produced trees slip potted from small tubes into increasingly larger pots. Landscape buyers don't care so the growers don't bother to untangle as that takes time so costs more.
An alternative to untangling is just to let these grow. Pine roots fuse quite easily and quickly. Whether the curled mass would make a good nebari is another matter entirely.

 

[clem]

A related question if I may, if one is going to chance bare rooting the young pine, what is the best time of the year to do it? Early spring I presume?

never tried it yet, but it seems that summer is good too, as you can see below ->

 

[The Warm Canuck]

Well I've done two so far. They where such a mess. I'm worried they're not going to make it, I had to remove maybe 70% of the roots. Fingers crossed, I hope the next ones aren't as bad.

 

[BonjourBonsai]

never tried it yet, but it seems that summer is good too, as you can see below ->
View attachment 452790
View attachment 452791

@clem , where did you get these graphs? I like them and am wondering if there are more for different trees?

 

[clem]

@clem , where did you get these graphs? I like them and am wondering if there are more for different trees?

Yes, it is very interesting to know when the roots developp during the year (scientifically) to adjust your repotting timing. You can see a few more trees graphics on this link. (picea, quercus, fagus, larix etc..) Not all the trees unfortunately.

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00882133/document

 

[BonjourBonsai]

Yes, it is very interesting to know when the roots developp during the year (scientifically) to adjust your repotting timing. You can see a few more trees graphics on this link. (picea, quercus, fagus, larix etc..) Not all the trees unfortunately.

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00882133/document

Merçi!