Well I came to visit my family for Christmas after being in the Air Force for only a couple of months. My time there has changed me and the road is tough trying to learn my job correctly but I'll hang in there. Well when i came home on of the first things i did was check on my figs that I haven't seen since August right before I walked out the door. I had about 15 cuttings that were just starting to wake up and grow. I knew it was a long shot for them all to survive since it was so close to winter, but I never thought that only seven would survive out of about 15. Seven is better than none right? I almost cried to seem them in that state they were in.....dry soil, yellow leaves, tooooo much fert because there was algae growing in the soil that was in transparent cups. So i set out on a mission to save as much as I can by changing the soil completely and putting them in bigger containers. I soaked them for a while to wash most of the fert that was left and clipped most of the died brown roots. The pieces that I air layered had the most white roots cracking the plastic containers they were in with their roots coming out of every and any hole.  I feel better than they are in fresh clean soil now.



This was just one was my trees that I to put in a bigger pot. As you can see there are a lot of dead dried out roots coming out of the pot which tells me at some point in time before my mother overdose them with fert the roots were growing great and fast. Now I hope when I return again in February they will be doing much better. After that I will be stationed in Japan (yay!!!!!) and I will enjoy seeing what figs that have over there. OH ANd this time I'm leaving behind clearer instructions to take care of them. 

Figs have a lot of resilience for survival. Most of the time when you find a fig plant  close to the last breath due to unfavorable environment (& not some disease), you can manage them back to life.
I suggest next time to bury the pot to half depth in ground with a lot of holes in the bottom while you are away if your climate allow this (& get it protected in winter). This way the plants will send out roots to take care of themselves by finding nutrients and moisture in the soil outside the pot.

I know of only one well known Japanese fig Hirta du Japon now adopted in France as Pastillier and the fruit is very pretty looking (just like a fig should look... in my view).

Hi Americanfigboy

Welcome Back

Sorry to hear about your figs
It looks like your zone doesn't freeze,when you go away again 
I would do as Ottawan suggested bury then halfway and they will fend for themselves

 Good luck

I come home one last time in February before getting deployed to Japan for about six years. Hopefully I could take them with me if I'm going to be over there for that long. I would have no problem bury but the soil around my house is poor and from what my dog digs up it seems to be mostly sticky clay. Could figs survive in clay.  

Americanfigboy: It should be fine since figs can grow in different types of soils.

AFB,

I think clay will be fine.  It's all we have down here in GA.  People grow figs like crazy around here in it, no problems.

Also, thank you for serving!  Much of my family enlisted at some point, all Navy or USAF.  Dad clocked 20 years in the Navy as an E6 (stayed low rank on purpose) before retiring back in 1990.  After 20 years in, and now 20 years retired, we talked this last weekend and he says that, even after two tours in Vietnam, most of the changes he saw from the military were very positive, character-building things, and he's not the least bit screwed up from it all.  Joining our armed forces is a pretty selfless thing to do, you'll meet some great people that can turn into bonds of friendship that last forever and are stronger than family.  There will be the occasional time when you may be asked to do something you don't like - same as anything else in life? - I think that was the one thing that bothered my dad the most.  Stay safe!