Everyone knows that figs do well in direct sunlight and that they tend to like a more arid environment, right?  Well here in Texas, more specifically, the cooler Northeast part, the 6 hour exposure can be a killer.  Like so many things, there are exceptions.  You cannot apply all the "rules" all the time.  I may have lost my Dannie's Delights as they somehow got moved into the sun.  They had already been damaged and hopefully they will survive.  The problem is that they are in 1 gallon trade pots and in the direct sunlight the soil becomes too hot, in this case the soil temp was 90 deg, way too hot for young tender roots.  I do not have this problem with the larger pots.  I now go straight from cups to 3 gallon pots and limit the sun exposure to 3 or 4 hours of MORNING sun and only after transplant shock symptoms have disappeared.

The other issue is watering every other day, again, maybe...maybe not, too much in some cases, too little in others.  It takes careful attention to figure it out.

The fig tree has been called the "weed of trees" because it easily propagates, grows fast, grows in spite of anything, will grow almost anywhere, and bears a wonderful fruit in spite of a lot of things.  However, it can be a very fragile plant and sometimes the smallest issue will cause it to shrivel up and die right in front of you!  All in all it is a wonderful tree and I love them but please be careful about some of the "givens/rules"

A mature tree wanting full sun is far different from a rooted cuttings getting full sun, esp when temps and 90s and 100s. You don't put a newborn out on the patio in the sun all day, but your teenager can lay in te sun a the beach all day.

That is the nice thing about our climate, even newly rooted cuttings get full sun here from me, but they go quickly into bigger pots, the smallest size go into 3 gallon, the biggest has gotten into a 30 gallon in a single season.  Our temperatures and sun is less intense than you though, hope your make it through well.

All those who say, "Sun, sun, sun till the daddy takes the T-Bird away" are from So Cal where the air pollution cuts solar intensity by 90%   :)  Jon, your beach boys are going to get skin cancer if they keep that up.  ;)

I'm constantly re-arranging my pots so that ones suffering too much sun get less and trying to get ones that are doing well in to more sun.  Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't.  I have a 4+ year old desert king I moved from 5 to 7 hours of sun and the leaves scorched.  Right now I'm not sure if it's the heat of the pot or the sun on the leaves.  This week when I get home I'm going to try to find a cheap way to protect my pots from the sun and try again to increase the sun on my plants.  I have everything over 6 months in pots over 7 gal.

Burlap on the pots seems to help but I have most of my trees in partial sun. The sun here ib brutal. I have also gone from watering every 2 days to watering less every day even if only to cool their roots.

Bob, same here. I have to find the right spot and right amount of sun for each variety.  The Zidi, Black Greek, Black Madeira and White Triana seem to be the ones
that can take less direct sun here. Most of the others are in full sun all day and we have been mostly in the upper 80's and low 90's.

When in pots roots get overheat,because they are out of the ground,but when the plant is in ground it will not,because the inground is cool all the time.
Full sun is good for plants in ground,once they are mature enough to be planted in ground,like after 3 years old.
And of course if you live in an area that is desert,and nothing grows naturally,in full sun,you will have to plant ,in part shade ,in the afternoon.

At our elevation and 300+ sunny days a year, I have to take measures during the heat of the summer to keep my pots cool also. Here are some other options.


Clustering so the pots shade each other and then shading the perimeter. Partial burial with extra small plants around to shade and decorate. And lastly more shading of the pots, eventually I am going to cut many exact pieces of wood and wire them around the pot(obviously wood is a great insulator) but this is working for the meanwhile.

I have found Chikishlyarskii to be especially fragile in the TX sun.  Even after I almost toasted it in partial sun I now keep it where it gets 2-3 hours of sun at the most and it still isn't very happy.  This may be a fig for much cooler climates.

My growing area is similar to what Steve describes above.  You really must keep the roots cool.  I have several new little trees still in the 2 qt trade pots I rooted them in, and a couple in 3 gallon pots.   They live outside under a pine tree where they get full morning sun and then dapleed shade from around noon or so.   Even at that. I have a 2 x 10 board I lean up against the black pots protect them from the morning sun.   They are wedged between that board and the edge of a raised bed, and sitting on dirt, so the pots themselves get very little sun on them.  They get watered every day (twice a day when it's particularly hot).  I also, wet down the area around them a couple of times a day in the heat to keep  them a little more cool and humid. Temps have been over a hundred (114 here yesterday),  and these little guys are doing great.

Stick a thermometer in the soil, you may really be surprised.  I think the morning sun is ok, not afternoon.  Fortunately we have plenty of shade.  I like the burlap or shade cloth idea.

I don't have to deal with the temps you guys in Arizona and Texas face, but here I have been up potting my figs into white 5 gallon buckets. My intent is to have the white bucket absorb less heat keeping the soil temps more moderate. They are growing good so far. You can get the white buckets in the paint section of home improvement stores. I intend for all of my plants to go inground eventually.

North-central Ohio: I have all mine on concrete pads. The little ones get morning sun and are shaded in the afternoon. The big ones (big being a relative term: they are in black five-gallon buckets) get afternoon sun. The big ones are behind a bank of tomatoes and eggplants that shade their roots. It's only the end of June, but all are doing well, so far. July and August will tell the tale.

here gets 110 f easily too and i am with the black nursey pots.
trying to find the exact recipe for success in fig growing  is ones obligation for wanting superior fruit.
each of us in the forum lives in different weather different shading , different potting method ,mulches and watering..

i started to find much peace with my trees when i started mulching my brown turkey as shown here-the fruit is let to over ripen and it tastes like pure wine. before mulching i was getting lots of trouble from splitting fruit and trouble with over or less watering( no more saucer :) ).

Black pot tip!

Paint half way around it in a white or light color.

In the Summmer face it towards the Sun to reflect heat away.

In the Winter face it away from the Sun for solar gain.

Not my idea. Just passing it along!

Daniel, you say 'No wish list".  First time ever I heard this on the forum here!

If space is the problem then you can have more space on the wishlist.

Daniel,
I found the foil to be perfect in blocking alien rays but it somewhat diminished the Karma emanating from the fig.  This was only noticed on the low life Brown Turkey which, as all know, has very little karma anyway.

not worried about over heating the roots this yr.. yet. the rains are doing fine job of cooling and watering my figs so far... every single day. last yr and yr before, temp was over 100 during the summer. drip system and daily watering helped. however, on some of the afternoons, i had to give extra water to cool down the container and perk up th leaves.

I think I was cooking my roots last week with temp near 100F, esp in the smaller pots,  My Bastinka Brown is really sick and is now in the "nursery"
stuck my hand ini the soil in several pots and WOW were they WARM/hot.
I painted most of my pots white this weekend, will see how that helps.

My brown turkey is in black pot and doesnt have any trouble. i touched it once and i think it was 120f
these tree can go through everything :)

One can't accidentally kill a Brown turkey. If I was going to Mars I would take a Brown Turkey. Like you said that tree goes through everything.  

Where I am heat seems to trump sun in terms of fruit development and leaf growth. I have a backyard greenhouse with parts getting 6 hours and other parts getting more + a front yard with 8-9 hours of sun. Trees I moved out of the gh two months ago are way behind those in the greenhouse. Seems the greenhouse trees are producing twice as fast with 6 hours of sun and 8 hours of 25c - 30cel. temps compared to the outside trees which  have only seen the best 8 hours be 15-22c and 8-9 hours of sun...

I try and keep all 1 gallon pots in an area that is protected by a deck over hang or by putting behind larger plants. The exception is the plants I'm willing to monitor and water every day. Usually these are varieties that I'm trying to grow as fast as possible as I've promised some one a cutting or two.
My figs in larger pots (15 g) I water every day as they are in full sun and get very hot.
Others I water when too hot, but try and place in a location - ex. behind a few 5 gallon pots I grow veggies in that are white (from Home Depot) where they aren't getting baked but are in full sun. I expect 5 to 6 feet of growth from 1 gallon plants when in this location the first year and get it without too much trouble. I do feed them and water them quite often, though.

Even here in the northeast, I sometimes shade the pots.  But the tree tops like the sun, and by shading the soil in the pots, that makes root zone conditions more resemble in-ground conditions.  (Much as Vasile says).   Young 'uns not yet used to the sun stay in shade (or a spot that gets sun for some hours and then shade).  But for more mature trees, I shade the pots (not the tops) different ways... sometimes with light colored cloth (old bedsheets work great), sometimes with rocks, sometimes with boards, sometimes by partial burying of the pot.  And often with something lighter colored on the top of the soil (perlite or rocks).  Larger pots, sometimes it's enough to have a lighter colored pot and put perlite on the soil surface.

Anyway, good luck Danny!

Greetings All

Although I uppotted a lot of my younger plants to larger containers that are in partial shade for part of the day, I had one or two " stragglers" that weren't ready for large pots, but they still needed to go outside with the group (for various reasons). What I did in these instances was to take the smaller 1 gal trade pot with the young plant and planted it inside a 3 gallon pot fully covered with growing medium and mulched all around. This seems to protect the small plant from overheating, even on the hottest days we have had here in MD. Here's a pix of a Black Yugoslav buried deep in a larger container.