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?
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!
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.