well.. i sort of knew that, but was rather surprised by the White Ischia i gave to my mother in law.

my 1 gal container WI has good number of figs, but the number of the figs and the size of the figs that i gave to my mother in law is much greater. she put it in ground. i suggested that she knock the figs off since the plant is only 3 months old or so. this will give better chance next year.

Oh.

That is true for me as well. The in ground trees grow faster especially after a groin or two in ground. I have also noticed that my potted trees grow faster if I go bigger in pot size.

I would like to hear more about groining the ground, have never done that successfully before ; )

My best grower this year is in a pot, in the ground. It was so dry here I had trouble keeping up with watering my inground trees deeply enough. Now that it rained I expect them to make up the difference.

It's been dry here too Brent, (up untill last Friday, that is).   We went over 60 days without any rain and average temps in the upper 90's and low 100's.  

With six inches of straw mulch around my trees though, I water twice a week...sometimes going 5 days between waterings.   And these are all newly planted trees.   Once the ground and the mulch get saturated, the area around the trees retains the moisture real well.   (Having clay soil helps a lot too though).  You won't see straw being used as mulch in Better Homes & Gardens, but it's cheap and it works.

Pete, try growing a tree in a self-watering pot.  The growth is amazing!