dead pine?

while i was looking around this area around my house that is overrun by pines,i made sure no one had planted them, and dug one out. its roots were in the open for a little more than an hour,possibly an hour in a half. it was still young,so i figured i could raise it...when i brought it home, i put it in a plant pot with good soil,and i pinched off the dead pine needles. but i think it might be dead because it wasnt in soil for that period of time...is there any way to tell? oh yeah,it was in poor soil when i found it,lodged in between the pieces of wood

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TreeBay

Drying out isn't good for plant roots. It adds to the stress of collecting. In the future, when you collect a plant, keep these points in mind

• gather as much of the available root as possible (fine roots are more important than thick big ones)
• Keep roots out of the sun
• Carry a misting bottle to wet the roots occasionally
• Avoid bare-rooting collected trees - conifers especially, unless absolutely necessary
• Wrap the collected root ball in damp sphagnum moss, wet newspaper or burlap and tie together with twine to keep the root ball intact. Then put this in a garbage bag or other polyethylene bag. for transport.

Healthy pines can be pretty durable, so there is some chance that the tree survived despite the drying out period. It really depends on how dry it got, how much root you have, and what the species is.

We've had success with bougainvillea, boxwood and wisteria that had been left for days at the side of the road, but these plants have exceptional regenerative capabilities.

Hope this helps.

Matt

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JoeRiot

Thanks Matt. Of the two, only one survived, becuase we had really strong winds and one of them got knocked over and was out of the ground for a day or so before i saw it. But the other,which I planted behind a fence, is still fine. Do you know the species of pine that is quite promenint in North Carolina? It's the only pine that i see every where i go, and it has 1 inch to 1 and a half inch green needles. And one last question, can you tell me if this cutting I got sounds like it is from a juniper?It has pale green needle-type leafs, but not needles like on a pine. It was a growing on a fairly short tree,possibly 5'5",and the tree was dense and shurb-like. Thanks again for your help.

TreeBay

Hi Joe,

It would be hard to tell, but maybe you can follow up on some of these possibilities

Pinus echinata Shortleaf Pine
Pinus taeda Loblolly Pine
Pinus virginiana Virginia Pine
Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus)

http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/durhamtrees.html
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/nreos/forest/xmas/ctn_030.html

Then, too, it might be a fir and not a pine at all.

As to the other tree, it could be a juniper, or a yew, or maybe a larch or fir. I can't tell from the description, but if you can post a pic, I'm sure we can get it pinned down.

Regards,

Matt

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