I wanted to revive this topic. I know its probably a bit late to maybe do anything about this now. I picked up another tree a while ago from someone I bought my first two trees from last year. He explained to me basically the opposite of what I have learned here. He pots all his figs in a soil mixture he makes. It seems like it is basically dirt. When it is dry try it looks like straight up out of a field dirt. It is rock hard. I doubt the roots are taking up the whole container it is a very big pot for the size tree. should I try to dig some of the dirt out and replace it with my normal potting mix now? or wait until the tree is dormant?

71gto

i read the whole thing from top to bottom when i was having this issue. my roots have grown to a point, they are sticking out of 10 g pot already.

speaking from what i have done, and what i would do to my trees, i'm not going through this again until coming spring. it took me some 3 weeks to get my trees back on the track. not sure if i have lost that time on the fruits or not. but from now on, all the things that i'm going to do to root and so on will be done during spring.

is your tree doing ok? is it having issue growing? is it getting root bound? if not, why worry about it now? i don't know about where you are at, but it's over 100 degrees here every other day. if i were you, i won't stress out my trees like i did before.

pete

I don't think it is root bound at all. I don't think it is growing that great. It grew in spring a bit and it had green wood when I bought it. Since then the wood has hardened off and the tree hasn't done much. The leaves don't look that great either, but not terrible. It doesn't have any figs. It has been 90s here. I was just debating it I should dig out a little dirt around the sides and replace it with a lighter potting mix and try to get it softened up.

71gto,

my trees were root bound. i not sure how bad. I was watering three times everyday, and the water was not getting to the center of root mass.

from what i read in the forum, if you want to change the soil, you want to do that in fall or. spring. bare root and use new soil. maybe up pot at the same time. if it's in final pot size, root prune as needed.

if you just added new soil around the old soil, I read that might not do the trick.

you might want to wait to hear from more experience forum members. i real newbie. i'm basing my response on what i have read, but i might have understood wrong.

pete

71GTO,

My thoughts only and not a recommendation.

Depending on how long its been in pot (perhaps 1 season) it will have to be root pruned anyways in a season or two .

Now if it was my plant i would wait till dormancy and put it in what my other plants grow in and i would inspect the roots in doing so.

But thats me i like to keep the roots happy and in a mix that i know my others enjoy.

Yeah I think I will leave it alone under it's dormant. Its in a big pot maybe 10 gallon. I will take a pic tonight.

Here is a picture. It is in a pretty large pot.