Roots on shop bought Almond tree

[Furkin]

I recently bought an Almond tree from Homebase. It's about 6ft tall.
The day after I bought it, I went to transplant it to a more permenent pot. As I lifted it from the original pot, the soil/peat fell away from the roots.

Being quite new to this, I was slightly (?!) alarmed to see that there wasn't a great deal of roots on the tree. Of course, this might be quite normal, & I may be worrying about nothing, but I would appreciate your comments please.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Personally, I would take that back and ask for a refund. There seems to be no sign of fresh fibrous roots and the tree certainly wasn't sold to you as a bare root specimen.

[Jeanied]

Was it expensive? If so I would do as AP suggests.
However if it was a £4.99 job, then that is what you get - just without the pot.
I have just potted up a cherry tree that was bought from Aldi - very similar in root and top growth.

[FB.]

Many "potted" plants at this time of year will actually be bare-root, but which have had the roots covered in loose damp compost to prolong shelf-life. If the tree remained on the shelf, the compost would compact and the roots would growth through it, matting it together like a typical pot-grown plant. In other words: your tree has only recently been potted and the roots may have been pruned to fit it into a pot - the roots look short and fat.
I'd expect a healthy young tree to have a root spread of at least 1ft in each direction if it hadn't been root-pruned.

It is quite common for such trees to have been kept in refrigerated storage during the winter - again, this delays their leafing-out (and root growth) to prolong shelf life.

I don't think that there's anything wrong with your tree.

However, all such trees will probably have a very slow start in their first season or two, given the significant root loss and delayed leafing-out due to being in cold storage over the winter. The tree will need carefuly attention to feeding and watering at least for the first year, to help it recover from the shock.