You can grow it in 5 Gal Bucket and it can fruit just fine if you make bottom side holes,for draining,and you bury the container about 3 inches,so the roots grow into the soil and feed from there not only from container.
in the Fall you cut the roots around and put the tree in the shelter.
Come Spring make new Holes,or take tree out and set it in new position so holes are free of roots again,and you start again.
This is the only way the fig tree will fruit and ripe properly in a 5 Gallon container.
Any edible cultivar will grow this way,as for which one ,just search the Forum and see what you like.

They'll grow fine in a 5 gallon container. You just have to water every day and accept a small plant. No plant gets very big in that small of a container. I've got all sorts of fruits in containers that small.

Here's a Paradiso in a 5 gallon pot with 21 nice big figs.

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thanks. anyone have experience with petite negri? also, would ripening be an issue? would you have enough heat indoors late september/october for them to fully ripen?

It would really help if you'd tell us where you are. Assuming zone 5 you need to be more concerned about maturity than plant size. Get the varieties that the northern growers are using. You need early maturing figs.

They will all fit in a small pot and not get too big. I've probably got a hundred fruit trees of all kinds many on standard rootstock and they all will fruit in a 5 gal pot. Figs are better suited for small pots than most fruits.

As to whether they will mature inside in fall that is more dependent on light than temperature. If you have a sunny spot indoors they will mature.

I do not agree with fruit nut.Even in 5 gallon container
fig tree can get very large.I have some in 3 gallon container and the trees are large and very productive.
I water my figs anywhere from once a day to tree times a day if is a very hot day ,and cut down on watering when figs are ready to ripen,also fertilize them regularly and
never rootproon them.Herman way is good,mine is a litle different.I do not bury my containers ,and the results are still good.Ciao,
Giuseppe

Giuseppe:You do not bury your container but do let the roots to come out the holes and get in the outside soil.
Isn't it so
I think if one cut out the grass under the container and make enough holes in the Bottom,the tree roots will find the way down into the soil very fast in Spring and save my back from digging a hole,?
Is it?

Vasile,
I do not bury my containers anymore and yes the roots come out from the bottom holes and get into the soil fast.I also have
holes on the sides of the containers close to the ground to help keeping the roots kool.It really works for me.Ciao,
Giuseppe

Figs and other trees will get large in 5 gallon containers if allowed to root into the ground. But then they aren't really in a 5 gallon container are they.

For me watering more than once a day just isn't a schedule that works. No tree will get very big in a 5 gallon container watered once a day in hot weather. It can't, there isn't enough water to allow it to get very big.

They can and will get bigger than my fig above. They just don't get out of hand. But don't confuse smallish with lack of production. They can be very productive for their size.

For the original poster I say try them in the small pots you seem interested in. It can certainly work. At the worst you pot up or allow rooting into the soil in summer. That will allow a pretty big tree.

fruitnut,
all my fig trees are in containers and the roots are allowed to go into the ground,that is the reason why some of my trees are over seven feet tall,and I have to pinch them occosionally to keep them under controll.I also use grass
clippings to controll the weeds in the containers.Ciao,
Giuseppe

Thanks Giuseppe:I am going to grow my Desert King your way,next Spring,I think is better for me with My back surgery,as it is very painful to do any digging.
Your Method makes sense,for people like me.