I had lost interest in my spruce. It sat on the porch for a long time, eventually I moved it out to the yard where it got covered with snow.
About three weeks ago, I needed a gallon nursery pot so I pulled the spruce out of its can and left it sit bare assed in the yard. I had planned to toss it in the trash today but I found a pot for it instead.
Cut off half the root mass and combed out the remaining roots. Ended up removing about 70%, mostly fine roots. Not much in the way of a tap root.
Potted it up in potting soil, didn't want to risk it drying out this year.
Really have no idea what to do with conifers so I put in a couple jins, added some wiggles to them and wired most of the branches outwards.
Looks bad, probably killed it but it was a good learning experience. I do hope it survives.