Christy, The topic was discussed at length a few times in this forum. I gave you a link to one of them here. It's good read. Here is a link that might be useful: Multiple trees in one hole

Containers have the advantage of as was said good feeder roots. They can also be planted any time of the year in most areas...though I would avoid shock if they just came form a greenhouse by letting them adjust to the area for up to a week before transplant. Disadvantages: Transmit pests and disease in soil which is why your local Ag is not too wild about containers being shipped into the state. Cost of shipping high. Trunk caliper large so no fruit bushing few viable eyes down low. If you buy a container from a local nursery during bare root season it likely will fall apart and leave you holding a severely pruned bare root.= that was planted a few weeks before. You should take a hose and remove all soil before planting into their permanent site. Container soil is often not good planting soil, plus you can inspect, spread out and prune the roots if needed. As to preference...I don't care much. Bareroots are cheaper and with a DWN SOFT order through a cooperating nursery I can get most on the rootstock I want at half the price of a container tree. I have ordered trees from Rolling Ridge, Burnt Ridge and DWN/Bay Laurel, Trees of Antiquity, Sanhedrin, Raintree, Stark, Grandpa, Just Fruits and Nuts, and Willis. Willis is the only one I would not order from again unless they were the sole source. Be warned the nurseries well out of your area may not carry cultivars that will do well in your area or on a good rootstock for your area. I would only look there if your orchard is full of varieties known to do well in your area and now you are now experimenting.

Tissue cultured plants can be made virus, blight, and bacteria free in the process of propagation. However, if a nursery gets virus free tissue cultured trees and puts them next to ones that have the virus, then, they get it, too. I also see people on here complaining that it takes forever for TC figs to produce, or that they never do, or that you can take a cutting from one and the cutting will produce before the original tree. Another thing people complain about with TC plants is that they are tiny. They start out as a few cells. I have bought TC muscadines and the vines were about the size of a matchstick and the roots were in a bag with much less potting medium than a sandwich bag would hold. But they caught up with the same variety purchased at the same time in half gallon pots within 3 months. I have no reason to believe my fig trees are virus free, so I'm not worried about it. But if I was starting out, I would have nothing but TC plants guaranteed to be virus free.

I haven't looked on this website for a long time. It was interesting when everyone was remodeling or building. Then somehow the posts changed and were less interesting and some got nasty and personal. I think that many of us have gone on to other forums and social networks that are more rewarding. Dave was always so informative and helpful. I also think these forums would have been a real success if it was easier to upload photos. Also one of the things that hurt it was the tech problems where it took forever to load. We have a T-1 and it should not have taken long.