Salvaged Virginia pine… odds of survival?

[BonjourBonsai]

Their feeder roots can be at the end of a 25 foot primary root that has to be traced. Since they grow in crumbly red clay here, they also tend to bare root themselves.

Not to hijack the thread, but I've had this exact experience collecting pinus rigida or pitch pines but instead of clay, they were growing in sand. When I collected as much of the roots as possible including a good amount of the fine feeder roots, the tree survived even when collected in summer. When I collected in winter and got little of the feeder roots, the tree did not make it. Both trees were about 1 inch in diameter at the base so I would guess 5 to 10 years old. I've had 100% success with the saplings and seedlings I've collected at any time of the year. I think the key there was to get all of the roots, just like you did @19Mateo83 . Nice work!

 

[19Mateo83]

Not to hijack the thread, but I've had this exact experience collecting pinus rigida or pitch pines but instead of clay, they were growing in sand. When I collected as much of the roots as possible including a good amount of the fine feeder roots, the tree survived even when collected in summer. When I collected in winter and got little of the feeder roots, the tree did not make it. Both trees were about 1 inch in diameter at the base so I would guess 5 to 10 years old. I've had 100% success with the saplings and seedlings I've collected at any time of the year. I think the key there was to get all of the roots, just like you did @19Mateo83 . Nice work!

Thank you, this one is still hanging in there. It didn’t put an a lot of growth but it hasn’t browned out any. I’m actually thinking about going back and collecting another one with a thicker trunk that has been chopped/broken off, maybe it will survive as well. I believe these are pitch pines instead of Virginia pine because there’s ones cut down at the stump and they have back budded from roots and stumps