I read a post on here awhile back, stating that roots after one year of growth should be atleast 2\" long in order to be strong enough to survive into the next season.
So I dug up five random first year seedlings to see how they measure up.
If you count the fine hair root, they measured between 2\" to 3 3/4\" long. The shortest one was kind of short and fat. But They all had nice growth buds for next year and they seemed healthy.
From past experience, I have found that if they make it through the first season, they will emerge the next spring. Usually, if they die off, it's during the growing season, be it the first or second. After the second year, very few die off.
Overall they looked pretty good!
classicfur