I purchased a Peters Honey fig end of March, beginning of April, there abouts. It was 50% off because it was bare root and was past its prime, bare root wise. I took it home and planted it right away and besides giving it water I really don't fuss over it too much. 

hi, Nichole

Assumming that it was not allowed to dry out completely for a prolonged period, I would just be patient with it. It needs to rebuild its roots and kept in a warm setting. Keep the soil moist. Did you plant it in the ground or a pot?

It is in a pot. I have it in a sunny location and keep it watered. I was expecting it to leaf out by now. I guess I'll just keep on trucking and wait patiently.

Yup. I've got an in-ground Celeste that just started breaking dormancy last week. The ones a few feet away started in early February. They can be slow to wake after being dug up. Good luck!

Be careful watering, without leaves the tree will need water only occasionally.

Nicole, any time I transplant a bare root fig tree, I always soak the roots in some liquid root stimularor (Fertilome) for about 30 minutes then pot the tree and park it in the shade for at least a week. it will look dead and maybe even loose all it's leaves, but my tree always come back. Give it a go.

cheers,

I will remember the root stimulator for the future, but I'm not sure that would be a good idea for this fig? It has been sitting quietly, not exactly roaring with life but not dead either, for 1.5-2 months. Not sure disrupting the roots again at this point is worth the gamble?

Nichole,

Good tip Cecil. 

I've learned that figs are like weeds....well some are :).  But just yesterday, I had to repot 2 trees.  All my other trees are showing figs but these 2 went down hill FAST right after a 2 day soaking of rain last week.  One showed complete signs of too much water, my hint was there it was swimming in water!  And this tree is 6 feet tall and had about 5 figs on it.  It was in a 10gal pot.  I knew the pot had holes but not sure what was clogging it.  I dumped it and it was completely clogged with dirt and no water was coming out.  I removed all the leaves and the figs and washed it down to roots with my hose, dipped it.... repotted it in a different mixture and this time placed it in a self-watering pot. 

The other one is an Atreano.  It started loosing leaves and growing new leaves so I knew it was confused.  I did the same thing to it....dump, wash, repot.  I may not get figs this year but at least I caught them before they died.  Figs are pretty hardy but too much of one thing can cause major stress and possibly the deaf of a tree.  That's my experience.  I really like using FRS.

In December, a dear friend sent me a rare fig tree, Pec de Dalmatie.  It was 2 feet tall and had a nice thick base and root mass.  I was so happy and very excited!  This tree may not be rare to some, but it is to me.   It was not packed at all, just thrown in a box and a few pieces of tape to seal it.  I got it 10 days later.  The tree looked very bad.  I thought it was dead.  It was broken at the top, molded and looked horrible.  I was sad but felt thankful for what I had....the tree!  So, I washed it, pruned it, dipped it in Ferilome RS for 24 hours, then repotted it the next day.  I keep it inside my garage all winter until 2 weeks ago.  I placed it outside on my deck in the shade.  Five months later it started sprouting and now it's growing well.  Today, I am so happy I brought that tree back to life!  So, I've learned to use that FRS whenever I transplant trees especially bare root trees.  FRS works for me and might work you.  I wouldn't worry about disturbing the tree again by repotting it.  Best do it now, versus waiting for weeks down the road wishing you did it sooner.  Hope my comments helped.

cheers,

Since it has roots I would fertilize it but not if the soil is wet.  If the soil is wet constantly there may be a bacterial or fungus problem.  If that's not the issue start with a dilute fertilizer.

I live in Seattle so for the most part mother nature has been watering it for me. It has good drainage as I never see standing water in the pot. We recently had two weeks of no rain and lots of sunshine with temps into the 80s and I thought for sure that would jolt it awake but it still slumbers. During that hot period I watered it a couple of times to make sure it didn't dry out.

I was told in previous threads to not fertilize newly planted figs. Is this an exception?

It seems some fertilize 1 gal pot with new cuttings,and some don't. I have enough Calvert to try it on half of em this yr.

Pete

No.  Any time a plant has roots it will be more vigorous if fertilized.  I'll start a thread on my plants vs ones I've gotten in the mail from others to show the difference when I have time.  Be sure to use the houseplant strength for anything in a pot.  For miracle grow that's about 1/4 tsp (the small scoop) per gallon.

Okay I think I need to do something now. I was going to go at it this weekend and give it some light fertilizer but I am looking at it today and it isn't looking so great. I think it is starting to die back from the top. At this point should I:
Prune it back to living tree to remove the die off?
Soak the roots in root stimulator and then replant with some light fertilizer? Skip the roots and just fertilize?

I did cut off some of the die back. While doing so I cut my hand with my shiny new (and sharp) pruning sheers. Classy. Apply pressure and cuss. Pretty sure that's what you're supposed to do in such situations.

Nichole,

My advice is the same. Dying back is just it's way of achieving balance. It may die back to the ground if the root pruning was severe enough. Keep the soil damp and mulch around the trunk. Here is the Celeste I mentioned a few weeks ago. I bet your tree does not look this bad. This plant is actually an oversized cutting I planted directly in the ground late last Winter (2010-2011). It grew nicely all Summer but received no protection this past Winter. Just be patient. As long as it was not dead when you got it, it will come back. If it was dead when you got it, no amount of fertilizer will bring it back. Good luck!

Thanks. This whole time it has looked pretty good, just in a coma with no new die back so seeing that it was actually starting to die back freaked me out a little. I have a rabbit and he gives me lots of excellent fertilizer that the garden loves. I hope the fig loves it too. Anyone have any experience with rabbit fertilizer?

I have no suggestions for your fig, but here is a link to a recent thread about rabbit manure. :)

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/rabbit-manure-5842265

Thank you Gina!

So I pulled it out and took a look at the roots. Some of the roots were dying back. I trimmed out the stuff that was obvious to me as not healthy, put in some rabbit manure, potted it back up, watered... now I wait. I dunno. I'm not sure this tree will make it.

You could always cut a short section of green wood from the top and start it as a cutting. Sometimes trimming the top will also help initiate new growth.

Well I had pretty much given up hope and was ready to toss Mr Peter into the compost bin. I even had his replacement lined up - a Vashon Violet (Brunswick) from KiwiBob. I yanked it out of the pot and wouldn't you know it - growth in the roots.



Now when I had pulled it out 3 weeks before I noted the roots were rotting and dying. Apparently they liked the hair cut and rabbit manure. I put it back, watered again and I swear I will leave the thing alone.  But I stuck with my plan and picked up my VV anyway. And for good measure I picked up a Vern's BT from OGW. I don't want to talk about my numbers now. It's embarrassing considering I have never tasted a fresh fig. This is why my husband questions my sanity.

Back to Mr Peter who either wants to live REALLY bad or is messing with my mind in a long, drawn out death - if I get NO leaves by the time fall hits, is it a gonner? Or can it hibernate and live through another winter and come out the other side next spring? Or can I toss it into the compost bin by then?

I would do what the guy on post #2 suggested. ;-)

I am! Swear. But at one point should I give up? Can it survive a whole year without forming any leaves?

The only advice I can give is be careful with sharp weapons. Could have been bad Karma, from yanking this tree out then planting than yanking then planting then planting. Again be careful and leave planted.

By the way on one of your other topics where you show your back yard, it's beautiful. Very nice job.

Hope you know I'm just funnin


luke