Many of you will remember the discussions we have had over the past couple of years about water-saturated soils and the inability of fig roots to survive in waterlogged growing medium.  All this of course is absolutely true, but I think there may be some qualifications.

I've noticed that when I have a pot with holes an inch or so off the bottom the fig will draws water from that last inch of soil and require watering less often than those with drain holes in the bottom.

I also have one of the "Grow Boxes" sold for patio gardens.  It has a water reservoir below a soil box.  The soil box has two cylinders full of growing medium that extend to the bottom of the water reservoir.  I see tomato roots coming out the bottom of those cylinders into the water. 

I have a number of rooted figs (the baggie method) that went straight into potting soil in 32 oz cups.  The cups are literally full of roots, with roots coming out the bottom and extending into the water beneath the wire supports that hold the cups. 

Seeing all this I decided to try an experiment.  I set four newly-potted small figs in a large cattle feed tub; the four fig pots took up 75% of the bottom space in the tub.

  I then put an inch of water in the tub.  (I had fertilized the figs the day before)  That was yesterday.  This morning the tub was dry and I added another inch of water.  So help me, I believe that by this afternoon about five o'clock the figs had grown three inches.  I can no longer see into the pot.  TWO DAYS of good, hot weather it took them to do this.

I'd like opinions please.
Ox

On May 24 I put some rooted cuttings in a big pan with an inch of water in it and posted the above.  None of the cuttings came to more than three inches over the top of the pan.  Look at them now; the picture was taken yesterday, May 31. http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk93/Oxankle1/DSCF0560.jpg

Ox--I decided to try a variation on your roots-in-the-water experiment for three of my rooted cuttings that had stopped growing and seemed stuck with healthy-looking but tightly-closed terminal buds. I wondered if they just needed a more constant water supply, so I put their soda-bottle pots in a very shallow (less than half an inch) tray of water, which usually dries up at some point during the day. Within a few days the buds had all swelled up and two have started to open.

About the same time, I increased the water to several other cuttings I had transplanted into 1-gallon milk jugs. They had also stopped growing, but most are now showing similar progress, and some have already put out tiny new leaves. I'm still hesitant to keep their roots wet all of the time, but so far it's been a pretty rapid improvement. Thanks for the idea!