16" - 18" 2 yr old Flanders dying as of this morning.  I do not understand why I lose trees at this point.  The Flanders has been in the same pot, same mix for a year, nothing changed.  It budded out, leafed out as expected after winter dormancy.  I go out this morning and in 2 days all the leaves are wilted and starting to shrivel.  This is not an isolated instance, I lose 2-3 trees per year with no apparent reason.  If I had fertilized, changed pots, or something I might think shock.  There is no evidence of Fungus Gnat larvae.  It sux to get one to the 2 year mark and lose it.

I lost a few from RKN (Root Knot Nematodes), the little worms that are inside a ball and attach to the roots. It does suck to lose any precious fig tree.

did you pull it out to check the roots? i always check and cut into the tree to see what caused the issue. it happens rarely to 2 yr old tree. but some i lose during moving up to 1 gal. most of the time, it's water related for me. for whatever reason, some of the containers will not drain properly and they roots and the cutting itself rots. 

The only other thing I would question is if it had too much direct sun too soon on leaves that started out indoors?

too much sun will kill the leaves, but it won't kill the root. if the plant is dead.. it's not the sun. something in the root is preventing the plumbing from working properly. either there is too much water or too little. i have some heavily damaged trees due to "sink or swim" program for my 1 gals. but they do not die. they will put on new leaves and move on fine. the ones that are dead usually have issue with water draining properly, or cuttings rotting due to water not draining. i can usually work that through with number of different methods.. but now days i just use my 12" flat head to poke few holes into the soil to facilitate draining. 

then there is mysterious root death. the cuttings are not rot, but roots are all dead and gone.. detached from the cuttings. i think that's due to lack of air in the soil. not sure how what's possible if there isn't water to prevent air from getting to the root. or possibly, lack of water. we tend to give very little water during the winter and that might have something to do with it. 

Indirect sunlight, have not varied from watering routine, tree is under cover with not chance of rain.  Generally when they die, the roots are detached and gone.  Nematodes not an issue around here.  Again, this tree has been in the same pot and mix for a long time and watered the same for 2 yrs.

danny, have you checked the soil to see of it's compacted? 2 yr isn't that long, but if the root growth was heavy and soil is compacted, it might prevent water and air from getting to the roots.

  We had a situation in So Cal when our water company would treat the water for algae, it hurt potted plants.  Other times of the year they used chlorine and Chloramines.  Chlorine dissipates in 24 hrs but Chloramines does not so we couldn't use it in aquariums,  but it was deemed safe for human consumption.  ha ha

I am sorry to hear this.  I have something in red plastic, and it's notched with a point at one end and a handle at the other.  It's called a Soil Sleuth.  You poke it into your containers, twist and pull up.  The notches will tell you how wet the soil is, and will also provide aeration.

I don't use it very much now since not much is in containers, but I use it in ground just to see if the drippers are working.  Drip irrigation is great, but sometimes there is a kink in the line, a leak, or some fault that makes one station not work.  Today I checked on my Moringa trees...... hmmmmmmmm looking yellow and it's the heat they love.  I watered by hand.  Scott's Black is down there with them.  JD is checking that station now, and there is another pot with a Hibiscus perfectly green yesterday, yellow leaves all over today. 

Suzi

Could it have been the weather and it was not assimilated to it.
Just a guess but seeing your in Texas hmm.

Hi dkirtexas,
take the tree in one hand and pull her out of the pot with dirt and rootball .
Do you see life there ? Do you see roots ?
It could be the tree lacking water and drying in full sun.
It could be that winter killed the roots - rootball froze hard solid ? -, and the leaves got made from stored energy from the stems.
So now basically you've got two options : Water the tree to see if she sets back or root the tree as a cutting - put the branches in water for them to get some humidity and water first and then the rooting process of your choice.

Some 3-4 years ago, my former BT was late at spring time- but I had bought her in previous September and so I though - well a strange behaving strain... Let her do ...
Then appeared 3 leaves - but weak, behaving more like a cutting than a rooted tree, but ok, let her do - and suddenly the little branch dried out in full sunny days of course.
I was disgusted, and began investigating - Well a rodent had killed everything under 2 cm under the dirt - in ground part of the tree got castor style shaped ... Since then, I chase rodents whole year round !
At the same place, I installed my new BT. And so far so good !

Another thought, once you decide it is done for sure- you could split the main stem above and below the soil line to see if you've had borers of some sort.