Whats goin on everyone? I had a quick question for some of you seasoned veterans. I have 2 fig trees. One is a Misc. white which was given to me, said to be about 2 years old, I transplanted to a bigger pot and its doing great. The other is a celeste I ordered which came from La. said to be 3-4 years old, arrived with figs and around 4 feet tall. It was crammed in a box and had been bent all out of shape. I staked it straight and used growers tape to secure it. But now I am having quite the hard time keeping it from wilting. Not sure if its a weird shock seeing that it has gone through some stress and god knows what with UPS. Or if I am doing something wrong. Possibly my zone may have this tree all confused. Im on Long Island in New York. Its been pretty cool and raining a bit just starting to warm up. I assume where the tree was it was pretty Hot so maybe this may be a cause of the problem. I am watering it two times a day now and it seems to be bouncing back a bit but I just want to make sure I stay on track and any advice would help as I do not know much of what I am doing as I am just starting out in this new hobby/lifestyle. I used an organic mix to transplant and a little sprinkle of bloodmeal in the new pot, which is also what I used on the white. Thanks for reading and any feedback is appreaciated.

I would say shocked. Was it deliverd bare root or potted. If bare root with figs on then shock. There is a product I like called super thrive which is really good. At least I think so. I would pick the figs off and put it in a shady spot until it recovers. But you may want to wait for someone who knows more before doing anything to rash like taking all the fruit off.

it was delivered potted, yeah that is going to be my last resort. Thank you for the advice, I will consider the super thrive.

Welcome.

Check, and then check again, culture, watering soil drainage.  The tree may be in some kind of shock, so keep it out of direct sun and heat for a few weeks, then gradually introduce it to sunnier conditions.  Don't over water and don't over-fertilize.  Make sure the soil is free draining.  Keep the root zone cool/shady until tree picks up.  And, don't worry too much.  Early morning sun is OK, but not the afternoon broiling heat.  Let the tree recover.

I think next month you will be very surprised at how much your tree has grown.  Check into the forum, often, and let us know about the condition of the tree.

Good luck.


Frank

Figs don't need that much water and if it's cool where you are you may just be over watering it. It's close to 100F every day here and I water my potted figs every other day. They really don't like to be wet all the time, I've killed several that way until my mistake was pointed out to me by someone here that knows a lot more than I ever will.

Thanks so much. yea dont worry not over watering, just lightly watering 2 times maybe 16oz each time, before I started that is was practically on its way out, the leaves had burn holes forming in them, I didnt have any water or dew on the leaves during the day so I couldn't see how that could of happened. The drainage should be good. My pot was predrilled, so I drilled even more holes and I filled the bottom 6" with some smooth egg stone, mixed some sand in the the first layer of soil and the rest is a nice mixture. But I olny water enough to keep the soil damp throughout the day. I was watering small amounts twice a day because I was worried with introducing too much water to it or too little. I have had it in the sun however so it is possible the sun is damaging it, perhaps I will move it to a more shady part of the yard. These past 4-5 days have seen 70ish. Thank you again.

Ok got it moved to the shady corner which allows about 2 hours of sun from 9-11. Gonna hold off watering tomorrow and see how long the soil takes to dry and try and figure out a new watering schedule for the next 2-3 weeks, hopefully this helps out, thanks for the advice and suggestions its much appreaciated. Hope everyone has a good evening

roots need air as well as water. water once good, and don't water until it's needed next time, watering twice a day... unless the soil is getting really dried up or the plant is getting hammered with hot sun, won't help much. if there is some issue with root, keep watering will only cause more issue... like rot.

by the way, adding stone or pebbles on the bottom of the pot doesn't really help with draining.

nothing wrong with adding sand to the soil mix.. but the addied weight won't help too much when it comes time to tell if the pot needs more water. get a wooden stick.. chinese take out should have some chopsticks. stick it into the soil before watering. if the chopstick comes out wet, don't water the plant.

keep it in shade and see if it bounces back. my 3 gal container will last about 4-5 days under shade without water and it drains fast. in hot sun, it will go 2-3 days.

welcome to the forum.

If the water added to your pots doesn't drain correctly, sand holds water, it will drive out all the oxygen from the mix, stagnate, and sour the soil, and then your trees will suffer, or worse.  Figs need a free draining mix.  When you water dump enough water to soak the soil, and keep watering until water comes out of the drainage holes.  Forget the measured amounts like 16 oz. etc.  If your mix is too heavy your trees will suffer.  Check culture.  Use a chop stick-wooden dowel to check for soil moisture and don't water until the stick is no longer damp and cool.  Pete's right....roots need air, and exchanges of gasses.  You cannot over-water if the correct mix is used.

How big is the pot?  A three-four year old "Celeste"/4 ft. tall.... should be in at least a 5 gallon bucket....minimum.

Have fun, and good luck.


Frank

I just said 16oz to give a rough idea of how much water I was laying down, I have this nifty little water meter/gauge which is good with indicating soil moisture so that's what I was going by, I'm an irrigation engineer so cool little things like that are available

And yea the tree is in a pretty big pot, not too sure of size I had it laying around from my ficus which I just got rid of. It's bigger than 5 gallons

The whole situation was just weird to me seei that m other tree is on the same schedule and cycles and its thriving! I am seriously surprised at how well it's doing.

Just a thought, but you might want to gently dig into the pot so that you can examine the rootball and make sure there is no invidence of nematode infestation.  It is possible that nematodes could be stressing the plant.  Nematodes are definitely present in Louisiana.

thats actually a really good idea what if I find one

Although there are many variables, my first guess is always "root bound". Was the plant root bound? or Were the root disturbed (damaged) when re-potting? Either case will cause poor growth.

Thank You FRANK!!!! It Had to of been the sun. I know its only been yesterday and today but I just went out and too a look at it and the leaves are looking much better and it has recovered from the wilting, so next will be to keep and eye out for the new growth I will follow your recomendation of slowly introducing it to the sun/heat seems you were right on point! Thanks again to everybody, and To Pete S. the roots as far as I know where not damaged when I transplanted, they could of been if the package was thrown around by UPS, but I made sure to be very careful and not break/distrub them when I transplanted it.

Just a few more days have Gina by and she's doin Great. Relieved I didn't have a watering issue or a drainage issue I was sure I had done pretty good with that