Honestly, and I certainly have less experience with this than many forum members, I would leave them.  Stressed trees often drop the figs anyways, and if its spring where you are, your tree will probably leaf out again.  If your tree really doesn't want them on there, it'll drop them.

Now one problem you may have is quality.  If your leafs out again and makes a new crop of figs along with it, then you have a normal amount of leaves providing sugar/energy for double the number of figs.  I'm not sure what happens in such circumstances, and if that may influence quality and whatnot.

In conclusion...wait for someone who knows better than me, but I at least provided some food for thought :)

I wasn't there but it sunds like the tree didn't have enough water and dropped its leaves.  A potted tree can get dry quickly @ 40C.  give water then dilute fertilizer and it should be fine.

Water and light fertilizer ought to bring it back.

Hi mic,
What is the size of the pot ?
That happened to me as I was on holidays - one can't be everywhere :) . One tree dropped half of her leaves .
Consider SIP or a plate of water under the pot and monitor the water intake.

As for the figs, remove already half of them if not 2/3 or all .
For me, the tree needs to focus on putting new leaves.
Do not forget to monitor the water intake or you'll loose the tree in the long run .

Mic,  If there's still a few leaves left, can you drag her into a spot shaded from 1 pm- dusk sun giving only morning light so the remaining leaves/fruit won't drop with the high light/temps?

I knew the hot days were coming so I did water her in the mornings, perhaps too much.  I'm pretty sure the pot didn't dry out. The pot is 50cm diameter (19 inches) so its pretty heavy.  It also has plenty of mulch.

Yes, she still has probably 1/3 of her leaves. And the good news is no more fell today. It's very mild at the moment with a little rain even.  But if the heat comes back soon I will definitely try to move her to the shade.

I like the idea of the SIPs. I'm made one for a test run to see if it works. I might need to fast track another one for her.

Thanks again everyone.

Mic  If you try to push her with nitrogen fertilizer to regain leaves, shoot for a product with majorily the nitrate NO3- form as opposed to ammoniacal ( NH4+) or Urea. The nitrate is actively taken meaning she has to spend energy to take up the nitrogen and if she's not capable she won't. The Ammoniacal and urea are passive and will take up freely and possibly burn the remaining leaves if shes still in a funk. Most  common nursery fertilizers have all 3, the more expensive ones have primarily the nitrate.

I didn't know that!  That sounds like very useful advice.  I use a fish emulsion liquid fertilizer with some seaweed extract periodically. After reading what you said I checked it and to my surprise found it contained added urea. So I better find something else.

Your choice in organic sources is difficult to top. The urea isn't bad just low ball the concentration if you feel she's still in a funk or at least not putting on new growth. You can always add more but can't take it away. When she starts pushing new growth you have less chance of "locking up" with the passive uptake and can push heavier concentrations. In short, she'll be highly sensitive to those passives but still needs nitrogen presence to recover and which source relates to application quantity and time interval between applications. Nitrate is a risk free form, the passives demand a bit of monitoring yet are as effective. 

Most probably it got stressed due to heat (& moisture need during that heat).
Keep the pot moist and cooler on the south side for a couple of weeks. Remove some of the fruits. That should expedite new leaf buds opening.

Just an update in case it is useful for someone in the future.

I left the figs on and hoped to give her some weak seaweed liquid. But due to the weather I only got a chance to do that today. Since the last time I wrote the weather has been very strange with daily storms and heavy downpours. So much so I had to cover the pot in case it was too much water.

So in the end I effectively did nothing as mother nature stepped in and took care of it.

And the good news is she didn't drop any figlets and has started pushing out new leaves in the last couple of days!



Thanks again everyone for your kind advice.