Ok, thanks Richard. That is good to know, as it’s our only fig tree currently. Do you think it’s an option to wait another year or just place in another larger pot (for one year) without root pruning, or if it needs the root pruning, I need to bite the bullet on losing this years crop and do it now?
@rossn
I’m not familiar with your climate. It’s also possible we have different meanings for “crop”.
Over the years I’ve potted 1000’s of bare root fruit trees into #7 to #15 pots for nursery stock and planted 100’s into my own orchards at differing sites in southern CA. In my experience I’ve never seen a tree produce more than a few palatable fruits in the same year as transplant. I believe this is due to both the age of the trees plus the old adage (for fruit trees) that the size of the crop is proportional to the volume of roots.
1 Like
Hi Richard - sorry, didn’t see earlier. Ok, that is good to know… so any year there is a root pruning, plan on losing a crop (seems to make a case for fabric pots).
The fig finally leafed out… at least medium sized leaves. OK time to do that root pruning and plant cuttings, or better to wait until leaves are full sized?
Also… I suspect it is pretty root bound, being 4+ years in plastic. The fabric pot I bought is roughly the same size (10 actual gallons), for portability. In this case, how much should I trim back the roots? 1/4, 1/3, etc.?
Some folks swear by fabric pots. In my region I’ve seen far more negatives than positives for plants that are outdoors year-round. I will not use them.
The plant is in a growth flush right now and I so I’d recommend it.
When I root prune, I start at the bottom of the pot-shaped mass and cut vertically from bottom to 1/4 from the top about 1" to 1.5" inches deep depending on the pot size. If the top 1/4 is a solid mass of small roots I cut all the way to the top. I do this on all 4 sides of the mass (e.g. north, south, east, west). Also, If there are roots circling around the bottom I remove them entirely. Everything else I leave intact to decompose on its own.
1 Like
Thanks, Richard!
I’m not 100% sure I followed that right, so I put together a little illustration.
So, you’re saying you would remove the red region, and go full height if the upper 1/4 has solid roots in in the red section, but if not, then only prune below this line? Or, by N, S, E, W, did you mean also pruning across the bottom and top?
1 Like
I’m not removing the red region, in fact the only thing I’d remove are roots circling the bottom (if any).
So I start at the bottom on say, the N side with some sharp bypass hand pruners - or a reciprocating saw with a suitable blade, with the stop adjusted to an inch or 1.5". Then from bottom I cut up, vertically, perpendicular to the root mass. My only goal is to slice roots, not to remove them.
Then I turn the plant 1/4 circle and repeat until all 4 sides have penetrating cuts.
The plant then goes back in the pot. If roots were removed from the bottom then additional soil is added first to replace it. When the plant is back in the pot you should add about a 1/4" of topsoil that can work its way down in subsequent waterings.
Also, I like to put a 1/2" layer of 1/4" orchid bark on top to moderate moisture evaporation from the soil. When finished all of this should be at least 1.5" from the top of the pot to allow proper watering.
1 Like
Thanks, I better understand now. Basically 4 sides get a vertical slot cut in them at that depth. My recollection what that growing media in pots has a finite life and needs to be replaced… if the root ball is loose, I can understand how that gets worked back in. If tight, any tricks to get out and back in the growing media?
I’m also curious… does this technique allow you to keep it in the same size pot after root pruning? I would think the roots keep adding mass. My goal would be to keep it to a 10gal pot, and it’s already that size. Thanks, Richard.
By making slot cuts, many roots become disconnected from each other and the plant. They become the replacement growing media. Roots circling at the bottom have little function so it is good to replace them with new media.
BTW, this technique is also applied any time you transplant from a root-filled pot, esp. if you are planting in the ground.
After a potted plant has been root-pruned several times the average root size will become large. Now you are in a situation of both slicing and up-potting. For this I recommend 8 slices instead of 4. Since this will have a serious impact on the roots, you should also reduce the volume of the plant above ground by say, 1/4. The adage in the nursery industry is “less roots, less plant”.
Thanks, Richard - very helpful!
1 Like
Concerning propagation: just slap an air-layer on there! As long as there is enough growing season left for the layer to build sufficient root mass for separation (usually around seven weeks, though depending on conditions, this can vary; you want a good number of circling roots before you attempt separation) and subsequent establishment in its own pot before winter (another several weeks), it doesn’t matter when you do it. This winter, I put four air-layers on a fig I really wanted backups of (it was under grow lights): all took and one fig became five! You can buy commecial air-layering pods—or simply make 'em out of water bottles. You can score the layering site to expose cambium and apply rooting hormone if you like, but it’s generally not necessary with figs. Usually, just contact with moist medium in warm conditions is enough to induce rooting on a branch.
EDIT: And btw, four layers ain’t diddley squat. Be sure to check out this pic of extreme air layering by @hoosierbanana in the above thread. That one always makes me smile. 
Aren’t figs amazing?
2 Likes
I checked this out… looks quite cool, and will give it a shot, Jeremiah! Any idea how the various approaches (ziplocks, water bottles, etc) work in hot, sunny, dry weather (our summers)? I would imagine a lot of watering is needed to the soil.
1 Like
I use these black plant balls with a microtubing irrigation line that comes on once a week for a few minutes (for my climate).
Example seller of various sizes:
2 Likes
Thanks for sharing. Now that I pruned it, and I feel like I did moderate pruning, I also think it probably needs to get pruned, meaning I might need to try air layering in the future, and try to root the cuttings at the moment. Thanks!
2 Likes
You can seal the the air layering vessel to keep the medium inside moist, or just water when necessary. It also helps to protect the layer from getting heated up by the sun too much by covering it with something reflective: aluminum foil works well. It doesn’t matter what sort of container you use—bag, bottle or an air-layering pod like the one Richard shows above. All can work. Also the layer can be placed anywhere on the plant: on the leader, on a lateral, on a sucker. You could easily delay pruning out a branch or two in order to layer them. It wouldn’t hurt the plant—or even prevent fruiting—and it would be a surer way of getting clones than cuttings.
1 Like
I always up-pott when the fig tree is very out of dormancy, I don’t recall my potted figs ever having a first crop of the year even if I leave them in the same pot/grow bag, if a potted fig tree is going to produce that year, it’s going to produce a second crop of that year. The only time that I know disturbing the roots can stop the crop, is if there is already figs on the tree, yet even then I don’t think that would stop the entire crop, only the ones currently on the tree.
Yes, you can technically root fig cuttings and do air layers year round, although I would do so with plenty of time before the fig trees would go dormant, unless someone who has a green house, would keep a fig tree nice and warm for the trees beyond the normal for the local climate.
2 Likes
I’m not sure if it fully qualifies as up potting, but the new pot had about an extra inch all around.
What does someone do when their tree outgrows a pot which is the biggest size they would want to carry inside (climate requires that)? Are the roots pruned back dramatically, or do you just have enough trees going at the same time to let one go?
Ok, thanks - got it on the moisture.
I was really just going to prune off the two limbs that I had planned to use for propagation and maybe one other… maybe 10% of the plant, at best. You think with the roots downsized maybe 20% that it will hang on until the air layers are advanced enough to sever and transplant them?
1 Like
Provide it with sufficient food and water and there should be no problem. Figs are very resilient plants. Of course, you can try cuttings if you prefer—those generally have a high rate of success, too; but in my experience, layers have an even higher take rate, because they are not threatened by rot, desiccation and other problems that can affect a cutting— which no longer has the resources of the mother plant to draw on. I rarely clone my own figs with cuttings these days; I find it much easier just to layer them.
Ok, thanks - was just trying to prevent some dieback, due to the root pruning. Will give it a shot!
1 Like
As far as I know some fig collectors go up to Plastic oil Drums, they take 55 Gallon ones and cut the height in half, making one drum in to two pots, I have never kept a fig tree potted or in a grow bag long enough to tell the smallest size that the roots can fit in lets say for a decade or two, yet I have noticed that the roots of a fig tree are happier long term in grow bags, the same should be true for air-pots, as long as they are not sitting on the ground, if they are placed on concrete, or on a pot saucer if you don’t use too big a grow bag size, or air-pot size.
The problem is that the smaller you go, the more you have to root prune. Some fig varieties have a less aggressive root system as well, like for example the variety ‘Little Miss Figgy’, it’s an easy to get variety. Not sure if you’d be willing to graft, yet if you use ‘Little Miss Figgy’ as a root stock, then you should save yourself a lot of work root pruning, in the long run.
There is the option of always having a replacement tree for each variety you have, yet finding people to take your older trees I’d imagine would be very hard in a climate like yours. That could be a lot of frustration.
2 Likes