Well, at least I'm now a bit more hopeful after seeing your encouraging remarks. Still a bit annoyed at sprog tho. Won't be taking any more risks like that again.

PS @ Aaron - 

Hope your fig recovers.  You did the right things I am confident it will spring back.

I'll bet there was some nice fig varieties in Cyprus cross roads and all?

Costas,

this is where Pete's saying goes really well, "Beer works" ;)

seriously though, it's OT!

Thanks for info that Costas.   Sounds like some nice figs and I'll bet their taste is at another level there. 
Some of the figs sound like they have an Italian link kadota (dottato), napolitana negra. and maybe vasanati/eggplant sounds similar to melanzana.
I had some Cyprus fig cuttings unfortunately they didn't make it.

Yep, I noticed a heavy Italian and Turkish influence on the varieties grown there, which is perhaps not surprising considering the shared Med. context/climate.

I think you could well be right about the Vasanati/Melanzana ID. Interestingly, we have the same name for aubergines in Gk - we call them melanzanes, with the last syllable sounded. It would make sense that the Gk version chose the color as the name to avoid confusion with its namesake that is also a fruit, but is regarded & used as a veg. in most dishes.

When I do the translation, I may well find that the descriptions for these 2 (and their pics) are a match, in which case we have cracked at least one of the 'indigenous' varieties.

Thx for your interest, and watch this space.

On the up side, my Gk Yellow has new growth on it, so definitely alive. And the air layers are doing just fine, so right now I'm a happy bunny.

GREAT news!

Well that was much better looking than I thought it would be.  The max dose of MG for a healthy plant would be 1 TBSP/gal.  If a plant is dehydrated it's best to give it plain water first, then fertilize.

I can't thank you guys enough. I woudda been inconsolable if I lost it.

Just noticed this from jj:

Costas,
I think your tree will recover just fine. It doesn't look that bad. I would be careful how long you soak it though. I would not soak it any longer then a few hours. I personally wouldn't even soak it that long. When I used to buy a lot of fruit trees bare root the grower always cautioned not to soak them for too long. I'm not 100% sure this translates to figs but why take a chance. Fig roots need oxygen as they breath air. They can be drowned.

Thx for the advice Michael, but you may not have noticed the timeline of this thread - it's had a buurmp on de 'ed. We are well past the soaking stage now, and despite my best efforts to drown it, my Gk Yellow has come out trumps - thank goodness.

Only light watering now to keep that soil moist/from drying out. Pics to follow later.

Hi loquat1,
The tree was not that bad.
Last year when I came back from holidays -two weeks - , three of mine had lost the smaller leaves to the ground and all leaves were wilted.
I watered them and they were able to ripen some figs - with the help of the unusual weather we had last October/November ... a bit warmer than usual so that helped ...

Did yours loose its smaller leaves ? Mine started loosing the leaves on all the stems from the bud backwards to the trunk and then Zorro got back to save that mess .
All my figtrees are growing well this year - so those did not get weakened by that lack of water and did not succumb to the winter .

Well, it's easy to say that now jdsf, but at the time I thought it was a gonner. It lost all its fruit, about 35-40% of its leaves (of all sizes, but mainly the medium to larger ones), and 1 of my upper layers broke off at the girdle in the fall.

It wasn't so much that the tree looked close to death, but at the time I didn't know if its condition would get progressively worse to the point of no return, rather than reverse after soaking. Thankfully, the damage was halted within 2 weeks or so of soaking, and it's rallied since.

Ripe fruit this season is out of the question tho - there isn't even a single baby fig on it at the moment. Prior to the emergency, there were maybe half a doz figs around 1.50" dia. I think it's put all its energy into recovery before it worries about putting out. Maybe next year. I'm just glad the little darling has made it.

If you add maybe 1 oz of baby shampoo to several gallons of the watering solution it should be much easier to rehydrate the soil, then the tree.  Dried out materials can become hydrophobic.  A bit of shampoo can be a wetting agent.

Costas, oops!
FMI (for my info) how long did you soak it and did you completely submerge all the root mass when you did?

@ Charley - Plse see my reply to Michael at #39 above. But thx anyway. I'll bear that in mind if it ever happens again.

@ Michael - No worries mate. Plse see last pic at #23 above. You'll see there it was fully submerged. First I soaked overnight, then following day just a few hours, and finally overnight again a couple days after that. Only light watering since then. Seems to have done the trick.  

Well, you had the before. Here's the after.

Taking a well-earned rest after some time in the ICU

 

New growth proves it's alive & kicking

 

New growth in context -

 

And so do the new shoots

 

 

The leaves are now pointing in the right direction - upwards

 

 

One or two still bear the scars of recent trauma

 

But the vast majority are healthy - like this one.....

 

....and this one

 

The crown is gaining in height - now level with my nose

 

Overview - standing proud

 

OK, I think that's enough of the anthropomorphisms already. You get the picture, right?

I owe you guys big time. 

@ Michael - It just occurred to me. If I headed my bump as an UPDATE (which I'll do in future), it might have alerted you to the fact that we were well past the critical phase. Sorry I didn't make that clearer earlier. Still, your input (& Charley's) much appreciated.

And they all lived happily ever after...

I'll be even happier when I finally get some ripe figs from it. Maybe I'll get my fix from a holiday in Greece to tie me over till then.