Who can tell me what's better. I don't want to go bigger than 14" - 16" pots for my fig trees (I'm tight on space). Currently I'm in plastic pots. I've seen and read a lot of good things about fabric grow bags but I don't think many in the fig community use them. I don't know why. Can you guys share your experiences positive and negative. Keep in mind I have to root prune my fig trees every couple of years I guess (never done it before), for some reason my roots seem to grow like crazy!

Thank you

My limited experience with grow bags that i sewed myself from some landscape cloth i bought at costco...

Pros
1. the soil does not seem to not dry out as fast as the plastic pots do
2. roots do not circle round and round - they seem to just end in little fine roots...not sure if that is good or not for fruit production.
3. water seems to absorb better as there is less shrinkage on the sides due to the flexibility of the fabric.
4. folds in the fabric attract lots of bugs so I assume they are more plant friendly as well?

Cons
1. not stiff, they sag a lot but maybe the professionally made ones are more sturdy?
2. messy looking (bag has white stains from water evaporation/fertilizer leakage?)
3. hard to remove plant without cutting bag (probably the way i made the bag...new ones will be made with a larger opening)
4. figs seem to want to grow horizontally rather than vertical (lots more runners and side branching/bushy, ones growing in pots seem to be more tree like but that may be because of the variety of fig?)
5. i had to use a sewing machine (getting that thread through the needle hole was a pain)
6. i'm scared to move them too much because its a bag and i'm afraid the roots will break as the bag flexes

Conclusions so far...
1. use the bag as a liner inside a pot/bucket or some sort of frame to give it some structure, especially if i go bigger than 20" opening
2. not sure if figs like them more or will produce more fruit for the extra effort but my potatoes sure do
3. best bags i've made are from old 18kg rice bags that i re-purposed, nice and stiff compared to landscape cloth ones.

If you decide to use grow bags ,look into the brand High Caliper.They are heavy duty, commercial quality. Some
bags out ther are thinner material and dont hold up.

I like the grow bags both small and large. My bigs ones are 20 gal but this is their first yr. I don't intend to root prune them at least not for a long time. I think the bag will rot away before mine need root pruning. Then I'll decide what to do.

I like to use the small ones for cuttings. I have a 20 gal and a 30 gal one. However, I am not sure it is very mobile once it is filled with soil. The quality of these bags varies. I got some Smart Gro Bags but also some noname shipped directly from China. They are generally thicker and better quality than the low end landscape fabric.