Hey all. First post. 

I've been reading and learning a lot, but now time for my fig story!
My dad's uncle is getting older and wanted to propagate his passion to someone in the family.
He gave me these two trees this spring, but I didn't have any place to plant them.

We dug out a little grass to make a garden, but our soil is pretty much clay (either rock hard or mushy mud).
I should have probably potted them, remedied my soil and planted them later, but I didn't.

So here they are.

The first one, with three or four little branches and leaves, was an air layered branch about 1.5 inch in diameter with baby hair roots growing.
The second one was a standing tree intertwined with another tree about the same size. I think that the roots on it are pretty small for the size of the tree, but hey what do I know.

I now have two trees in clay-like soil. I have been trying to aerate/turn it but I'm scared to rough up the roots of I get too close.
The leaves on the first tree opened a month ago, but haven't really grown much since.
The second tree is looking pretty sad without any leaves, but it does have greenish buds.

While turning the soil, I've noticed that there are some earthworms (which is good right) but there are also some of those skinny brown guys (no idea what they are).

Any ideas on what I can do to help out these two?

Thanks in advance!

Here are the little brown guys.

And a picture of part my great uncle's collection of 20+ year old trees.
(zone 5, he digs them up and buries them under soil/leave every fall)

I think your tree will work on putting out roots first the leaves and top growth. I may be wrong but I planted three desert king fig trees in my back yard (mostly clay) they didn't do much for the first two months then took off like crazy. I didn't protect them during winter and all three were top killed back to the ground. With the new growth this year they are almost four foot tall now. I am sure once the stretch out some roots they will be fine. Mulch as it decays work it in and re mulch. The soil will improve over time.

Mulch like Dave said and I would think hard about pruning the large one to bring the top into balance with the roots.

The insect is a wireworm which is the larvae of click beetles. They cause some damage to corn and other things but not figs.

Welcome to the forum.

Welcome to the forum.  You didn't tell us where you are.  A lot of figs are late leafing out this year because of the cold spring.  I'd fertilize both plants.  Good luck with them.  Did your dad's uncle tell you what kind of figs they were or what town they were from?

The USDA/UC Davis Collection is in heavy adobe clay, so don't panic. Sometimes you have to back off and let the tree do its thing. Mulch with compost to help change the soil.

Quick responses, thanks all!
So I should :
prune the big guy (why am I scared of doing this...)
mulch with organic material (compost/peat moss/manure?)
fertilize (water soluble, granular or a bit of both? Any opinions?)
water and wait.

My great uncle described his collection by color, size, number of crops, but unfortunately not by any names.
He spoke about so many kinds, I don't even remember which ones he gave me. Actually I'm pretty sure he said one of the two has a honey drop when the figs are ripe.
Hopefully I won't have to wait too long to find out.

If there are not many roots the tree will have problems supplying water to all the branches. It might be ok and leaf out soon but it might also do nothing for a long time or begin dying back. Removing some branches forces water to the others remaining. If the upper buds begin shrinking instead of continuing to swell I would prune right away.

Upper buds kept swelling on the second tree. Look at those new little leaves!

The long stem on tree 1 has nice dark green leaves, but the leaves on the smaller stems aren't as happy looking. One burnt around the edges, and some others are quite yellow.
How healthy does it look to you all?

They look great and will green up in about a week after they enlarge. What turned brown at the edge is actually called the leaf sheath, which falls away after doing its job.

Glad to see your tree has recovered. I have one that was dug and did not that I am pruning back a foot at a time, it has a few suckers now so I think the wood was damaged from dryness earlier.

Greatwhitenorth,

I hope you can find out a bit more history on your bigger tree. I have an unknown that looks to me like it could be the same tree.

welcome to the forum. 

this yr, i planted 5 japanese cherry blooms. our yard is heavy clay also. what i did was i dug about 5 times the root ball, then mix the soil with something called "nature's helper" which is 50/50 pine bark fine and compost. then filled the hole with that mix on the bottom and planted the tree in the mix with 50/50 native soil and that stuff. they are doing very nicely. 

this gives me a hope that i can plant fig trees in my yard. our winter here is mild, but it will go down to single digit on rare occations. i'll probably try Nero 600M, Hardy Chicago, or MBVS to start to see how they survive here. 

Clear

11°C

Feels like 11

has been a crazy weather year,,,