Hello All,

I picked up this Mugo Pine last Saturday and in my inexperience, I did not look at the root structure and was not near thorough enough as I was too distracted by the shape of the trunk. When I brought it home and cleaned around the base, I now can see that the roots near the tree's base are very curved and the tree had likely been pot-bound in a previous smaller pot for some time. I am unable to return the tree from the nursery where I bought it, so now I am stuck. How should I approach handling the root mass? I was considering trying to untangle the roots that I could and repot it and do nothing else to the tree to maximize its chances of survival. I've given myself a considerable challenge though and realize that the base is very undesirable, any advice on how to go about the long process of helping the tree's roots would be appreciated.  I currently live in Utah County for climate/location purposes. 

This is a quite common situation on nurcery stock trees. If you like a tree it is not a reason to walk away.

It is solved by root pruning in late winter to early spring. There are a few people in north america that claims mid summer is better, so not really a consensus here. 


Work the soil out of the roots gently so you damage as few fine feeders as possible. Prune the tap root and evaluate how much is left. Take a decition based on the amount roots left if continuing pruning or pot up and wait until recovered. When continuing working, direct or after recovery, prune from the largest primary root where it starts to cirkle, right after some fine feeders. Evaluate how much is left and take a decition to pot up and wait until recovered or continue working. When continue working, direct or after recovery, repeat with the second biggest primary root. New evaluationion, decition, pruning and repeat.

After a few sessions and recovery periods secondary roots have formed. Then you can lift the tree slightly and repeat on the secondary structure. Now, since we strive for bifurcation this is double the work and double the time. Once that is done, go repeat for third bifurcation which is 4 times as much work......And repeat.

If you are a total beginner, I advice to take help from someone experienced from your area.