Cecil,

My guess is it is too hot for the roots to effectively take up nutrients. You might want to try putting them into some sort of shallow container (with drain holes) and surround the containers with mulch. When you water, water inside the containers and the surrounding mulch.

They should start putting on good growth towards the end of September.

~james

Thanks James

I need to do something with them.

Cecil

Cecil:
James has a good point about the heat. Those black plastic pots can get pretty hot in the sun. I often place my small plants in a location where they receive just morning sun and end up in shade during the hot afternoon.

I also fertilze my potted figs every 7-10 days with liquid Schultz 10-15-10 Plus (with micronutrients) and have noticed an obvious growth spurt with fig trees about the size and age of yours' in the photo.

Most often, it's patience and time. Eventually when conditions are right, they start to grow without any explanation at all. I have lost a lot of good plants by trying to speed up the process.

Thanks Leon
The Boss is going to town tomorrow for a mini shopping spree, I will ask her to get the Schultz for me.

Again, Thanks
Cecil

Hi Cecil:
It's worth the try. The Schultz is inexpensive and goes a long way. My small potted trees seemed to be going nowhere and appeared sickly. So I decided to supply some micros to them. They not only put out more growth but the color of the leaves improved as well.
What you need to do first is water your pots well THEN no less than an hour later, apply the liquid plant food.
For the Schultz, the instructions recommend mixing 7 drops to a quart of water. One dropperful equals about 14 drops more or less. So I add 1 dropperful to a half gallon, or 2 dropperfuls per gallon, etc. I drench the pots pretty good with this mixture with the intent of soaking the root ball thoroughly, even though the pot has already been watered.
I hope this helps to explain how I do this. Of coarse you will hear many other variations of fertilizing. Schultz works better for me (maybe its the micros), while Miracle-Gro works well for others. I used to use MG but see better results with the Schultz.

This is a re-post of my comment from the thread on pine bark mulch. I don't know just how hot it has been in E.TX, but if the temps are anywhere between 90 and 100, your plants are too living too warm to convert nutrients to energy. This is how I lower the soil temp without having to move my plants into shade:

I use pine bark almost exclusively for my figs. It's lighter and airier than many bagged mulches, so it's better at regulating soil temperature, as well. I prefer the "mini-nuggets". My figs seem to love it, both in-ground and in pots. Do check that the "pine bark" you buy is mostly PINE BARK. Some of it contains oak, pine or cypress shavings, as well. I would warn that pine bark is slightly acidic, so as it breaks down to compost you can either replace it, or add a bit of lime to the soil. One caveat: my figs tend to root into that nice airy mulch, especially in humid weather. If you leave your figs in-ground for the winter, provide extra mulch on the root zone to protect any surface roots.

***One other use I have for pine bark is for double potting. I have a couple of figs in a very hot full-sun, concreted area; and to prevent cooking the roots, I place the potted fig in a larger plain, unglazed CLAY pot (two sizes bigger, at least), fill the gap between the the two pots with pine bark, and water the bark well. The evaporation from the nuggets and clay pot cools the root zone by several degrees, without keeping the fig roots too wet. The figs will root into the pine bark if left alone, but I just turn the inner pot every few days and it solves that problem. Of course, this means using large, heavy, EXPENSIVE pots, but it's worth it for the way my figs are growing!***

***I checked yesterday (6-28-09) when the air temp here was 93. The soil temp in my double-potted figs was 81 on the shady side, 83 on the sunny side, in full sun, at 4pm.***

Hi Leon,

I am going to try your method with the Schultz Plus
and I really appreciate the very clear instructions (Lord knows I need that kind)Stay cool out there in "The Land of Enchantment)

Now to the thanks to fig_insanity

Ditto to you what I just said to Leon.

We DO appreciate everyone.

Best Regards
Cecil

Cecil
I hope that these figs will remember your tender loving care and putting efforts to find out how to care for them and hopefully reward you with a lot of tasty fruit.

Thanks Ottawan,

I am in the process of using the Shultz on my one and only Hardy Chicago (thanks Martin)......Time will tell, the darn heat down here has been around 103/04 for a good while, we are having a cool spell now, only supposed to hit 97 today
Best regards
Cecil