I have plants I want to plant in ground and I'm wondering when can I plant and it survive?  The plants are loaded with berba and don't want to ruin my first fruit at tasting figs.  Can I plant now before it gets really hot?  I have the hole dug and it is almost pure clay.  I poured water in hole and it took about 1.5 hours to sink water away to dry hole, please advise, me.

This is a great time to plant in ground, but I have never done so with figs on the tree.  I also have clay soil.  I suggest you dig a hole 3 times as wide as the root ball and try to break up the clay around the wall of the hole.  The roots will go through it eventually.  I've pulled 2 year old fig trees from the ground and the roots were several feet away from the tree.  A lot tougher than you think.

I would: 
- pinch all the tips,
- shade the tree a bit to partially restrict direct rays from the sun, and
- cover the base with plastic to conserve moisture, 
- water daily with a rooting hormone.
Some leaves may still dry out and droop a bit, fall off...
then start the recovery process! 

If your hole takes that long to drain, I would look for a new spot.
Figs need good drainage.
I add a tablespoon of bone meal mixed in with the dirt in the hole.
Make sure you mulch it right away.
Straw works fine for the first season.
I would not pinch anything, stunting growth will not help it adjust to its new home.
Make sure you shade it to start, or like I do, dust it with 7 dust.
It keeps the leaves from sun burning,
deer wont eat it, wild bunnies leave em alone too.
I only use the dust for the first month of being transplanted.
If all you have is clay,, I would dig the hole twice the size you need and add compost, and good soil to hole
and mix it all in, then plant.
New figs need watered every other day here in SC. I just put 10 in the ground last week and they are thriving.

Good luck, you should be fine.
Doug

About three or four days ago, I had a tree sitting in a container close to the foundation of my house. It looked very healthy with lots of green leaves but no fruit. It probably was the healthiest looking tree of all my five gallon trees.
As I was trying to move the container I noticed that the main root went trough the bottom of container and spread itself about three feet away with many shallow roots.
Since I have clay, I did not expect to see such aggressive spreading of roots. So I pulled the root from the ground believing that the main rootball is in the container and cutoff the sides of container without disturbing the football and moved the whole rootball to a larger container. Doing this however, did not prevent my tree from wilting almost immediately. Most of the leaves are yellow at this time and I question whether it will survive. To be continued...
I mentioned this to let you know how important it would be not to disturb the roots or rootball at this time.
If you wish to plant in ground get some quality garden soil, create a mound and slip the rootball out of container and plant your tree, it would have a greater chance of survival and would perform welll as it spreads its roots close to the surface. Try to cultivate the soil a bit before you create your mound.
There is no guarantee that the fruit will be of quality as the tree tries to establish itself. It might take a season or two but you will see the difference.

Frank's suggestion is great except that I would want my tree base higher rather than flush with the ground.

Mounding around a tree allows the rain run off to run around the tree, how is that a advantage?

I want the water where the roots get wet.
Although a mound does develop over time with decomposing mulch.
Just curious

Doug.

Since clay is not a draining soil, you need to elevate the tree to prevent water from accumulating at the base which will potentially drown the tree. In clay the initial roots will be shallow and the tree will need a longer period to adjust as it spreads its roots.

I simply would not plant a fig in ground if it does not drain.
Clay will form a swimming pool under the surface whether mounded or not. That will drown roots.
I've done it with a peach tree and a few figs.
We have lots of red clay in South Carolina, If I do not enlarge the hole(to spread out the drainage)
and add material to the clay to help drainage, it will have a rough time surviving. The deeper
you dig the hole and mix in good stuff the better. This is just what I have learned by experience.
I respect whatever anybody else says trying to help this person, I am only trying to help as well.
Clay is just not easy to work with, and get decent results. I would not get too upset if it drops
its figs after transplanting, it's quite common.

Good luck, wish you great success.

Doug

P.s 
I do have 73 in ground figs,, most all started from cuttings.

Hi Sonnya,
I am new to fig cultivating as well and my backyard is all clay. We dug a hole after heavy rainfall and filled with top quality garden soil mixed with a topsoil to help with compaction. We also put rocks at the bottom of the hole to help with drainage. The hole was about twice the size and 1/3 deeper the depth  of the container. And we planted at the depth it was grown in. My tree needs at minimum 4 gallons of water a day, 2 in the morning 2 at evening and we covered her with a burlap tarp for shade. This plant was fertilized prepurchase so I won't fertilize till fall unless I see the new growth is stunting. We didn't touch the rootball just planted it and kept the clay dirt for future use on another project. We planted last Saturday.

The deeper you can get your roots to grow, the more hardy it will be to survive winter.
Those in colder climates with roots just below the surface will kill their plants due to roots freezing easily.

Doug

Hello Sonnya--Another solution for you and your clay soil is to make a raised bed in your preferred planting spot. While I have sand for soil at my place, friends who live down along the river here have clay like you described. All their fruit trees, including figs are in raised beds and have done very well over the years. Here's their method, they use redwood lumber, don't use treated wood, it weeps chemicals into the soil. If they used 2" X 6" boards the bed size is 4' square, for 2" X 8" they used a 3' square. Screw or nail the boards together to make a frame, set it on the area to be planted and mark the outside edge. They clean off the surface of the ground to set the frame 1" into the ground. They buy the inexpensive bags of unfertilized planting soil to fill the frame with. They 1st bag or two is mixed down into the existing clay soil and the potted plant is set in, down into the clay/soil zone if necessary. The frame is then filled up around the root ball with a layer of compost on top.  The compost is important because it reduces the amount of water necessary to keep the clay underneath from being saturated. Some of their trees planted this way are over 15 years old and doing very well. I think if I was doing this I would add some perilite to the bottom clay/soil mix but their success speaks for itself.   good luck,
sdpops, Yuma, AZ   zone 10