i don't think the root system is neccessarily small-to me it just looks it got all wrapped up as it grew and stayed in the shape of the temp pot it came in. i would put it in a slightly larger pot than the roots-but not by much-to give the roots a chance to grow down to the bottom of the pot instead of being all balled up. i think this would help-but before you do this, see what the other experts have to say!

Chandres..What do you mean by, 'I bare-rooted it.'??? LOL
NIP's are naturally slow-growing. You said, the plant is doing fine, so I'm assuming, no brown needles, right?
Was it growing in the same pot it came in since '06? What made you decide to unpot? Did you think it needed a larger container?
If it's doing well in the soil/pot it's been in since 10/06, perhaps leaving in the same soil/pot is best? No? Toni

Well, since you've already bare-rooted it, you could gently tease just a few of the large roots out of the root ball and put it back in the pot you took it out of. Maybe even separating those four trunks a bit. If it were mine, I would separate the four plants completely or at least far enough apart to look like a grove. But the more you play with the roots, the greater the risk of damage.

tj

I've noticed my NIPs do have a smaller root system compared to other plants the same size, so I don't think you have too much to worry about. With a 4" rootball, you could try a 6 inch pot----after the roots spread through the soil you could then see if you needed to go up further in pot size.

When you mentioned the tiny NIP you saw growing, was it a plant that had been there that you just hadn't noticed, or was it some sort of sucker that developed its own root system somehow?

Sasha, it does have a lot of good roots, all firm, so I guess it's just seeing the size of the ball that scared me. It never even sent roots down into the bottom half of the pot I had it in, so I hope repotting it will change that.

Toni, the trees are great, no brown needles, no droopiness, I wanted to repot simply because I knew nothing about plants when I received the NIP, and with no growth, wanted to make sure the roots were okay.

TJ, I've wondered about separating the trunks more, and may try to tease the roots apart, but I'll stop before anything rips!

Shiver, I think 6" may be the way to go... it was in an 8" when I bought it, and I put it in a 10", so going down to 6" (hopefully I can find one that won't tip!) sounds reasonable.

Amccour, I don't know how long the little one had been there, it was hiding in the middle of the other four trees, but it does have its own root system that was just a lot more shallow than the other.

Thank you all for your responses, we'll see how the hunt for a smaller pot goes today!

Chandres

My cat knocked over my NF a few years back and I found the roots were in the exact same shape of it's last pot-they just kept winding around them self and never ventured into the new soil(silly NF!) I learned my lesson of making sure I chop sticked roots into the new soil