Hello,

Has anyone planted 2-3 fig cuttings in a large pot (15-20 gallons) and let them grow together as one tree?

I have done this with other plants but some seem to compete together for resources and "choke each other off" so to speak.

Thank you

I have put 3 of one kind into a large pot so they could branch out.  Next big job is to soak in warm water and separate and plant separately.  But, just take a stroll through any Garden Center and you will see braided Ficus.  That would be 3, braided into one.  Those are usually Ficus Benjamina, NOT Ficus Carica, but you never know!

Suzi

Thanks you Suzi for your quick reply. I have very limited space and I purchase my root cuttings from Ebay, so if I don't put at least 2 of them in the same pot then I would have to throw or give away the rest.

It would be nice to know if someone has experienced any issues with this method.


John

You could learn to graft.  Evidently, some people graft 6 varieties onto one rootstock to save space.  This is not me, yet, but it could be.  We must be creative when we have little spaces!  Do a search here for grafting.  Lots of posts on it.

Suzi

Also search on pleaching.  There are some people trying that.

John try and put a divider from top to bottom in the pot so the roots dont bind up with each other so its like 2 pots in one or 3 etc use like an old garbage pail or an old plastic cutting board etc 

 if you use plastic bags with their bottoms cut open you can put them in the pot and their roots will not be tangled up, so later on you can separate them, if you don't want to separate them you can  let them grow together and tie them together, eventually they will either suffocate one  another or they will bond grafting themselves.   Also, remember not all cuttings make it, so you should not dispose of the spares yet.

If you ever buy a bare root tree, you will notice the roots have been pruned.  If the roots do intertwine, you can just prune them, and it won't hurt them at all!  I'd soak them, and get them untangled the best I could, but I wouldn't fear cutting them.  If you do prune the roots, then also prune the top so there are enough roots to support what is above!

Lots of good ideas in this thread!  Wish I would have thought to divide my big pots with 3 cuttings.  I'm stuck with the above method for separation, but I'm cool with it!

Suzi