Ok I see exactly what you are describing. thank you for clarifying. So I pulled him out of his pot and carefully shook as much dirt free from the roots and to my surprise, and utter joy, I see many very healthy firm yellow roots. There are a few small areas at the top of the root ball where the roots look severely dehydrated, but no mushiness to be found anywhere. yay! And the soil is on the drier side of damp, if even that. However, the root ball is beginning to grow through the drain hole. What should I do with him? Put him and all his dirt and glory back in his pot until spring and water sparingly and keep him inside? Or should I try to put him in a bigger pot for now? Let me add a big thank you for your help, I was really worried about this guy.

Hi & welcome! A tree that size should have roots that fill the pot. Your plant is more often called a corn plant (Dracaena fragrans.) Many pics of them here: https://garden.org/plants/view/76304/Corn-Plant-Dracaena-fragrans/ Tropical entities don't have a normal dormancy, and continually grow whenever conditions do not prohibit. If conditions deteriorate to the point where growth is no longer possible, there can be a dormancy in performance/temporary loss of vigor. At higher latitudes during winter, where days are much shorter and the sun is farther away, making the rays less intense during the few hours when they are shining, plants that do literally thrive in a bright but indirect sun spot can need some direct sun to maintain the same health and vigor. There's a huge difference between potting-up and repotting. From your description, I'm not sure which was done for your tree. What is necessary for plants to stay alive is for their roots to not rot, which can happen so easily in a pot with dense soils, like ground dirt, or bagged mixes of predominantly tiny particles of peat, (or to simply shrivel from simply never getting any water.) Having very little soil around the roots would make the soil dry more quickly, and for even the most dedicated plant-overwaterers to not rot the roots of their plants. This is not ideal, since most non-cactus plants are stressed by dry conditions, it's just a way of coping with soil that has little air in it when moist. Negative experiences in regard to potting-up, where an undisturbed root ball is placed into a bigger pot with more soil around it, vs. doing a repotting, as described below, can give rise to old wives' tales about plants not liking to be repotted/disturbed. Potting-up a root-bound plant that has roots surrounding the outside root ball often lead to this negative experience because those roots had adapted to accessing oxygen around the outside of the root ball and surrounding them with more dense, soggy-but-airless potting soil will likely lead to suffocation. The reason bonsai masters are able to keep potted entities alive for hundreds of years is because they care for the roots by trimming them and changing the soil. A plant grows from the roots-up, so if the roots are not healthy, gorgeous foliage will decline &/or no flowers can form. When you unpot a plant and find a pancake of roots at the bottom, chopping that off will give roots a chance to grow normally again for a while and will make removing the old soil easier. Roots need oxygen & moisture at the same time to function. Just air = shriveling. Just moisture = suffocation & rotting. Either will cause root death and dessicated foliage because the roots have been unable to deliver moisture. Having to let soil dry, as if ones' tropical jungle plant was a cactus, is an unnecessarily stressful coping mechanism for non-desert dwelling plants in soil without enough oxygen for the roots to stay healthy when it is moist and can lead to premature loss of older leaves and in extreme cases, dry shriveled roots/dead plant. The ability of roots to be able to function properly depends greatly on the soil structure/texture, which can change over time. Potting soil tends to be very dense, mostly peat, with very little air in it. Any kind of organic ingredients decompose into smaller bits over time, and roots fill air spaces over time as they grow through soil. Replacing soil periodically is usually necessary to keep plants healthy because of these reasons. A more porous, chunky, airy soil (like cactus/palm, if one is buying bagged,) can have more air in it even when it is moist because there is space between the particles. When there are tiny particles of any kind in a pot, such as peat, sand, silt, clay, they filter into all of the tiny spaces in a pot, eliminating the air. "Overwatering" is the label and manifestation when roots have suffocated and/or rotted, combo of both. Over time, organic bits decompose into smaller bits, so even the "best" soil, if it has organic components, will need to be replaced when this happens. The speed at which this happens depends on many variables, but on average, about 1-3 years. Dracaenas are sensitive to fluoride in tap water, which can't evaporate. Lime in water can raise the PH, and if your water supplier uses a form of chlorination that can't evaporate, that can be a factor too. Using rain, distilled, and/or condensate from a dehumidifier or A/C can eliminate the risk of those substances being in the water and making your tree ill from cumulative "doses" over time. You may spot other areas of potential improvement by reading this post: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1497307/ukeeping-u-them-looking-good?n=38

Just an FYI, but Superthrive is NOT a fertilizer. At best, it is a vitamin and plant hormone mixture that is supposed to reduce transplant shock and encourage root development but its actual ingredients other than B1 and NAA are not disclosed. btw, applications of vitamin B1 (thiamine) have been proven to not provide any measurable benefits to plant growth, as it is present in all soils and is manufactured by plants themselves in sufficient quantities. The debates over the benefits - if any - of Superthrive are long and heated. However there is only anecdotal reports that it provides any positive stimulus to plant growth. Scientific trials have demonstrated NO measurable benefit. And FWIW, if the tree in question is infected with VW, no amount of fertilizing with anything is going to help - fertilizer does not kill off plant pathogens.

There's a good chance the plant will break back (back-bud) low on the stem or right at the soil line, but no guarantee. Odds are high the top is a goner, but it depends on whether or not it suffered serious chill injury, which can occur at temps well above freezing if the temperature drop is sudden enough. All you can do is wait. The leaves will all drop off, for sure. If you don't see new growth emerging from the stem within 2 months, scrap away some of the periderm (bark). If there is a green layer just below, wait awhile longer. It's critical that you do not over-water. The plant will be using almost NO water, so use a "tell" to "tell" you if the grow medium is moist deep in the pot - water only when the tell comes out nearly dry. Keep it warm and in good light. Withhold fertilizer until the plant is pushing new growth. Using a 'tell' Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need plenty of air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support the kind of root health most growers would like to see; and, a healthy root system is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips leads to avoid over-watering leads to a residual build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil from tapwater and fertilizer solutions, which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor. In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water. Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'. One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue. Al