This past winter i root pruned my larger trees.
My hardy chicago recently had lots of its fruit turning but faster than normal and very similar to the italian unknown i had problems with dropping its fruit i noticed.
Well the hardy chicago's fruit i was looking at and squeezed one it fell right off, i started gently touching the others that were turning and they came right off with no force by me. There are some that are still green though.
What i think happened was 2 things but 99% the pruning, when i root pruned although i trimmed tree a little i did not prune back hard enough to balance things out between roots and size of plant. I also 1 day accidently left the hose on it and flooded the container which i never have done before but i really think i should have cut back this tree a lot darn it i learned the hard way as i wont get many figs if at all this season from this tree. I easily took off all of the turning figs so maybe i get a few ripe ones.
The other trees i root pruned are holding there figs and should be ok as those were pruned more because i sent out some scion this past winter along with some pruning.
What it came down to was i wanted to get as many figs as i could from that tree GREED cost me this season with this tree but it wont next season.

Hi Martin,

Don't feel like the Lone Ranger in the mistake dept.

Been there, done that many times!

Ahh the ole Lone Ranger my borther and i used to watch that on Sunday mornings along with Charlie Chan and his son , Cisco Kid, Lone Ranger, and later on the Bullfights!
Course bullfights are long gone on tv .
Miss those times .

HAHA, Thats just what I needed to hear Dan,

You can't killum and I can't growum

Hi Martin:I do agree with you that you found the problem.
However according to Other better educated gardener and scientist,it is not a good Ideea to prune the branches,when you move or otherwise root prune a tree and placed it back in the pot.
The reason was:The tree needs all the branches and leaves to produce food,to regrow roots.
However I personally disagree,with this Hypotesis,especially when we are reffering to fruits trees .
My opinion is that the tree should be pruned down to balance roots with branches.
Best Regards
H2

Herman i have to completely agree with you.
Seems the tree is programmed to grow the figs each year but the smaller root system cannot support all of them so they are weak and fall.
Yes like you said this is the problem as i prune branches very little as i wanted lots of figs like last season , this tree i love the taste so this is why i did not want to prune to much but i learned from this experinece, this coming winter i will cut more to bring more balance to bottom and top parts.
The tree is 5 full seasons old and never did this before so at least now i know for next time prune. Several years ago i root pruned this tree and some limbs but the tree was much smaller back then and was producing less so it was more in balance with height and roots yes Herman i learn something and it will not happen anymore.
Best Health

On a similar note here's what happened to me this past season:
My plan was to convert two fig bushes and force each of them into a single tree trunk form.
I decided to straighten the trees by root pruning one side of the roots (deep spade) and staking the main trunk. One was a Kadota and the other, my Aldo's tree.
I thought I was safe by doing this before either tree broke dormancy in early spring. WRONG!
Both trees did not like this idea one bit.
Not only did I stunt the growth of these trees this summer, they also failed to produce their usual bounty of figs of previous years.
I learned my lesson on this one.
I'm confident both trees will do better next year but this crazy idea really set me back.