Moving my fig tree

Do you know what the roots are like Paul? How extensive they are?
Take some cuttings before you try to move it, just in case

It's a vigorous tree, and I guess the roots are pretty extensive. As an example, there's a finger thick root running just below the surface of our patio, finger thick at about a metre or so out from the base of the trunk. The tree used to be about 20 ft high, and had three main trunks, each about 20 cm thick...it had been let go by the previous owner, so two winters ago I cut it back brutally hard. The new 10 ft trunk is one of the shoots I selected from those that grew out of the remaining stump.

The cutting idea is great. But how?

Would be a shame to lose it, we got some sumptuous figs this year.

Many thanks!

Its easy to root figs, they are like weeds, just stick a young thinish piece in the ground and it will eventually root, I tend to air layer branches as you can do thick branches, air layering is better

If you want a cutting, just lop a bit of stick with leaves off about a foot long, 6mm wide, stick it in the soil about 8 inch in the soil and it will root, no need for rooting powder, but rooting powder stops it rotting due to fungicide, leave it over the winter and it will grow,

I have done hundreds of cuttings this year by sticking bits in the floor in Bulgaria and even ones out of the rain with no water on them in dust dry soil they have grown, they are like weeds

Air layering will give you a big branch size tree if required though so is better

My Bulgarian House Renovation: Gardening Techniques
My Bulgarian House Renovation: Checking on the fig tree air layer rooting

Are you just moving it to restrict its roots, I wouldn't bother, It will be fine in the ground once it has built some branch structure after being chopped around,

The claims about restricting roots seem to be unnecessary, just let it build up a decent branch structure and fruit will be there, It will never fruit as well in a pot

If you want to restrict its roots in the floor, just chop its roots a meter or so away and put paving stones down vertically in the soil around it

I wouldn't bother, I have them in the ground, no root restriction and they fruit very well, very big old trees though, cuttings in the floor fruit fine as well with no restriction

Thanks very much. You have a fascinating project!

The air layering technique is astounding. I will definitely give it a go, maybe with a couple of branches. One of your pics shows a branch that looks a good metre long?

Can I start the air layering in mid-october in London? I guess spring would be preferable...

Moving the tree as we're rebuilding our crumbling patio (whenever the builder eventually starts) and it's in the way.

Will ditch the idea about restricting roots.

Air layering is great because you can get much larger plants, with almost any plant, you cut off the bark totally all around, this removes the flow of plant hormones back down so the roots form at that point , but unlike a cutting the plant is fed until roots are big enough by water going up the centre of the branch, so no leaves fall until you cut it off the tree, you can even root a trees trunk like this!

I have done a lot of them now but the ones in the pictures all have fruit on even after cutting off and repotting the fruit held and ripened perfectly, new fruit for next year have formed
The leaves wilted for a day or two but it was 30C and I just put them in the sun ( should have been in the shade for a week or so )

The biggest I did was about 18mm diameter at the widest point, quite high, over a meter with some branches and fruit, its balanced on a milk crate and has a 1L orange juice container next to it



This is the roots when I unwrapped it , some people root it on the trunk in a large pot



This is a few of them in pots about 10 minutes later, wilting a bit due to lack of water from repotting in hot soil from the garden at 30C and being in full sun, they were fine after a couple of days, the biggest is in a 15L pot

They look worse than they were as they were used to growing the other way up, being a drooping branch off the tree



I used to always presume spring would work better but...

I think if you did it now and just left it to the spring when it would root rapidly it would be fine,

I am not sure but I don't think it would root now as figs loose the leaves in winter so may go dormant before it roots

I don't think the main tree would be killed by digging it up,as long as it is in cooler weather better though due to root damage, but it is always a risk ,

Could you not build the patio around it leaving it a circle edged with stones or something?

What an interesting thread. Really fascinated to read about air layering on your blog, Starloc. May try it on some of my fruit trees!

very cool. Why do you prefer compost and perlite to sphagnum moss?

I like the fig tree a lot, but we don't want to make it a patio feature, so it has to move....

There seems to be a bit of a conflict between best time to move the tree (cooler better - winter?) and best time to do some layering 'just in case' (spring). It's also not clear when the builder will want to make a start....

I will drop the idea about restricting the roots.

I've grown figs for years and always had abundant fruit without doing anything to restrict the roots. We are on clay soil and two of the figs are planted against a south facing barn wall with its roots sitting on the water table... you would think that would make for rampant growth, but it seems to have no problems.

If you really DO need to move it, leave it until the fig is completely dormant and has lost all its leaves. You may find that pieces of root you leave behind will grow back anyway, as figs are fairly difficult to kill.

As for timing the move, apart from the tree needing to be dormant, do remember that trees make a lot of root growth during the dormant period in winter and will therefore grow away better in the spring. If you move it in late spring before the leaves open, it won't have time to re-establish a good root system before all that hot, sunny and dry weather you enjoy over there in the UK starts returning in spring!

I'm witrh Bertie, my two figs were taken out of pots a couple of years ago and now peroduce much much more fruit. They havent rampaged away but if they do, figs are not adverse to being bent, pruned or shaped to your hearts content. I shy away from pots unless I have no other option, they dry out too quickly and require regular feeding and I am a lazy gardener.

Great thread! I have a question about Figs as asked of me this morning, hope you don't mind my butting-in.

My Dad has two 'Brown Turkey' figs, planted in very large tree buckets, and sunk in the ground. They grow beautifully, and have produced plenty of fruit this year, as always. The problem is, they get killed off by frost before they are large and ripe. Would it be ok to wrap the trees in bubble-wrap over winter, to prevent this? How do other people deal with their figs?

We have an easy job with ours in Bulgaria as its a weird variety that produces main crop on new growth if the tree is damaged unlike most that only produce a few fruit later on if they regrow

It is very hardy we never protect it at all, its a Bulgarian variety called Michurinska-10 developed years ago to be suitable for very cold winters, we often get very sudden changes of temp from +20C one day to -5 or -10 the next in the winter so it would usually be a problem, its ok down to -21C without protection

for other varieties that are not so hardy many people wrap with fleece, or just put against a fence and hang a cloth over them

In the UK I have a fig tree from Aldi that is now 7 foot tall in a pot, never taken inside just left outside, I think it is brown turkey, never done anything to it in the winter, its in between other trees so sort of protected

Frost cloth fleece is probably the easiest way to protect this years growth so you get an earlier crop next year, on a few canes around the tree

Thank you, that's what I'll tell him. Thanks for the advice.

Just a thought on varieties. I brought a Brown Turkey with us eleven years ago when we moved from the UK, and although our climate isn't particularly hot here, the Brown Turkey does extremely poorly compared to the White Marseilles we bought here. The Marseilles often produces two crops a year, if the autumn is sufficiently warm and long, while the Brown Turkey fails to ripen later fruit. The crop size is also much greater with the White Marseilles. Obviously it depends on where you are in the UK, but I wouldn't always go for the 'default' variety of Brown Turkey as there are probably far better varieties which would still do well in the UK in many places.

I think:

Brown Turkey very hardy, plant of choice in UK. Very mediocre flavour.

Best for flavour (subjective, but WhatTheHeck!) White Marseilles and Rouge de Bordeaux. Neither are hardy so need to be container-grown and brought in for the Winter.