I got a few trees that were suffering in their pot so I just had to repot it to a bigger pot.  Normally you do this in the Fall when trees are dormant but in my case, these 6 trees were all roots.  I was watering them twice a day just to keep them happy.  Now I just water them once a day.  A moisture meter helps but when the probe won't go thru the soil, you know something is wrong.  Yesterday was our hottest day of the year, reaching 85 degrees plus we've had daily showers every day for a week.  The humidity was very high and it was hot! 

I had to move my largest Black Mission, Brown Turkey Not, Conadria and Galbun under my shade trees.  They were sucking water so bad and were still suffering.  My 2 Galbuns are in self watering pots but still, the excess heat had them looking pretty bad.  Once I moved them under the shade trees and filled up their pots with water.  They were fine.  Under a shade tree, they only need water every 3 days.  In the direct sunlight, they need water daily.  So, the time came to up pot to something bigger.

Here are 6 trees that I potted in whiskey barrels.

Paradiso
Conadria
Emerald Strawberry
Improved Celeste
LSU Tiger
Celeste

Each barrel have 4 caster wheels underneath.  Each tree was loaded with figs.  I removed some of the figs....I don't want to kill the tree.  These 6 trees are some of my largest containeer trees.  I can pickup one barrel and carry it by myself but its a work out!  The wheels help out a lot!  Before I potted them, I soak the roots in a tub of Fertilome Root Stimulator for about 30 minutes.  None of the trees suffered any stress.

  
thanks for watching!

They look good, Dennis!  I think you did the right thing by repotting.  It may stress them out for a week, or so, but it's better than having them root bound while trying to fruit, IMHO.

What did you work out for drainage? Just wondering because I was thinking of doing about the same thing.

Hi Dennis 85 was hottest day there, guess we got ya beat here . lol
I like the whiskey barrels they sure can't blow over but had to stop useing them as they were a pain to move tying with strap down to hand truck, wheels i could not use cause of the stone path i had to go over. But there nice i liked em otherwise .

Never used a meter thingy as i go by weight but i know what you mean about trying to poke into rootbound soil and when that used to happen
i used a ross tree root feeder which lets me slowly works its way into the heart of a rootbound rootball , it has four total holes .

Course its seems to be rusting now as you can see as i have not needed to use it cause its easier now that im downsizing and keeping up with root pruning each season, i just took it out of shed for this pic.

Looking forward to your ripe fig pics this season.

In front of 25 gallon pot to display its rod length.

What size pot were they in?  Are the barrels 20 - 25 gal?

Dennis, I just had an idea and if anyone could pull this off it would be you, FMD and Jose.

I think you should get a heated greenhouse and keep caprifigs in there over the winter.  You could let the wasps loose in the summer and have great figs plus a breeding program.  I'd love to see what you come up with.

Ok Bob, I'll do it! I got some nice caprifig cuttings that I will be starting tomorrow. Now, I need to work building 3 green houses.

You go!

Nice work, Dennis.  Those barrels look nice with the trees!