Fear of Shipping.  Anybody else have it besides me?  I owe plants from back in the early fall.  Have big anxiety about shipping.  Now it's too cold and must wait till spring.  They will be bigger and have better roots but that doesn't help my anxiety any.   

I have that too.  Most shipping experiences have been good but a few have been bad. For whatever reason, shipping within the eastern half of the U.S. using USPS has worked well but when I ship to the west I often have issues.

Like the really helpful write up on using ebay that was posted recently, maybe someone who has a lot of experience shipping should do a write-up on the best (and most economical) ways of shipping live plants.  Pretty please!

Order 2 fig trees from JF&E, and take notes. 

One key, is weight, use a very light potting mix this will help keep the costs down.  Also make sure that the soil is not overly wet, this is additional weight and not nessisary. ... don't ship dry, bad for the fig. 

Gently insert a piece of bamboo ALL THE WAY to the bottom of the pot, cut it off at the hight of the shipping box. 

Fill the void in the top of the pot with news paper then vigorously wrap the pot in shrink wrap.  The whole thing everywhere, make it water tight basically (this is a two person job typically).  Shrink wrap can be bought fairly cheaply at Home Depot or simular. 

Be sure the box is of proper size for the pot and tree, don't be afraid to trim the tree height if needed, that is what the nurseries do. Insert and seal.

If shipping two trees,  after putting in the first tree, lay the box over on its side and gingerly insert the second tree upside down. 

The bamboo of each pot should pass the other on the side and touch the other end of the box. This will protect the trees from moving, they are essentially locked in place. And the pot protection will keep the soil and root system in check.   Be sure to use a heavy duty box to attempt to avoid catastrophic damage during shipping. 

The buyer may want to opt to pay a little bit more for faster shipping as well, it is often worth it. 

I received 2 very nice figs yesterday shipped in 4"x4"x9" pots. They were shipped out of California to my place in NJ. They were a single stick about 24" tall. Pots were bagged to minimize soil loss and bamboo stakes were used to hold the pot firmly to the bottom of the box when the lid is closed. One plant per box. This is the same way I ship plants. If yours is dormant I would not hesitate to ship. I would not ship actively growing figs (with leaves.)
This is a very busy time of year for the nursery industry. They are shipping all kinds of starter plugs now. By March they are mostly done shipping so it is certainly possible to ship anything now as long as it is shipped properly. (That's a lot of "ships" for 1 post. :-)

This thread may help you a little too:
http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/shipping-1-gal-question-7067910?pid=1284253791

Bare rooted a Preto and sent it off to NY the week after xmas.
My timing was off and it actually sat in limbo some where in NY
over the New Year holiday.I was certain it would arrive as mush.
When tracking had shown it as delivered I ask the recipient what
kind of shape it arrived in.He said it looked fine and I haven't heard
that it melted down since.I think in dormant state these guy's are
reasonably hardy.I used one of these.

https://store.usps.com/store/browse/uspsProductDetailMultiSkuDropDown.jsp?productId=P_O_1098M&categoryId=priority-mail

I think they have 3 sizes,I used the mid size.
$12.00 to NY from So.Ca.,fig was in a 15 gallon container and I was rather ruthless on the root pruning.
It was basically a very,very stout 23" whip.

I'm staring at the 38" version of that triangular box now,I've another 15 gallon that
will be handled in the same manner.Once these things get some structure on them
it becomes more problematic to ship.

I bare root everything that walks in the door prior to potting anyway,just to clear the roots before
they hit the 5.1.1.

Cheers,

Paul

Great replies all, thanks!  

Hi Charlie

I follow CoGardener's methods, so ditto. Somewhere here in the forum, Wills had mentioned he uses USPS priority shoe box size, I think that works great and you can order them in quantity for free from USPS website.

If you're shipping 1 plant and using bamboo put packing tape where the bamboo touches the box so it won't poke through. If shipping 2 plants run two bamboo poles from one pot bottom to the other.

I do what tyro suggested with tri angle box because you can work the plant with box open then close it and finish packing. Its like rooting everyone has a opinion lol

Oh, well, here is my 5 cents.
I do not use any bamboo at all. I poke 4 holes in the box right at the lip level of the pot and run the rope/thread trough to prevent the box from moving upward. This rope also keeps the box tightly in one piece. This works well for one or two plants per box. 
This might look like more time consuming but I find it much safer for the plants. Outside the box, I use some duck tape to protect the rope from sliding.
Inside the box you want to fill the void with something (peanuts/paper/etc), otherwise it might be crushed .

The best footprint for 1 gal is 6x6 inches. If you do not mind to pay, here is what I used:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Packaging-Wholesalers-Shipping-BS200606/dp/B00CP374A4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421547492&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Packaging+Wholesalers+20+x+6+x+6+Inches+Shipping+Boxes%2C+25-Count+%28BS200606%29

Regarding the cost to ship, it seems that with usps you are much better off using the standard boxes they provide for free.  This thread describes my experiences sending three airlayers last summer. 

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/would-like-advice-on-keep-mailing-costs-down-7111655?pid=1284578399#post1284578399

I let the airlayers get too big and didn't prune the plants back as much as I should have.  I used my own boxes and got charged what is termed "dimensional weight" which is not related to the weight but is determined based on the dimensions.  As a result the shipping costs were really high.  So my take away from that experience is to keep the airlayers as small as possible and prune back about a week or two prior to taking the airlayer off so that the plant will fit in one of the usps shoe-box side boxes (or one of the triangular boxes.

Also, I always get a tracking #.  Boxes without a tracking # get lost much more frequently than boxes with one.

I used a tracking number on the last shipment, Florida to Louisiana, after 6 days I reported it as lost, on the 7th day it appeared on tracking and the next day it reached its destination. I am still waiting for an email from USPS saying they found the package. At least it was cool days and no apparent damage.

Just to let everyone know who I owe plants, I'm over the FOS syndrome.  Shipped a live Unk Lake Spur to a far away place and it got there intact.  So I owe Rick and Jeff a Celeste, Shailesh Celeste and Unk Lake Spur???, Otmani gets his Beall, Snaglepus Unk Lake Spur.

I do sincerely apologize for not sending these last season and will be getting them all out when they go dormant and that is the best I can do now.  Hope I have not missed anyone or caused any of you to lose faith in me.