stick it back in the ground.. stomp it in ... water it in ..

do not trim the top...

stake it if you are concerned about wind ...

this time of year.... it might end up just fine .. or a bit of leaf loss in spring ... thank god this wasnt in august ...

maybe a winter wind screen ... since yellow tissue pines can suffer from wind burn.. even with out this ...

im not sure scooping would have done much of anything except destroy the lawn ... just look at the roots.. there wasnt much there to need a scoop ...

do trim off any damaged roots ...

i did a lot of planting of bare root trees in fall in my MI ... the only difference here.. is that this was done about 6 weeks later ... and in your zone.. so what ...

if your ground does not freeze ... check soil moisture in feb or so .... and if dry at depth.. which i doubt.. but check anyway ... throw some ice cubes around it .. rather than dumping a can full of water on it ...

ken

With the roots no longer "grabbing" soil, you'll absolutely have to stake it very firmly -- in at least 3, better 4 directions. Survival depends on how long it was out of the ground.

btw .. back in my newb days ... i did such a bad job on a couple pines.. the next spring.. they dropped all the needles .. but the buds survived ... and it releafed ... and took a few years to get back to lush ... thank god it was out back on the 5 acres ... it was painful to watch... but surprising to learn ....

ken

I have surplus large granite stones on my property. Sometimes in addition to staking I will set a couple on top of the roots.

If it wasn't out of the ground for long it should be fine.

Well that doesnt sound nearly as bad as i expecteded! I replanted it a few hours after it was “dug” and although the roots look like he ripped it up and then drove over it, theres not much to do about that now. I will do the rocks on the roots trick, plenty of those here and maybe that will save me from staking. its remarkable stable in the soil, i think the roots are long enough and spread out enough that with a good stomping they anchor it surprisingly well.

-and i will not trim. maybe ill spray

with some antidesicant but to be honest with all the other stuff going on thats likely to never happen and i will just hope for the best when it‘s brown and dropping needles in March.

Today it’s the concrete truck stuck in the front lawn thats got me more worried. It’s out now but so is the curb and most of the yard over there.

hmmm. i just re-read ’absolutely need to stake in three ways’ so on second thought it will get some stakes.

thanks

Trust me, rocks alone won't be enough, you definitely need to stake it solidly. It's not just keeping it from toppling over, the roots have to stay immobile in the soil for a time (several years) to begin "grabbing" the soil.

winter wind can be fierce on the prairie ... are you exposed to strong winds ... if its planted in some protected area... its not as bad as otherwise .. but if you have stakes around.. it sure wont hurt ...

ive always been leery of spraying stressed plants ... and wonder if it will do more harm than good by slathering a goo on the leaves ... i just dont know ... if it fails.. will you ever be able to say.. it was the goo???

and if you used 1 by 2 stakes.. you could staple on some burlap ... and accomplish the same as the goo .. though i cant really tell how tall it is laying on the ground like that ... would burlapping the bottom half help... i dont know ...

ken

@ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5, there's a shovel on the side that you can use for a guide. I think the tree might be 6-7' tall.

I've successfully staked plants using scrap 1x4s, I just use a jigsaw to cut a curve on one end and a spike on the other, then sort of jam the curve against the trunk and the spike end to the ground. It doesn't damage the tree at all, it'll flex if the trunk grows and needs more room, and it's easy to remove when it's no longer needed.

Stakes are in and in spite of what else could be done I think thats all that will be done. I’ll let you know how it looks in May since i suspect it will be summer before it either goes to the light or hangs on.

thanks!

I'm not sure it would have made it, since its roots were uncovered. Conifers are usually moved balled and burlapped, never bare-rooted. Perhaps it just seemed to be ok during the winter as it was slower to die than, for example, animals are.

Thanks tete_a_tete, that does make me feel a little less guilty!