Spring 2013 I picked up a HC at The Depot. It was a nice looking 12x12" fig in a 1 gal pot. I uppotted to 3 gal and did my usual fert/ water/ sun stuff. Over the next 2 seasons it has put on a total of about 6" of growth. All indications are that it is healthy. It put out a few figs that never ripened this year and last. The leaves are 5-6" and rough like sandpaper. (Sorry no pic). Is this a HC? Will it ever grow?

I bought a HC a couple years ago from Lowe's with the same rough-like leaves as you described.  It seemed very healthy with dark green leaves but never came out of dormancy the following year, despite over-wintering it in my insulated garage.
I'm surprised it didn't grow larger after you up-potted it.  I'd give it another year before giving up on it.

My HC has similarly rough leaves and looks pathetic.  It did give some nice figs this year, finally.  Got mine in fall 2011.  I would put yours in a larger pot.  Sometimes trees won't put on any top growth if their roots are too constricted.  It was probably already root bound if you bought it at home depot.  Next spring prune the roots and put it in a 7 gallon pot in a nice sunny location and see what happens.  Any circling roots need to go.  At least if you pull it out of the pot and get down and dirty with the roots you'll see if there are any issues down there, or if the root system seems healthy. 

Hi Adelmonto,
Without a pic... not easy to tell.
What I would try is, next year cut the bottom of the pot and bury 10 centimeters in the dirt.
Try to grow the tree like that.
By doing this, you can go heavier on fertilizer and watering and go for burst or explode !
Or go to 10 gallons pot ...
What is the growing medium ? Regular compost ? Perlite ?
I would give 100% compost .

I suspect the figs at Big Box stores may be treated with a hormone or growth regulator to keep them small. The effects could last a year or two if applied heavily. I was looking at some this morning at Lowe's and was surprised how they have not grown one bit since I saw them 2 months ago.

But I could totally wrong, just musing.

Adelmanto,
Hardy Chicago leaves are normally thick and rough.

There are two major reasons for slow growth from 1 gallon nursery grown trees,
1. They may be root bound with little soil nutrition and or
2. They may be "node bound" from the practiced pruning procedure (to keep the trees small).

Its been my observation that the roots have usually circled the container several times and the Slow Release Fertilizer that is provided at the nursery is just sprinkled on top of the growing medium and was not able to be dissolved and absorbed by the roots. Also the 1 gallon trees have been pruned continually with heading cuts, which often creates sections of stem with close internode spacing which retards plant growth, the pruning also produces multiple branches with figs which slows the growth of the young plant even more.


I purchased several fig plants (Hardy Chicago, Kadota, Mission and Brown Turkey) from Lowes 2 years ago and the ones that were bare rooted and planted in 5 gallon containers, pruned and trained as single stem trees grew over 3 feet in the same season.  The ones that weren't bare rooted only grew a few inches. I posted pictures of these trees in several older topics.

Good Luck.

Good advice, Pete.  Thanks for the info.

I think I'll bare root it and plant it deeper in 10 gal pot in the spring. I've had good success planting slow growing figs deeper in larger pots. This encourages new roots farther up the trunk. Thanks

Frank,
You're welcome.


Here's a picture taken today at Lowes of a 1 gallon Hardy Chicago fig tree.
  .
Note the Slow Release Fertilizer on top and washed down to the side and the heading pruning cuts to the main stem.

And this is a Lowes Hardy Chicago One Year after purchase, the 2nd season after Bare rooting and planting in a 5 gallon bucket, http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/show_single_post?pid=1279171330&postcount=17

Mine was a 4" from what could be tissue culture- at online store. Last year it had a mediocre growth and died to the ground. This year it is in a larger pot and grew 3 branches that were weird and stuck  on pathetic growing mode... not sure what is its deal.  Maybe next year after it dies to the ground again... I am not convinced this is a good hardy one for Seattle area.

I started several Hardy Chicago from cuttings in January. Very vigorous and about 4 ft tall with multiple branches.