Collected Amur maple is alive!!!

Dkozi

Good morning to you all. I recently collected an amur maple that was certainly rushed in to container life much quicker than it would have liked I'm sure but the good news is it is leafing out and I took a peek at some new growth on the roots!

My question is now that I'm certain that the tree is at least alive and mostly healthy in a 2 foot square grow box how do I go about pruning back the roots when I begin preparing this tree for life in a pot in a couple of years.

Right now it's dimensions are roughly 15 inches high by about 3 inches in diameter an inch off the soil line. But the roots I was able to salvage from collecting were mostly about a half inch thich and about 20 inches long speading in four main directions from the trunk with not too much fiberous root attached. I'll try to post a couple of pics later.

But since the roots are so long and thick when I do eventually start to train for a pot how do you choose how much of the roots to remove? In general do you remove equal amounts radially from around the root mass? Do you do it incrementally so not to send the tree into a tizzy?

Right now the roots that spread go all the way to the corners of the 2x2 grow box. Am I on the right line of thinking to assume a couple of years before I can put it into a pot?

Thanks for all your thoughts and consideration towards my questions and I appreciate your responses. -Dana

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