Roots, one month later

I planted this little, container-grown pine about one month ago. Already I saw it was a bad choice of location, and moved it.

Lots of little roots, a half inch long. The soil just fell away. I tried to move with a bigger soil clump but it fell off. I don't think the roots were damaged. It's nice to see that they started growing so fast.

Not the same pine as above, but treated in the same way that I treated that one, initially. This is a bush-type pine, mugo pine. I like pine trees a lot. I don't know why. A disadvantage of buying late in the season, is the roots wind around the container. The circle of roots does not allow for spreading into surrounding soil, weakening and potentially killing the tree, some time down the road. When they encircle this much, I make multiple cuts to discourage encircling and allow new root growth in an outward direction, into the new soil.

I pull away roots that are no longer connected to the plant, and gently spread the cut parts to prevent the "pot in soil" effect. I think it will recover and grow just fine.