James, Like Glenn said, it sounds like you have the idea. However, you mentioned doing the air layer at the "base" of the limb. I would suggest moving up higher...say about where the other branching of your tree takes place. I'm guessing if the branch is 3" at the base it's probably more like 2" or slightly less at the point I'm talking about. Also, 3 or 5 gal. pots are bigger than you need for this, and I would think they would be very difficult to manage as far as keeping them stable while the rooting takes place. I would think a 6" or so pot deep enough to allow enough soil to cover a couple of nodes on the branch would be fine. You want to be able to keep the pot stationary. You don't want roots to start to develop, have a rain that adds weight to the pot/soil, and have the pot start slipping down the branch thereby damaging the developing roots. As someone mentioned, don't be in a hurry to cut it. Two weeks is at the short end of the time necessary. You will begin to see white roots sticking up from the soil in the pot. My experience has been the stronger you allow the root mass to develop before cutting the airlayer the more vigorously the new plant commences growth. The thread fignut referred you to was my post earlier this year. When I cut it this airlayer consisted of a 14" plant with two branches (each less than 1/2" in diameter). Today, a little over 4 mos. later this plant has 3 new branches it grew out from the base (total of 5 main branches now). Two of these new branches are 5/8" in diameter, and one is over 3 ft. tall. Last week I had to pick off around a dozen or more new figs it popped out (too late to ripen). Bottom line: this is one healthy, thriving plant today and will no doubt produce a good crop of figs next year (it's first full year). Later today I'll try to get a good picture of this plant and post it. In contrast I have several other airlayers I did around the same time that I was somewhat overanxious to cut. I saw some roots, figured it was enough, and cut/potted the airlayers. One of these was from the same mother tree as the one I've been discussing. These plants are healthy and doing OK. If I didn't have this other one to compare them to I'd probably think they were a complete success, but I know better. My long, drawn out point: don't rush to cut your airlayer. If you cut and pot it with a really good root mass it will most likely take off like a weed. I'm assuming you will do this in the spring after your tree has leafed out. One other thing that I was a little hardheaded about learning is this: when you cut and pot the airlayer it is best to remove almost ALL the leaves. I was told to only leave a couple leaves at the very end - at the distal buds. When I followed these instructions the new plant invariably sprouted new branches and good healthy new growth from the existing distal buds. However, when I decided to see what heppened when I left more leaves on the airlayer than I'd been told to, the new plants did not produce nearly as much new growth - in some cases almost zero new growth. I guess the plant needs to be forced into producing new growth, and removing the leaves does this. Otherwise, too much of the new plant's energy is devoted to sustaining the existing leaves. Note: Al and others who really know what they are talking about please clarify/correct if my layman's explanation is in conflict with actual fact :) Good luck James. One last word of warning: this stuff can be habit forming. I started this year with 8 potted fig trees. Not counting rooted cuttings I now have around 60 - with more en route soon :) Henry

everett58... Personally, I would wait for the warmer, spring weather. Up in Rhode Island, you might get some die-back, and you could then prune away the frost-damaged wood. Also, when weather warms up and fig trees sprout all the new growth, you could air-layer the branches that you want to eliminate, and start new trees, and also start some green-wood cuttings for rooting. Just a some thoughts. You now have some options. Once wood is cut away, you don't. Frank

As a bonsai judge, I know a little about what to do to bring out the potential in the tree's shape. Technically, the bifurcations (forks) appear too high on the trunk for the tree to be an ideal multi-trunk specimen, which means you would need to reduce the tree to a single trunkline to get the best from the tree. No big deal if that's not something you want to do because you're not looking for a prize, just a more presentable tree. You might have made an error if you pruned out the center of the tree, which it looks like you did in the picture. The stem closest to the center, determined by an imaginary vertical line upward from where the trunk enters the soil, would be the logical leader. At this point, you should decide if you want it to be a single trunk (you'd need to remove 3 trunks) or a multi-trunked plant. As an option, you could fairly easily air layer off the top of the tree just below where the trunks all split. If you're going to leave it all tied up until the trunks are set in place, you need to reduce the ht of all the trunks to different hts. Generally, trees look better with 1, 2, 3, 5, or 7 trunks. 4 is not usually used, so I would remove 1 trunk, then shorten the other 3 so the thickest trunk is tallest, the thinnest trunk is 1/2 the ht of the tallest, and the trunk with medium thickness is 2/3 the ht of the tallest. What do you think? Al

Yes! I truly can! Thank you for the quick reply. I can see that in the first picture the tree is very lanky and think and the next picture the tree is full. It makes a lot of sense that pruning is so very important in the beginning stages of fig trees because all the fig trees I saw at the big chain garden stores were very lanky and some of the trunks were even shooting straight out to the side! With my lanky BT I plan to leave it be until it goes dormant in the winter and then cut it back to half of it's size. Unless of course it is safe and better to prune it now? With my biggest fig tree I got the other day, I wanted to re-pot the plant but was afraid it was going to drop its fruit if I disturbed the plant to much. When I re-pot I bare root the tree and replace all the old soil with new soil. I could always just pot-up the plant and move it to a bigger container. It is currently in a 5gal. container and I think 10-15gal would be a nice size for now to go up too. Which brings me to another question...soil. Currently I have my lanky BT and baby Celeste in a 2:1:1 mixture of pine bark, perlite and compost. When I told the lady the other day at the nursery my mixture she seems concerned that my mixture was to sterile. She told me that fig trees needs to be in a raised bed potting mix. Basically lots of compost, with vermiculite and peat moss. I wanted a very airy soil because everything I have read on ficus trees tells me they love well drained soil. I also love that I can water my trees in the heat of the day (currently in Texas today it was up to 90 degrees in March). I guess my question to you is what do you plant your trees in? I know everyones answer will be different because we all live in different areas and water differently. Is my mixture too sterile? Or are fig trees truly that awesome that they can thrive in ANY media we put them in?