One of my experimental Carini cuttings, started on 9-10-12.  It moved to the 1 gallon pot sometime in November and it's lived under grow lights the whole time.  Some of the leaves looked sick, with curled tips, so I decided to see what the root ball looked like.  I was surprised it rooted that much.  Gives me an idea on the status of the other 1 gallon pots started at the same time.  Would you say it's just about root bound or could it stay in this pot for a while longer?  I'm sure once it gets outside with more heat, it will fill up with roots pretty quickly.

i would say it's good time to up pot. but it can stand little longer in the 1 gal if you need it to. my 1 gal from last spring are all root bound. i'll be untangling and shaking out and possibly root pruning them when up potting. 

I'd call that rootbound. If you had room I'd untangle those roots and put it in a 5 gal or bigger pot and fertilize again.

Yep

Thanks everyone!

Having roots circle and being root bound are not necessarily the same thing. Plants become more root bound as the roots have less space to grow. The roots circle because they hit the side of the container and continued to grow. If most of the tree's roots are circling around the perimeter of the container, it is likely the tree is not root bound. The circling roots can be cut as they exit the growing mix and the tree can be put back in the same container. Cut 25-33% of the roots at a time and give the tree some time to recover before taking more.

Also, not all trees produce roots at the same rate buy a long shot. I had an LSU Purple which in one season grew 4-5X times the root volume as many 2 and 3 year trees I had at the time.

Frank...as long as you have it out of the pot already, you might as well go to a 5gal pot...give it some room to stretch it's legs...good luck with that Carini...I just uppotted my Carini from a 32oz. cup to a 1gal. pot and it's looking nice and strong...thanks for sharing those cuttings with me. 

No its not rootbound and if just putting in bigger pot you can get very sharp knife and make downward slices thru those before putting in bigger pot.
Been there done that .

I agree, just cut any roots that are circling and put it into a new pot she'll take off quickly enough.

Thanks gentlemen.