Hey everyone TONYSAC here just thought you might enjoy some of these pics of my re potting and root ball trimming. I used all miracle grow products potting soil and perlite and I partially buried the pot...........I was worried about this i hope it springs back I didn't even remove alot of roots just the tangled ones 

nice. i need to do that.. just that when i did that last year, my trees took a month to bounce back..

pete

This one hasn't grown yet its been the same size since last season so I figured just do it maybe it will help I might give this one to my bro its all tall and lanky its perfect for his apartment balcony the leaves will be above the cement half wall and it will get all the sun it needs hopefully this new soil will have some nutrients in it unlike the sandy junk that came out of the pot 

Tony - you did fine, but the object of root pruning is to remove a significant fraction of the large (fat) roots to make more room for smaller roots that do all the work, and to correct roots that represent future problems. Working toward a flatter root mass with no roots growing straight down from the trunk or very near the trunk is a worthy goal. Also, and importantly, this procedure should be done on quiescent (the period after dormancy but before they wake in the spring) trees.

After wiring - refer to the first photo to see the 'before' picture.

Al

Well Tony,
Your fig roots seem to be RKN free (a very heathy good news...). 

Yeah Tony a little late in the season for root pruning, but your tree looks good. Any reason you didn't up pot to a larger size? A larger pot = larger tree= more figs in time. Tapla a fine looking bonsai demonstration.   

I did up pot it look at the pics the old pot is the little black one I didn't do much pruning I hosed everything down clean and I would say un knotted it and just trimmed it back the really long ones i cut of nothing crazy 

Ok The size difference doesn't look very significant, but it is hard for me to see since they are not next to each other in the pics. I think I would've gone to a larger pot though.

BLB - I repot my figs exactly the same way. It doesn't make sense to bother with repotting if you're not going to remove the useless large roots that (in nature) would only serve to anchor the plant and serve as transport plumbing. Removing the larger roots forces a greater number of fine roots (just like when you prune the top you get more branches). It's the fine roots that do all the work and help your plant grow/make fruit. The large roots just take up space.

Al 

I agree with what roots to prune, just would have gone to a larger pot and certainly not as much root removal

I didnt want to go to big I think this is going on a balcony at my brothers place space is limited but if he decides he doesn't want it by then I can up pot it bigger at that time 

Well that makes sense. When I repot I like to go up significantly in size. I find that they do put out more growth a little faster. Plus it saves me the extra wokr of moving up each year 

I always remove the larger cable roots when I pot up my trees. I up potted about 25 trees this past spring and they all got their roots cut. like Al stated in a container the larger roots just take up space the fine roots do all the work. I even root prune trees just before planting them in the ground.

Did they wilt at all I didn't know for sure that you could cut the cable roots there wasn't many and the tree is tall so I figured it would give it some stability... plus i'm looking at the pics closer and alot of the smaller roots come off the cable roots I probably would have killed it if I trimmed them off ?

Update read first posting and look at last pic 

Personally i would have left that particular plant as is without root pruning .
TonySac its best to root prune when plant is not in leaf as it throws it into shock in my humble opinion.

I figured it might but I didn't even cut the roots I just ran the hose through them and whatever came off let go etc that's it no pruning 

I understand what your saying but what your seeing is from shock because plants roots were disturbed and they do not care for that.
For example sometimes when a person moves fig plant into bigger pot and in doing so rootball soil breaks loose in the process its essentially disturbing it and plant usually wilts for a spell because of this.
If then put back in sun it wilts even more so.

But if one slips plant out of pot intact without disturbing rootball during full leaf and puts in waiting pot and back in full sun there is no ill effect.
Been there and done both.  ; )

If you put it in a cool dark spot for a couple days it might recover. It will have no shot if you leave it in heat and direct sunlight.

Ill try the shed the sun isn't that bright/strong where it is but maybe ill move it.

Did you water the new soil around the roots real well to remove any air pockets? Air pockets will kill the roots they need to be in contact with the soil.

I flooded the pot several times let it settle out top off soil and repeat until pot was full