Seperate the smallest ones to the biggest ones in that order. As you take 1 tiny root system after another 'quit easily' there will be a lot less roots to fight against to separate the big ones. They grow fast at this size so if you loose 3/4 of the roots it won't matter. Good luck.

Steve

Wow, you have a good friend. Just go easy, try to not hurry. Patience and time and you can get them untangled. Wash all of the soil off and it will be easier. Just my humble two cents. Lol.

lol

I would not do it now. Bury the pot in ground and mulch with lots of leaves. Sometime in March/April when maples wake up separate them. Thaw the soil first inside for a few days. Some will not make it but most will. No need to be very gentle. Use a chopstick/screwdriver to rake them out. Plant them in individual pots and protect them from freezing afterwards. You will need a lot of pots - lol. Or separate them into smaller clumps and send them to friends. PT is often sent/sold bare root in spring.

PT trees are super tough, I don't think you would end up killing very many of them if you did chose to separate them now and took steps to be as 'like it never happened' as possible. I like to put intertwined seedlings in a tub of water (not warm or hot water, whatever the air temperature is) and untangle the mess of roots that way as the water seems to facilitate the untangling a little bit easier than just teasing them apart. I've got about 100 PT seedling in treepots to (hopefully) graft my named varieties onto in the next year or so.

Having said all that, you could easily just do what tropicofcancer said and bury the pot or protect the pot a good bit and do it all later

Thank you all for the suggestions.

You can now start an orchard pretty cheap, lucky you!

Yeah, after staring at them a long while, I decided to wait until next year and then separate them as suggested. I just want a few plants to learn grafting. My friend grows them this way as a barrier/fence plant I think. Maybe I do that with one bucket. Those thorns sure would stop me from trespassing. Trying to figure out what soil it's in. Looks like solid clay! The containers are heavy as bowling balls.

I think your decision depends on when you want to start grafting. If it is early spring I would try breaking away a portion now and pot them up in good soil. And grow them inside under lights so they are strong and ready earlier. I have one PT and two FD's outside in pots. Although I do not know what I will graft or whether I will at all. But if I do I will bring one or more indoors in spring and give them a head start.

Those look like maybe two years or more away from grafting yet. They grow too slowly for me! Although it's hard to get a sense of the diameter of the stems of each one. If you have a way of keeping them growing over winter -- say under lights indoors, then you may as well pot up some.

Whatever happened?

I left them right where I first put them, all winter long. I didn't bury or protect them, and they survived the winter fine. They have hit a growth mode this month, and I plan to start separating them this weekend. Here's how they look right now...

I have one about 2 years old I was wondering if I could keep it outside in a pot......looks like it

I have keep mine outside in a pot in -12F

Steve