Hi All,

  I'm thinking about putting a three year old potted fig in ground this year,would now be the the time while said fig is still dormant?Do I need to prepare the soil any differently than a normal planting and also will this delay fruit production because of the transplant?

Regards
George

Any time you repot a plant, whether in-ground or into a larger pot, you risk potentially stunting that year's growth.  I doubt you'll even notice in this case, though.

My personal preference is to plant all of my trees 1-2 months before the last frost.  This gives the tree time to settle in and work on some initial roots prior to top-growth exploding.  Ideally, if you were in my zone (8), I would have planted 4-6 eweeks ago.  You're up in RI, so I think this weekend could potentially be perfect, or tomorrow, or whatever.  The sooner the better.  As long as you're not planting in direct sunlight, you should be fine planting around this time of year.

I am not too far from you and I would do it soon, especially if it's leafing out.  Even if it's not, I would do it now.