Trees, Shrubs and Conifers: Circling roots on conifers, 1 by Resin

Resin wrote:
Very difficult if not impossible to deal with. The coil of roots that develops at the bottom of the pot acts as a hinge allowing easy rotation, which is why they fall over after a few years. Unfortunately, all of the new roots grown subsequent to planting out grow from the end of the coil; cutting the coil means you are cutting off the entire root system and leaving the tree with nothing. And as you say, they don't like disturbance - they don't re-grow new roots easily if at all from stubs of cut roots.