Is my fig tree okay?

[Mykittensmittens]

It was a special gift last September. It says hardy to -8 but we live in a high, cold spot so I decided to pot it for a year or two to enable me to put it in the greenhouse over winter.

last autumn/winter and this spring all was well. Put it outside after Easter in a warm sunny spot.

In the last 2 weeks it’s just gone droopy. The soil is moist but not overly so, i’ve lifted it from the pot and the roots look healthy - no sign of weavil.

does it need a bigger pot? Or is it okay and I’m worrying for nothing? Something else?

That pot is small but figs like their roots constrained, so that should not be an issue.

It actually looks OK to me, although hard to say without comparing with how the leaves were until a couple of weeks ago, and TBH most of my experience with figs is with ones growing very well established in a mediterranean climate, have no experience of them in pots so may be missing something obvious.

Agree with PP they like roots constrained so that’s not the issue

it looks healthy but droopy! Give it a really good water and see if that helps

if it’s the common (brown Turkey) fig they are meant to be quite robust

Not sure on the type - it was honestly not this droopy but then it was very immature and it’s put on growth so maybe it’s just how it is! The soil Is very very damp and we are due rain tomorrow. I’ll watch and wait…. Thank you.

If the soil is very moist I'd raise it so it can drain better. They don't like it wet and possibly it's too wet. How often do you water it?

It looks like there’s new growth, so that’s good. They do like to be nestled against a wall or fence. It stops them getting wind blown and there’s reflected heat.
Although they do like restricted roots, a small pot will dry out more quickly, I’d repot in a slightly larger pot.

I’ve just had a look at mine (mature tree) & it has some droopy & some more ‘upright’ leaves

id suggest to let if drain, keep in a sheltered but sunny spot & leave for a while (I.e. don’t repot just now). It’s probably fine but it’s in it’s growing season so wait til Winter to repot (I don’t actually think it needs a bigger pot)

It’s showing signs of water not getting to the leaves. So either too wet (with rotted roots) or too dry. In a clay pot I’d be surprised if it were too wet. But probably the best thing to do would be to tip it out of the pot and see what’s going on. Don’t worry about it being the wrong time of year, just try not to disturb the roots too much. Actually, I would always repot in the growing season because you want the thing to be in active growth to repair the inevitable root damage of repotting.

Thank you.
I have tipped it out. I was paranoid it was vine weevil so I wanted to check (no signs). The roots are well established and take up all the pot. The soil around it is nice and damp - and it drains well as it isn’t in a saucer. It’s in a sheltered spot (a sunken bed) which gets lots of sun, but it has been bloody cold here.

it does have signs of new leaf growth and 3 teeny figs. It’s just the droopy leaves which worried me!

I’ll move against the garage wall which faces the sun most of the day….and keep everything crossed.

Has it been very windy? Mine lost a lot of leaves earlier in the spring when it was cold and very windy. It's recovered now but sadly lost most of its fruit, and the same happened to my parents huge and robustly healthy very sheltered tree at the same time.

Mines the same! The leaves were great, then they went droopy and fell off, but there are still green tips to the stems like new shoots, so I’m hoping it recovers. I think it was either too dry or too wet, needed feeding or the weather has been a bit colder, wetter and windier than usual for the time of year (NW) and it was complaining.