Just wanted to ask your thoughts on an up pot. ascpete I hope you have a reply because my growing season and soil mix is similar to yours, not the same but similar. I added Plant Tone to my mix before I started my last round of up pots thanks to your reports (Pete) and I have to say I like it. I have been up potting my this year starts all along and just moved the last one up to a 16" pot(~5gal) a few days ago. My new figs aren't really the question though.

I have a 2-3 yr HC that I got last fall in a ~3 gallon terracotta pot. I am very pleased with the growth it put on and it has 12 figs in the stagnant stage on it. It stopped growing mid summer, probably due the fig load vs. pot size. Proportionally the plant is not entirely out of balance with the pot or root ball, but it is time for an up pot.  Anyway, I have a 10 gal terracotta pot to move it up to. I didn't want to move it up during mid summers heat out of fear of stressing the plant and having it drop it's figs. Question is, do you think if I move it now it will start too much green growth that won't want to harden off due to the rich soil? Or do you think that since it's all organic the nutrients are slow release enough, making this is a different scenario than using water soluble inorganic fertilizers this late in the season(which as we all know would cause the late green growth with no time to harden)?

Side note, I use scheduled weak hydro organic fertilizer during the season, but stopped August 12th. Also, all my trees with figs on stopped active growth at mid summer and are now starting active growth again. All my this year starts have generally put on slow steady growth with no long resting periods. Attached are pic of the HC in question and the starts.

Your thoughts are appreciated.

Calvin,
IMO being that its this late in the season, I would not up pot at this time. I would wait for dormancy and do a bare root repotting. I have several that need to be up potted (and bare rooted) currently, but I will wait until after dormancy.

That being said I have up potted successfully, anytime, under any weather condition, if not bare rooting. If the potting mix and roots are disturbed minimally, there aren't any risks to the tree or figs. I up potted several 1 gallons with developed figs earlier in the summer, and have already harvested a few figs from one of those plants (a Celeste). One of the keys is that the potting mix in the 1 gallons are the same as the mix in the new container. The only thing that I do with the up potted plant is place it it partial sun (shade) for a few days to give the roots that were at the perimeter of the pot a chance to recover, then they are back out in full sun within 4-5 days. If you are not bare rooting and you have 1-1/2 to 2 months before dormancy, you could try re potting now.

BTW, thanks for the feedback on the Espoma fertilizer, I've observed very healthy growth in conjunction with the Dolemite Limestone. I have also noticed that the second year mix is even better than freshly mixed, so I have created a "mix heap", similar to a compost heap (pile) to allow my custom 5-1-1-1 mix to weather and age. Its currently being completely colonized by earthworms.

Several cultivars have not stopped growing, although they had put on lots of figs. From my observations, if the plant is given enough water and balanced nutrients and has a healthy developed and growing root system, they will continue to grow, while ripening figs. I have been pinching figlets on Conadria, Hardy Chicago, improved Celeste, Celeste and several other cultivars throughout the summer and MG fertilizer was stopped before the end of July.