Pine root work question.

[Woodengun]

I have 2 young pines from nurseries in development, ( a shore pine and a Scot’s pine.) They each have a root at the base that doesn’t look great and is visually distracts too much. Can someone express how to deal with these? Is it girdling the other roots or bad for the vascular system? Should I straighten it in the spring when repotting?

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

What you can safely do depends on the rest of the roots.
If this root is supporting the whole tree, bending it might be the best option.
If all the roots look like this, reconsider burying them and forget about nebari.
If there are plenty of other roots of similar size, cut it off.
If there are plenty of roots but they're all smaller and require time to grow, girdle it.

You don't know until it's repotting time and you can see what you have.

 

[Shibui]

Hi Woodengun. It would be great if you add a location to your profile so we know what part of the world you live in. That info helps us give much better advice on what and when to do things.

Agree with the above.
Also add that any tree can cope easily with losing significant amount of roots so it is quite safe to simply chop off problem roots provided there are other roots supporting your tree. Removing anything up to 1/4 of the roots should be safe at the appropriate time of year.

 

[Woodengun]

Hi Woodengun. It would be great if you add a location to your profile so we know what part of the world you live in. That info helps us give much better advice on what and when to do things.

Agree with the above.
Also add that any tree can cope easily with losing significant amount of roots so it is quite safe to simply chop off problem roots provided there are other roots supporting your tree. Removing anything up to 1/4 of the roots should be safe at the appropriate time of year.

Thanks for the advice Shibui!
I am in Portland Oregon USA

 

[Bonsai Nut]

When working with trees from a nursery (versus pre-bonsai) the first big step is to get them healthily repotted from their nursery soil into decent bonsai soil. It is easy to lose a tree on this step. Nursery trees are often slip-potted, over and over, and may have concentric circles of soil and root-bound roots that need to be worked / untangled / trimmed. Proceed cautiously, because until you can determine which roots are most important to the tree, you run the risk of trimming the wrong roots. It is not unusual to have an important root that runs for several feet - which you will eventually want to remove - but you cannot remove in the short term if there are not enough secondary roots to support the tree.

Take the tree out of that black plastic pot first to see what you are dealing with... and the condition of the roots... before you focus too much on the surface roots.