Leftwood said:It's still hard to say if the one you original though might be a Black spruce is or is not that. I still say it could be either, because there can be a lot of variation in the species (think of how varied Homo sapiens is). And then growing in a pot is so stressful that true growth patterns don't always show as definitively as they might. It's clear that they all grew much better than they did last season.

Red spruce had not even entered my mind. It is certainly not native anywhere near Minnesota, and I don't think anyone grows it here. Even the MN Arboretum doesn't have any! (Or they all died.) About 20 years ago, I had one from a mail order nursery. It grew for about 8 years and then croaked. From what little I know about them, now that you mention it, I think it would be a stronger candidate than Black spruce. It would have better ornamental qualities, too. Once they all grow in the ground for a few years, they will be easier to identify with the truer characteristic growth. Black spruce is easily identified with the cones, but usually won't produce cones until much much older. Red spruce, I don't know.

See here about root girdling and the need for surgery:
http://www.missouribotanicalga...
http://www.treeboss.net/girdli...

Those are pictures of the Serbian Spruce Roots... Do I need to slice them up?

I was thinking possibly a red spruce because the description says it has reddish branch bark. This is an up close picture of the one I originally was guessing as a Black Spruce. Maybe this reddish hue does signify it as a candidate of being a Red Spruce.




This next picture is an image of the White Spruce branch bark.

Close up of the red branch bark and green needles.



Close up of the White Spruce branch bark and it's blue needles.

Image of the White Spruce roots. They don't appear to be very aggressive.





I sliced into the White Spruce roots.

On this one there didn't seem to be a whole lot in there.

Wow, maybe you won't need to do major surgery like I thought. I am really surprised. Like you would with any transplanting, be sure to loosen the soil all around the pot, a half to whole inch in from the surface. Force the roots to come into contact with the native soil being planted in.

I hope I didn't ruin my trees. I sliced further than 1 inch trying to find a girdling root on 3 of them. Quite deep actually. Hopefully it's cold enough they will be ok until next spring when the roots take off again.
😊🌺

I sure appreciate all your help and advice.

If you cut any roots with vertical slicing, those would be necessary casualties, anyway. If any of them don't make it, it won't be because of your slicing.

True.

Seeing that we have positively identified the bluish ones as White Spruce Species I assume one of their greater immediate threats will be winter drought so I will need to baby them and water them through winter.

I mixed copolymer into the soil as a safety net.