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.

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

Also occurred to me - if that's not tempting fate too much. But will do anyway. Guess we could all learn from this little setback.

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

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 - 

[QUOTE]...those Turks, LOL I think they were the ones who trained Germans how to torture people[/QUOTE]

OT, but you can laugh off genocide? You're a better man than I'll ever be. If I were Armenian, I would still hate them with a vengeance.

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!

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

Well, since you ask, see here:

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/aaron-the-figs-of-cyprus-6913947?pid=1282909142#post1282909142

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:

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

So guess I'd better follow up with a few pics so you can see the recovery.for yourselves. To follow soon(ish).

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.