Up to 30 gal trees can be handled with a regular hand truck assuming
the person is moderatly strong.
45 gal start to get tough.  60 gal you need a special heavy duty nursery
hand truck,  they are $600-800 for a good one.

I have trees in 3 locations,
one location I keep them on pallets,
and move them around with a forklift,
makes life easy :-)

Besides dealing with the weight of these large containers,
another consideration is cost.
Containers are expensive, and the amount of potting material needed
becomes magnified, along with the expense.
I have a 52' trailer filled with pallets of pine bark, fines, soils, peat moss,
perlite, lime, empty containers, etc,
and I think I will still run short on certain materials when I re-pot.

Yes, they are sitting on round concrete pavers.
Which is actually the item I have the hardest time finding in my area.
The shape and size is no longer popular with home owners for concrete work,
so the factories stopped making them.

They help prevent roots growing into the ground,
and the ground from potentially acting as a wick
and sucking the moisture out of your container.

For larger pots, I use heavy duty black plastic pallets.
I use these at two of my locations,
where their appearance is not a major factor/eyesore.
They do help with heating the roots early in the season.

Thank you to everyone for the kind words about these trees.

Although they were raised by a master,
similar results can be accomplished by anyone
with a little patience, proper pruning and a bit of study.



"Train up a fig tree in the way it should go,
and when you are old,   sit under the shade of it "   

Charles Dickens

Sounds like you have quite a setup and upcoming task !! Hope you have a crew !!

Would love to see the "fruits" of your labor as you prune, repot , lime etc.

I'm in the process of looking for concrete pavers here in FL.

You would have enjoyed yesterdays fig event.
Moving 45 gal container fig trees off the roof of a
three story building to put them away for the winter.
No elevators or stairs were used :-)

Good luck with your paver search,
lots of retired NY'ers down there,
maybe they are still in fashion.

I'll trade one cutting for each paver,
we each pay for shipping,
you the paver,
me the cutting, lol  :-)

Block and tackle hoists ?? Pictures !!!!????

They are beautiful!  I couldn't begin to think of that kind of job!   Can't wait to see pictures in the summer!

Absolutely beautiful.  I can't wait until I can try something like the braiding out. Thank you for sharing!

Just gorgeous, hungryjack, and what a monumentous task to repot. We have a heavy duty hand truck/dolly, but I think even ours would not manage a tree in that size container and weight. I love, love, love the braided trunk. I will have to see if any of my fig starts will be candidates for this. My neighbor is also a big gardener and has several figs, one sporting his last name just for fun, and he'd love to try this technique, I know, so I will have to share the video. Just lovely, lovely, lovely! You are doing such a fine job with the mother trees, what a great caretaker you are.

Thanks Hungryjack, I am relieved.

Are you talking about spacers between where the stems touch or in the empty spaces to keep them a decent shape?

That root pruning manwork and hours it takes is some serious work !
My largest containers are only 30g i'm thinking of a electric saw the one where the long blade goes in and out in very near future as i use a bow saw and its a pain to do the wedging cutouts.

To bad i do not live in the area or i could do some work for you , i figure one ripe dark type fig to consume for each picture i take 1 dinner plate minimum on job site. ; )

Magnificent trees!  I don't care who started them (well, OK it is cool to know they were once owned and tended by Chris), point is you are doing a excellent job maintaining them in great looking shape.

Wow! Worst thread title ever! :)

Great trees. Can't wait to see them in the summer. Thanks for showing us.

Thanks for sharing.  Great to see how well private collector's can do with a big commitment.  I look forward to many more photos.

Just beautiful trees !
Who makes the best pots you have found to use ?
I can't imagine the work of root pruning just one tree with a root ball that large.

I have tried many things,
for me, the best has been a narrow kerf chainsaw bar and chain,
makes quick work of root pruning and works great for wedge or plunge cuts.
It will make a huge mess and have a spare chain handy.

I would be happy to compensate you with dark colored ripe figs
for your photographic services.
But be forewarned,
you will encounter the dreaded white figs as well,
I have some in my collection along with some yellow and green ones :-)

Hand Truck

For larger containers, up to about 45 gal,
Harbor Freight sells a hand truck that will work,
its about $200 and will handle the task.

Get larger than 60 gal and you need one
of the real heavy duty nursery ones that cost $500+
to move container around, especially on uneven ground.

Wow Jack! The crazy lengths we go to for our figs huh?

I just want to say. I hope you continue to share your experiences with plenty more "not so good pictures", as we move into next fig season and beyond. This is the kind of thread that keeps us coming back here nearly every day to see what's new :-) . Good stuff.

I know it's not always possible especially in NY and also depending on the type of tree, but if space was not an issue. Would you say it would be easier to plant in ground and wrap them very year or have the large pots and do the root pruning and moving around?