As soon as you see roots at the bottom of the pot. If the tree has been rooted for a while, pop it out, if you see lots of roots at the bottom put it in a 3 or 5 gal pot.

Is it better to wait until the young fig trees' roots are filling their pots before you transplant them and to upgrade to just slightly larger pots rather than to put them into large pots right off?

Thanks,

noss

Thats the consensus and should be followed.
I dont always follow that rule sometimes i go from 1 gallon to 10 or bigger depending on how i observe the plants growth. Once in a bigger pot i have noticed the plant takes off for me . Last season i did this with my dark port and JT and it took off , my Martins unknown many season back did the same . If i lived in a nice climate such as south Florida i would have taken them small plants and stuck them right in the ground along with some others and they would have had a huge space bigger than any pot i could give them.
But would never do that in a cold climate for season is just not long enough to get settled in.
This is just what "I" do with some of my plants and would always advise against it.
Martin

The problem sometimes with newbies up potting from a small pot to a 15 gal pot is perched water or soil that stays wet. The tree can eventually die.

Sigh..... I put my six babies into large pots. Al says to put wicks into the bottoms of the pots, so I will. I was doing what someone told me to do by putting them into large pots. I just cannot face repotting them a third time in a row. That would probably kill them for sure. I can't even tell you how futile I feel right now. No wonder the Celestes, when they were babies, did so well. They were rootbound in their pots. That's why they didn't die. Of course, they decided to burst out of those pots and plant them selves in the ground because I guess they thought I would never think of doing so, myself! When we put the wooden frame around the Celeste in the front yard, we found that she had only sent one humongous root out the one pot drainhole, which it split open, but that root was huge and even had bark on it. We removed the rest of the pot and put the wooden frame around her and used the wrong soil like we did for the six new babies, but that is being remedied. Would somebody like to take these figs off my hands before I succeed in murdering all of them with my ignorance? :(

Al!!! I found the mop to use for the wicks. Do I need to insert the wicks farther up into the pots, since the pots are so much larger than they needed to be?

Thanks,

Vivian a.k.a.noss

Noss,

How far up did you pot? You may be ok and we can help!

Greetings! I want to plant my Chicago Hardy Fig here in Maryland about 5' from my house because the house will block the North winds and it would be facing south�but I have read that some fig varieties have very invasive roots that can attack foundations. Is the Chicago Hardy Fig one of the invasive species? I also read that I could dig a three foot hole and put bricks in the bottom to keep the root system contained? I'm ready to put it in a pot! Any definitive help would be great!

Hi Biscotti,

I don't know about the roots being invasive, or not, but recently, I read where tree roots don't get under the slabs of houses. They go to the slab and then turn aside. I've always heard differently, but the article said it's not the roots that cause the cracks in foundations, but the fact that those roots suck up all the moisture around the foundation and that causes the ground to collapse and the foundation to crack. Does anyone know anything about this?

I don't think lining a hole with bricks would do a thing to contain the roots, though, because roots go out tiny and have the habit of getting through most anything in time. I do wonder if the fig tree would like the bricks because they seem to like growing around stone. I wish someone would address that, as well, please.

Hi Jose,

I just noticed that you had answered one of my posts from May 2010. I'm so sorry, but I never saw the post because we started having a lot of trouble with GW locking up and I stopped coming here. We've been using Mozilla Thunderbird for a few months, now, and it seems to be making a difference, but time will tell.

I did get my trees straightened out and once they got the proper soil in their pots, they took off and have done very well, thankfully.

Thanks for taking the time to try and help me.

noss

Thanks Noss for your input. I couldn't find my own post once I posted it - I forgot to check email response. I bought the chicago hardy on an impulse - something I rarely do and I just want to make sure I give it a good spot that won't cause my home harm.

Good luck with your Hardy Chicago tree, Biscotti. Those are really tasty figs. Actually, I got about three of them from my young tree given to me by a friend and they were really good. I'm thinking they will be even better as the tree matures.

I would think that, if the tree was hardy in Chicago that it might also be hardy in MD. I hope so, anyway. Plant it in a sheltered spot as advised.

Are they one of the trees that will produce fruit on the regrowth if the tree dies back to the ground, can anyone tell us?

I would put it in a pot for several years until it's grown some. I even do that in Louisiana and will shield the trees from cold snaps by pulling them onto the carport if they're real young. We didn't have a winter this past "winter".

noss

I received a Chicago hardy fig tree for a christmas present. It arrived in a 4" container. It is December in New Hampshire.... The ground is frozen. Should I transplant it or let it go dormant in the garage. Max lows can be -10-20 for several weeks in January . Thanks

Is it not dormant now when you received it?