My pride & joy about to bite the dust? Only away for 2 weeks, & I return to find it fighting for survival. If he wasn't my son (and bigger than me) I could merrily throttle him. All he had to do was water it when it wasn't raining. I knew I shoudda grounded it before we left for Cyprus. Partly my fault too, but just ran out of time.

Returned to find a note from him that he found it lying on its side after a weekend's absence (he was in Paris). The 'fella' has lost all its fruit, one of the layers (broken off at the wound), one third to half the leaves, and the surviving foliage has stalks turned downwards. The soil has separated from the pot, creating a 2cm gap in some places - all evidence of severe dehydration.

But is it survivable? Does anybody know if they ever recover from this condition? I've never allowed my figs to reach such a dire state, so I wouldn't know. Until I know it's gonna make it, I foresee a lorra mental agony.

@ Aaron - Got your Cyprus fig info., but you may have to wait a while until I catch up with other work.

you have too try. figs are tough. only the dehydration is a problem but the roots  may survive.
i wish you luck.

I can cope with almost any amount of die back as long as the roots survive to see another day. Lost time can't be recovered, but at least it will still have a future.

Other than re-hydrating, is there anything else I can do that will improve its chances?

If the soil is that dried out it may be beneficial to either repot it (in the same pot is fine, just loosen the rootball and add some fresh soil) or soak it for a while to ensure that all the soil re-hydrates.

Hmm, that gives me an idea. Since I intended to ground it anyway, would this be a good alternative to re-potting perhaps?

Can't see why not, I've noticed over the years with anything where the soil dries out enough to pull away from the pot it can be hard to rehydrate the soil, partly because the water just runs down the sides and because the soil is so slow to absorb anything. Putting it in the ground should do nicely, but I'd still soak the rootball a bit just to be safe.

That makes sense, & sounds like a sensible plan. Thx & .............and Suzie.

awe, what a headache Costas, I hope the big fellow makes it... I hope you sit the entire thing in water for a while (a day or two)...

My sister is arriving in few weeks, we'll compare notes.

Welcome back :)

Costas, this would probably be an ideal time to put it in the ground but I would soak the whole root ball for several hours in a tub of some kind to make sure it's saturated. Adding a liquid fertilizer to the soak water wouldn't hurt either.

Yep, that seems to be the general consensus. I'll give it a good soaking & add some liquid nosh too. This might be the ideal opportunity to prize it out of its pot without inflicting too much damage to the roots.

Does anybody know if re-hydration will make the surviving foliage point in the right direction - ie upwards instead of :-(?

If it's not too far gone it should perk back up.

Costas, Maybe you could take before and after pictures so we can all witness the miraculous recovery?

What it needs is water, not salt.  No fertilizer until either the leaves perk up (not likely) or fall off (more likely).  I'd let it go a day with water only and no fertilizer.  Let it rehydrate before you push growth.

You're going to plant it in as much sun as possible but what it needs now is shade.  If it's cooler indoors than out I'd keep it indoors and not even by a window.  Once you get some bud swell then out into full sunlight.  Plant it then if you're going to. 

Sounds about right. Thx jj.

Aaron - how do you get to have relatives in Cyprus? Your name is not typical Gk (or Turkish) Cypriot.

I disagree Bob. As we have seen here rather recently, rehydrating and super thrive with fertilizer works wonders. I would keep the tree as much as possible in the conditions it's used to and I believe bringing it inside would set it back substantially. Shade for a day or two maybe.

Hey guys, don't wanna provoke outbreak of WWIII here. The tree is currently in semi-shade anyway, & not much difference (if any) between inside/outside temps. The forecast is changeable for the next few days, with a fair amount of cloud cover & hazy sunshine.

So ok, as a half compromise, will soak thoroughly overnight, go easy on the nosh, then ground. Shouldn't do any more harm than dipstick has already inflicted. Love him really. He's also my pride & joy.

Disagreement is fine.  We all do things differently.  And we all have different mental pictures of how long the tree's been dry and how dry it is.  Very few people would give fertilizer on the first watering but after that it's a matter of personal opinion.    The web has a few experiments where people used superthrive vs other or just water and ST made no difference.  OTOH, a lot of people swear by it.  Everyone's entitled to their own opinions.  If the tree's as dry as I imagine it, it will drop its leaves.  Once that happens it can go back outside with some fertilizer so the new buds will be used to full sun.  If it keeps its leaves, 1 - 2 days of dense shade wont make them lose their sun adaptation.  It's harder to rehydrate a tree with ongoing transpiration losses, especially if some of the roots have died.  The more sun & heat the more water stress, and the plant needs to minimize that in the recovery phase.  Of course I'm assuming the plant is moribund and it may be just slightly dry.

And nothing could keep me from liking Tami.   :)

Was only kiddin' Bob. I welcome alternative points of view - helps me formulate mine. The tree was stressed for a couple of days at lleast, and according to Alex, it rained up to his departure date. What I didn't take into account was that the basal air layers were preventing some of that rain from hitting the mark, so difficult to tell exactly how long that stress lasted.

Then again, I expected him to actually inspect the condition of the soil and make appropriate adjustments to the watering regimen, but I doubt he did that.

Anyway, got some soaking to take care of.

Thx to all those who have advised me.

Costas, i'm Armenian by race, born in Cyprus... have a lot of relatives still leaving there, we are 4and5 generation Cypriots.

Love you too Bob, disagreement is the spice of life, right?

Aaron - Your countrymen have suffered under the Turks too. Although I was born in the UK, we are kindred spirits in many ways.

So here are those pics:

A sad-looking Gk Yellow 

 

A few droopy leaves

  


 

 

And what's going on here? Water stress or disease?

 

Soil separating from the pot. Aaarrrrgghh.

 

Didn't have a suitable container big enough for the soaking, so pressed this old water butt into service. 

 

Cut down to size - life surrendered in a noble cause.

 

Part-filled with water to prepare the 'bath'.

 

Just a couple of tbsp of some Miracle Grow liquid feed added. A miracle is what I need.

 

Bath time.

 

And now just hoping for the best.

I am so relieved to see this picture! I think it will be fine!

Costas, it look much better than I was imagining.

And, re: sufferings... ugh...those Turks, LOL I think they were the ones who trained Germans how to torture people