I recently purchased a beautiful panache from my local nursery.  I've had it for two weeks.  When I brought it home it was beautiful and healthy.  Now the leaves are turned down and yellowing.  I'm afraid I'm going to lose the tree.  I've kept the soil moist as advised and it gets direct afternoon sun for about 3-4 hours a day.  It is still in the pot.  I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.  I live in Northern California.  The weather is warm, in the 80s most days although we did have a heat wave last week with two days close to 100.  Should I allow the soil to dry out or is the tree just acclimating?  Any insights would be much appreciated! 

  Many 'soils' used in commercial nurseries can become hydrophobic once they dry out once, so the surface of the soil is wetted, but the water runs down the inside of the pot, and the root mass remains dry.  Try putting a drop or two of dish detergent into 5 gals of water and slowly water the plant with this over twenty minutes or so.  The soap will break the surface tension of the soil 'bubble' and allow the balance of the pot to wet.

Secondly, we face a fierce onslaught of rays from that big heat-tab in the sky, here in NorCal.  It appears by your leaves that the tree wasn't acclimated to the intense rays here, when it receives the sun during the hottest part of the day.  If you still have it in a black pot, then the soil can get to 200* which turns your roots into steamed veggies.  Try moving the tree into dappled light (under other trees) for a few weeks until the tree can rebound, and then gradually allow more morning or evening light to get to the leaves, before moving it into direct sun.

...And, welcome to the fig madness!

As mentioned above, it looks like roots aren't getting water.  Is the deep soil wet?

Drooping of the leaves like that is usually a dead giveaway that it's a water uptake problem.  Combine that with 100 deg days...that's a lot of stress.

The soil is somewhat damp but not wet.  I will move it into the shade and try the dish soap.  Thank you both for the suggestions!  Much appreciated!  

Hi,
Could you post a pic of the pot ?
I wonder what size it is ?
You may try potting it up. Sometimes nurseries raise the trees in ground and pot them for selling.
So the pot may be too small and the tree may have too many fruits. I'd try removing half of the fruits ... If you lose the tree ... You'll get no fruit, after all ...
Good luck !

Blue has it down to a science. I was'nt aware of the soap trick. Thanks for that.
I'm almost certain that root overheating does this to a tree as I've seen it on my some of my trees in smaller pots (5 gallon pots) before. You cannot skip watering even for one day when under such conditions. It does not take much to stress out the tree.
I would place the pot in a shaded area and allow the tree to get full sun. It should recover, but don't count on quality figs this season.

It's in a 5 gal pot from the nursery.  I used the soap trick today and moved it into a shady spot.  A few leaves perked up already.  I'm hesitant to repot until it recovers but it does have an enormous amount of fruit on it.  I'll remove 1/2.  Thanks for the help!