There have been some helpful discussions relating to container grown figs and summer dormancy issues.  This is the issue whereby the excessive temperatures heat up the container soil temp too much, causing the plant to stop growing and to become unproductive.   I've had this issue off and on for many years and finally took some action.

Not everyone has these issue but I think that it might be related to pot size (larger size might act as a buffer).

Shade cloth (white might be better and reflect more heat) has also been recommended to cool them down without affecting production greatly.   I may try that in a future year.

I cleared a larger growing area in my yard so that I could set up my containers in rows and then protect the pots with mulch on the sides. (I used to have them scattered all over the place)   Mulching the tops would be a good idea except that the roots will tend to move up.   I water daily and am also making sure that the soil under the pots is moist, to encourage some rooting into the ground, a reservoir for additional moisture and nutrients.

The new growing area gets sun most of the day but there are some bits of shade that I think are useful, especially in the very late afternoon.

This is only a preliminary report, but it is very clear to me that the productivity is greatly increased from previous years.   It is a night and day difference to me.   There are a few plants that have not formed figs and some that are not growing much, but the majority of them are.   I am also seeing fig formation on plants that have never done anything over the years.   This has been a very exciting experiment.   I attached a photo of the set up that was taken at the end of May.

The next issue to tackle will be the birds and other varmints that will be wanting their share.   I've already lost some brebas due to some birds.   

Ingevald

Ingevald,
Thanks for starting this topic.
I had noticed the problem on other potted plants over the years. My approach for figs was to use Blue or white 5 gallon buckets (1 gallons go directly to 5 gallon buckets), placed on gravel, or growing green ground cover. I mulch with pine bark, but use the figs own leaf canopy for shade. It seems to be working. Here is a picture of part of my south facing path with a few buckets. I've been documenting their progress for my records.

Pete - nice looking fig plants and surrounding garden.    I also realized that I have also created a shady canopy which apparently is part of the solution.
Thanks- 

Ingevald

Looks good, guys. My plants are not as exposed as last year. I moved them over to the south-facing patio where there is more heat due to the slab absorbing sunlight, but a high fence and roof overhang provide shade for part of the day. Many pots are also sitting among the other plants to give some cooling. Last year, they required watering twice per day. Now, only one time per day does it just fine. So far, there definitely more figs forming. Just have to make sure they are not too clustered together, as Rust can be a problem here. Neem is my friend.

I tend to think heat isn't a problem. In fact, I've had explosive growth in severe heat. It's been very hot for months with temps 100 plus. I have figs in pots in full sun, south facing. I mulch the tops with local tree mulch. I water 2 x's a day for 9 minutes. Maybe the figs get acclimated to this climate since its consistently hot.

I noticed the same fig varieties in my house on the coast are wimpy. They get used to the relatively cool breezy days. Then, if the weather changes, I see more signs of stress. I think that could be due to 1) the plant isnt prepared for the change and 2) I didnt vary my watering schedule to fit weather changes.

i didn't notice this problem last yr. my 4 oldest trees have been growing fine till last yr, all in 10 gal. this yr, after initial spring growth and main crops forming, they stopped putting on the new leaves. on the other hand, ones that i moved into 3 gal and 10 gal, are all putting out new leaves. they are all on the back deck where they get full sun most of the day.

all my 10 gals are blue tubs. 3 gal are black nursery pots. there are two other 10 gal. one in white and other in terra cotta color plastic.

i'm not certain if the heat is the issue. i'm sure heat will affect the root and there is possibility that that's preventing further growth. however, if that is the case, my 3 gal with less volume and black color will have more issue then my 10 gals.

from what i have seen, the issue seems to be how much roots are in the container, and if the roots have room to grow. i know for sure that my 10 gals are packed to the limit in the container. all the new repotted plants have more room to grow.

maybe annual pruning for both top and root might be a solution? free more room for the root to grow? i know that annual top pruning is done normally by most of the members, but root pruning is not done but once every 2-3 yrs.

Pete S. - lucky here as plants are on rocks and cement patio in full sun and do fine we use no wood mulch to keep moisture in and mostly in black pots -perhaps its our climate but we do get hot and humid here in summer albiet for shorter time it seems.

Pete/Bulle -i understand what your saying .

Here in yard its a cycle and the neighbor and i were just talking about it yesterday as his VdB is having a banner season and i mention afterwards it will need a root pruning or i have a younger spare Vdb i can give him and he can discard the one he has, sometimes its easier to start over for some of us.

There are exceptions but most container fig plants reach a plateau in years 3 or 4 and put out lots of figs but if left as is following season they usually start to decline as they compete for limited nutrients/water in pot and some roots start to die.

Once root pruned and canopy pruned cycle starts all over and fig production increases each season until once again its root pruning time.

Ingevald, John,
Thanks. My "garden" is actually left to fend for itself. I haven't weeded yet this season, and I need to harvest the Peppermint. The visible ground cover is Ground Ivy, Peppermint and Crown Vetch which are also used as green manure (cut and Drop), along with the Hostos.
I don't have any of the 5 gallon buckets in any type of shade, they are exposed to the sun from about 9 am to 6 pm (the early morning sun is blocked by trees).

Figfinatic,
From my observations over the years, its not heat that's the problem, Its the sun light heating up the dark container, cooking the roots. I water the buckets twice a day for a total of at least 1 gallon, more if the weather is sunnier. IMO the mix should be kept moist at all times and never allowed to "dry out".

Pete,
The volume of roots in the container definitely is a factor, as Ingevald had mentioned in the OP. With a greater volume of potting mix to roots there is less (negative) impact on growth, an "increased potting mix to root ratio" (from my observations).

Martin,
Root pruning and Up potting actually gets the roots away from the sides of the container, and increases the potting mix to root ratio.

I have 3 cultivars that were rooted cuttings last spring and are now in their second year that are already root bound in the 5 gallon buckets. They leafed out before I realized that they were root bound. They have put on 2 plus feet of growth, but are now slowing down, while all the other plants are still growing. I will have to up pot them ( without any major root disturbance) this weekend to get them growing again.

Thanks for the thoughtful comments - I'm learning more about the issues!

You nailed one of the "heat" issues and that is the sun heating up the dark pot.  Shading the pot in some way makes a big difference.

Keep the ideas and observations flowing

Thanks!

Ingevald

I water at about 1- 2 p.m., just once a day, the water itself really cools them down. My plants are in full sun and not buried this year, just a little straw around their bases. I set them out on woven landscape fabric and am letting the roots grow down and through the fabric. 

I had a problem with sinking them into the ground last year. Because of all the rain the soil in the low spots stayed saturated and the plants showed it. Also, I had so many weed seeds dropped into my containers I was pulling my hair out, it was just like each had their own chia pet! Well I got a scythe this year too and that along with the fabric should save me some trouble. Also working on a new irrigation setup that will wet the pots more evenly

My smaller potted fig trees have started turning yellow and dropping leaves and it's got to be because of the heat.  I put my finger in the soil and it's right warm.  

watering daily does cool things down and prevent new leaves from getting sunburn. but main problem i see is that some of the large tree with root packed container will not grow any further. the buds are there, and green, but they will not put on new leaves. now i have more handle on root pruning, i'll be pruning all my bigger trees this winter before the bud breaks.

Ingevald, the plants love the pots to be buried. My only regret for my zone is that I have to dig them out
for winterisation. Last season I left at least 30 trees outside & the pots bottom were buried in  2" of dirt. It was getting too much for me & the garage was loaded. The roots had fed out the side holes aggressively. None of these trees died - liked Pananas P, Sucrette, Lebanese Red, Sal's Corleane, Verde Passo, Verdal L, Norland, Ginoso etc. As for these trees, I do not need to water them & they have many main crop figs. Almost all are in 2 gal pots.

my search under ''summer dormancy'' produced no results. ingveld said there were other  threads discussing this.

can anyone tell me better search terms, please?

susie

Looks good,but be prepared for a lot of shovel shearing and cutting roots if you decide to move your pots at the end of the growing season.

Susieqz - Here is another discussion about this issue 

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/Summer-heat-root-zone-temperature-amp-container-grown-figs-5972221?highlight=summer+ingevald

Ingevald

I had several 1 gallon that were not doing anything,  no new leaves, nothing.  Up potted them into white painted 5 gallon and they are popping new leaves!!
They needed up potting but were not what I would call rootbound. I think it was a combination of the heat and needing to be uppotted

thank you, ingvald. i have a tree that has just sat there for months. doesn't look ill, just doesn't grow. i've done everything. full sun, fertilizer, up pot, lim e. someone has an answer.

susie

Hey Ingvald,
As we've discussed several times my pots don't seem to have a problem with the heat. This year my set up is different and although my 15 gallon pots are still unaffected by the heat my newly exposed smaller pots that used to be behind my 15 gallon pots certainly are. I water once a day at the soil level and this seems to cool things down but I'm seeing a lack of growth and lowered fig production and fig drop on my trees in smaller pots. I ordered 19 more 15 gallon pots and I'll step up the pot size on those pots no longer hidden behind the 15 gallon pots and see if that brings me back to normal, but it does seem that the size needed here -- with watering -- to keep things cool enough is 15 gallon pots. I'm not sure where these additional extra large pots will go this winter but there's no sense in having fig trees that aren't producing. 

Michael,
How larger are your "smaller pots". How long have the plants been growing in them? and How larger are the plants?
I'm just curious. Thanks.

YAY ME !!

I BROKE THE DORMANCY.

after trying everything else, 2days ago i up potted. today i found an amazing growth spurt.
this tree wasn't root bound, though there were some circling roots. i wouldn't have up potted till winter.
but, it started growth, after i was all out of ideas. i put in 5-1-1, so there was no fertilizer.

susie

Pete, My pots range from 1 gallon trade pots to 15 gallon pots. The age of the tree isn't necessarily the determining factor for pot size. If I want a tree to grow tall very quickly I'll put in a larger pot then if I want it to grow slowly. For example I have 4 trees from last year in my veggie garden that are in 7 gallon pots. All four are over 6 feet tall and producing figs (Hollier, Long DAout, Nuhurskii and Marseilles Black VS). In addition I have an Atreano RR, a Smith and a St. Rita in the same pots and they are the same size although the Smith has no figs. I have other plants in 5 and 7 gallon pots on the front line of my porch - see photo - that have also grown quite a bit and I have them positioned to get plenty of heat (ex CdD Blanc and Noir, Negronne and Cavaliere). Then behind those figs are other rows that I'm hoping will ripen with less sun - see the second photo. Also under the deck I keep a lot of young figs in 1 gallon trade pots as I sell them on Craigs List and use them for trading and I don't want them to grow so fast.
The longest any of my figs has been in any one pot is 3 years. Once they get to the 15 gallon size I'll have to root trim them every 3rd year or so.
I hope that answered your question. If not let me know and I'll try again.

Michael,
Thanks for the reply and photos. The plants look great.

The reason for my Question, Is that in my experience, moving the pots into more direct sunlight will negatively affect the plants only if the roots are at the surface (the pots are full of roots). If you stick a thermometer in the soil you will see the extremely high temperatures to which the roots are exposed on the sunny side of the pots. Also in my limited experience growing figs, I was able to get more than 1/2 of the 5 gallon buckets filled with roots in a relatively short time, 3 months, and the 1 gallons were filled with roots in less than 2 months. Which would make 1 year old plants root bound within a year. I have to currently up pot Hollier, Deanna and several other aggressive growers, because they are currently root bound. If they were in dark pots, the roots would be suffering, due to their exposed location (facing south). 

Pete,
Thx.
I guess I just didn't mind those hot roots as I cool them down once a day with a lot of water. It does make the rain sensitive figs crack but eventually I'll get rid of those anyway. But I certainly understand your concern and I will end up with a huge amount of figs needing to be up potted again this year. If I didn't have a pretty good customer base on Craigs List this would be a problem but I barter labor for figs (ex. I paid a fig to get some one to deliver my 150 pounds of rabbit poop today. I will also hit the wall when my 15 gallon pots all need root pruning - but again I'll trade other 1 gallon figs for the labor.

I was surprised this year when I exposed plants always hidden behind my larger pots to direct sunlight and realized they were being damaged due to heat. I thought that since I'd filled my front row with varieties all famous for needing heat I'd be ok. Wrong. Like you said -- hot roots -- and now I'm up potting from 5 and 7 gallon pots to 15 gallon - big step for me. Good thing I have traded work this sat and some mushrooms and kim chee for a CdD B.
Root's over heating;
I've discussed this several times with ingevald in the past and thought I was immune somehow as I'd never had a real issue with hot roots before -- well one day my sig other forgot to open the hoophouse and by the time I went to go pick stuff the temp was close to 130 degrees. I lost the figs on all 50 + fig trees that AM and a year of growth. 

Other then that though, I have always just stuck stuff in bigger pots if there were any issues - -  but now with 400 trees in my yard I'll need to reconsider my methods. I can't have that many 15 gallon pots as the room to store those in the winter is way too much.

It may turn out for my purposes and for what I want to do that I just have too many varieties. 

I got caught up in the need need need more varieties fever and have about 200 now. I'll end up in 5 years I hope with 25 and a group  of "trial" figs. I want to grow figs to harvest and sell. Collecting is great - and selling trees is fun and a great way to make friends but my heart is in buying farm number 3 (the last one)  and having a productive grove.
I hope I didn't go too far off the tract.

i want to thank all you nice people who posted, even tho  this wasn't my question. this info is just invaluable.

susie