How often to dig up and correct roots on young pines?

[camikins]

Hi,

I've got about a dozen or so small 3 or 4 yr old pines growing in the ground, over tiles, to get the nabari off to a good start (a few JP Red, JP black pines, a white pine, and a mugho). All started from seed, which grew in a pot for 2 yrs, and are now in the ground.

Question: how often should I dig up, to spread / correct root pattern & layout? Also, assuming this is something best done late winter / early spring?

Thanks.

 

[Eric Group]

Kind of depends on what you are going for...

Obviously if you are going for a shohin sized tree and want to keep the root ball tight, you might want to do it every year.. But if you are going for bigger trees/ trunks I would let it sit about 2-3 years between root work. Basically, if your root work is done in the Spring the first year your tree is recovering part of the growing season, so you don't get a full growing season of unrestricted profuse growth until the second growing season. If you prune the roots again the start of the next season, then part of that is spent recovering as well...

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

I would definitely not dig a pine every year. They have relatively small and slow root systems which should be easy to containerize even after 5-7 years between digging. From what I've experienced, unless you're going for that maple-like nebari, there's no reason to dig. A solid base is plenty acceptable, and the surface roots will appear after some time in a pot.

I have several JBP and JRP in the ground; varying time/circumstances, and it has become clear that digging them up basically sets them back 2 years from those left undisturbed.

 

[Paulpash]

Vance recommends root work on Mugos to happen in the dormant part of Summer, not Spring. They are a little different to most other pines in that respect.

To put material in the ground then dig it up every year seems counter productive as the plant will never get enough vigour to put on size and trunk girth which is the whole point of gross growing.

As you've grown them from seed you would have already spread the neophyte roots as radially as possible then over a tile. I think this is ample prep to get the start of a good nebari