I met a man who lives a few minutes away who was selling his 8 foot fig tree for $30 bucks and i jumped at the chance ( it'll join my other lil' fig trees i got this year from Bass which have been great :) ). I am not sure how to transport it and when... should i wait till it drops its leaves and gets dormant in a month or so (think he said it still has a few figs on it lol)? Its planted in the ground unprotected and i assume its been there for a while even in philly's cold weather. I think his uncle probably planted it a while back. Seemed like an Italian family, so I was gonna ask if his mom knows if he brought it back from Italy and from where there.

Anyway anyone got detailed instructions? How to dig out the root structure etc... I am probably going to rent a truck in a month to move it as Im not sure if it'll fit in my toyota :). Pretty pumped as he said it gave off more than a 100 figs last month.

Thanks!
Arian

It's not impossible to move but it's gonna be very tricky. It depends how thick the roots are. I've moved large trees from the ground with good results, but I did manage to kill one, that didn't have many finer roots.
Dig a wide circle around the tree and try to get as much roots as possible. Also make sure you prune the tree at the same time.
If there are any suckers that you can dig up with roots, I would also dig these out, just in case.

Good luck.

I once worked at a facility where the botany department had to box and relocate trees and shrubs from time to time. They would often "side box" a plant several weeks before making the move. The idea was that by trenching around the rootball and cutting all of the lateral roots that would not fit into the box (but leaving any roots that went down) and then watering it for a few weeks, it would have time to grow some new feeder roots inside the box before the bottom roots were cut and it was lifted out of the hole. Although this fig tree probably doesn't need such an elaborate approach, I wonder if it might be helpful to at least cut around it with a shovel now, and then come back in a month to finish digging it out? It might be worth a try.

Ditto Bass and Ken. The more roots, the larger the rootball, the better. You may want to consider some protection this winter because you are essentially bare-rooting it, and it will probably not be as cold hardy till it is fully re-established.

Cool, thanks for advice...
K, I may dig around the tree/trench it a month before like Ken recommended ...

Is it a definite that I should optimally move it when its dormant (in a month or 2)?

Could it be possible to dig it out with as big of a root ball as he possibly can and prune it and then store it till spring?

Maybe wrap the root ball with news papers or burlaps and keep it moist?

Rafed: assuming in all this that the tree in question is now dormant (leaves frozen back), you prune it aggressively, and keep the whole mass above ?25 - 30 deg. but below 40--
should work !

What Rafed said
Could it be possible to dig it out with as big of a root ball as he possibly can and prune it and then store it till spring?

Yes absolutely.

But wait till tree is dormant to dig out , put tree in large container or large cardboard box and fill root system with dirt - water once a month ever so slightly and i mean slightly depending on storage temps.

In spring tree will wake up and be fine to put back in yard dirt.

You dont need a huge rootball long as you prune tree to match otherwise new growth will be slowed in spring and new figs it puts on in season will drop before maturity.

k i shall wait till dormant. I saw it today and took a night pic which didnt turn out so well. But can see it is protected via a pole where they wrap around the tree which i guess i shall do as well (was hoping it was cold hardy). it is pretty big though, reaches top of shed (8/9 feet). I thought he was Italian but he was Polish, curious if he just got a regular tree back in the day. or if he got it somewhere unusual. He'll ask him mom soon about it.
Told him I'll be back in December to get it.

Arian,

What is the climate where you live? How harsh are your winters?

Suburbs of Philadelphia. cold winters, hot/humid summers. I wouldnt say the winters are harsh like NE, but we do get a 1 or 2 major snowstorms a year. and *sometimes* a couple days of unusually cold weather (in the negatives). They protected the tree hence why its so large.

(I can maybe ask him, he is nice guy but he may not want the tree staying that long till Spring.)

Persianninja I have moved several trees of this size with success. I am close to you in south jersey if you need help or have questions email me and I can give you step by step how to do it. But step one should be done asap as time is running out to move it without possible damage......rheyco@comcast.net
Cutting the roots ahead of time is the key allowing new feeder roots to form in the area of the root ball. Then aggressive pruning will give you a healthy tree next year.

Been here, done this.  I tried this with 3 plants all about the size you mention or larger.  The most successful one was the one I dug, transplanted into a large container and grew off for almost 8 months before planting.  I planted a couple directly and they didn't do as well (one died).  By the time I planted the potted one, it had great roots nearly filling the pot and it has done exceedingly well.

I'm sure trees do grow roots after dormancy, but not sufficiently to establish a tree like a fig I can assure you.  (and I had significant roots on both of the ones I tried directly) the one I potted had few roots, but had a football sized root mass when I potted it.

Best of Luck on it.

~Chills