Crossword Genius

Unskilled treatment of some pine trees (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

inept

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'unskilled' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'treatment of some pine trees' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
an anagram of 'pine' is 'inep' which is located in the answer.
A single letter 't' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for inept that I've seen before include "rubbish" , "Blundering" , "Unskilful or unsuitable" , "Cack-handed" , "Unsuitable, clumsy" .)

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