I have figs in 1-2 gallon containers with ProMix or ProMix like soil.  I'm going to transplant them into self watering containers filled with a 50/50 blend of perlite and coir.

Do I just take the plant (and it's existing dirt) and drop it into the new container?  Do I knock as much soil off the plant and almost 'bare root' transplant?

I'm concerned that the water retention of the two materials may be vastly different and cause the fig some issues.

Andrew

A method I had to employ this year due to getting a late start (trees were already in full leaf) is as follows:

Remove a small bit of growing mix from the outside of the rootball. Try to loosen the roots which are circling in this area. Cut any loosened roots which will extend to edge of the new container. Plant the tree in the new container surrounding it with the new growing mix. Using a bamboo chopstick or skewer work the loosened roots into the new mix all the way around the container then water. Wait a short while (30mins) then using your chopstick or skewer start working it through the original rootball and pulling in a relatively straight line from about an inch of the trunk out to the side of the container while backfilling with the new growing mix. Do this in a wedge about 1/6 th of the container. Then wait several weeks before moving onto the next section. The goal is to straighten the roots which are circling and to unify the two growing mix.

Some things I find to be helpful... Mark your start point in the container with one chopstick. As you pull an area, leave the second chopstick where you finished. When you've made your way to the first chopstick, you're done. Also, I find moist growing mix/roots and damp chopsticks to cause less snagging on the roots. Water the tree about 30 mins before working through a section.

I do not think the tree will go as long without root work as if it had been bare-rooted and planted in fresh growing mix, but it will buy some time before it needs to be done.

Andrew, I just up potted five from one gallon to five gallon five days ago. Two were from ProMix to Fertilome UPM. I moved them from the old pot to the new pot
and filled with new UPM. That was it and they look fine.

Thanks for posting this Andy - this is exactly what I have been wondering about the last few days.  I also want to go from 1 gallon containers (5-1-1 mix) to 5 gallon SWCs with an entirely different mix.  I also want the mix to be homogeneous.  My 1 gallon figs are not particularly root bound and given they are young I thought it would ok to bare-root them.  However, most of these don't have backups and I'm starting to think it's a bad idea.  Instead, I am now thinking of up-potting (i.e. keep old soil around roots) to 3.5 gallon containers using the same mix they are in now.  Then I will bare-root and re-pot into SWCs in the fall or early spring when they are dormant.  I would like to hear what others think though.

I would bare root using the water bath method. You will be able to wash out all the old potting mix, untangle the roots and only lose a few days of growth, if any at all. I have used this method on dozens of 1 gallon figs without any setbacks. Use a 5 gallon bucket filled with water for the "bath tub"
If you do not want any setbacks do not prune or cut any of the roots or root ends when re potting. This method is described here.
I have been doing this for years on many plants and the last 2 years for figs also.

BTW a company that produces self watering containers uses coir in their self watering mix, but at 50/50, with a standard Peat based commercial potting mix like Promix HP... I haven't used it, just read it.

Promix HP ingredients are:
Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss (65-75% by volume)
Perlite - horticultural grade (35-25% by volume)
Dolomitic and Calcitic limestone (pH adjuster)
Wetting Agent
Mycorrhizae – endomycorrhizal innoculum (Glomus intraradices)

In my early self watering containers (18 gallon totes, made for tomatoes and peppers), I used a formula similar to Promix. They were successful.

Good Luck.

Andrew,

Do you know for certain that the 50/50 perlite/coir will wick water in a SWC?  I'm not trying to be a wise guy by asking the question, but I have concerns that a mix that high in perlite may not wick water well.

Up-potting with different mixes becomes less of an issue as the tree gets bigger. It can be disastrous when potting up newly rooted cuttings, where the new potting mix drains more than the rooting medium. Them tendency is to over-water because the bulk of the mix is dry, but you will rot the cuttings because the immediate soil around them is retaining too much water.

What I didn't understand in your proposal was the use of Perlite and coir. Neither holds water or provides any nutrition or useable organic material. Both are essentially used for the same thing, providing drainage. Where is the "soil" in this mix?

I thought coir was supposed to be very good at holding water??

Steve,  For me. That is to much perlite, it will work for a while but will stop wicking and will dry out. Make sure the mix is good and wet before you put the mix in the pots. I had to take out some of my new mix because it would not wick up.

cup to 1 gal, i never change soil mix. from 1 gal to larger, i use my 5:1:1. i bare root the 1 gal by running water through it, then man handle the root until it's untangled. if it's too much to bother, i run my knife through it to the center in 3 different places and manually open the root ball and do whatever it takes to remove old soil mix. 

once moved to new soil, i water them well, and keep under the complete shade but light enough place for about 2-3 weeks. might even mist them daily depends on how the leaves look. if the leaves are wilting very fast, i might even remove some leaves. 

even with all my abuse toward the roots, they all survived and putting on the figs. gotta love fig trees. 

I know that this is probably a sacrilege, but any how...once my cuttings come out of the 1gal. pots(which contain Pro Mix and Agway pine bark mulch-50/50 mix) and go into any larger size container(3gal.--5gal.--10gal. and up) the only growing medium they are placed in is Miracle Grow potting mix...even when I plant an inground tree, I simply dump a bag of MG potting soil into the hole, and in goes the tree...I have been doing this for 7 years and have never had a problem with shock, or leaf drop, or any other malady...my main reason for using this method is simply one of economics...I don't mind the expense of ProMix and Pine bark mulch to get them started, but from there on out it just gets way to expensive for me to go with the exotic soil mixes...all my trees have been growing vigorously and producing nice amounts of figs with this relatively inexpensive method.

PS. that includes all my self watering pots too.

vince, the reason why i use 5:1:1 is because it's cheaper than other things. i think it's even cheaper than mg soil.

I've only been doing figs for a few months now but have done other plants off and on for most of my life and now I just use miracle grow too.  Seems to work fine for me.  Sometimes if I have some I will add a little Vermiculite or Pearlite or Sand or whatever even sometimes just use a little good old Ga. red clay mixed in.  So far all have produced good results.  So far I haven't let none of my figs get really bad root bound and I just take them out of the smaller pot and put in larger pot finish filling pot with the miracle grow soil.

goss