Drew, I'm sorry, I did accidentally (subconsciously on purpose, probably) exaggerate, but the guide doesn't recommend spray after pruning. However, upon further reading, I've found that your information is correct and copper spray is widely recommended after pruning even though it isn't very affective- but enough so to be worth doing according to current Cornell and other guidelines. I stand corrected and thank you for bringing this to my attention. After reading all this material about cherry canker I am somewhat surprised that my careless timing of pruning has never led to any outbreaks of this infection over the last 25 years. Cherries are a minority species in orchards I manage and I am very busy doing non-pruning work in the first couple weeks after trees come out of dormancy. It would be expensive to come back to prune only cherries and peaches at many of the smaller orchards I manage. I recently started managing cherries with summer pruning anyway- but only to better manage fruiting wood. I will now pay more attention to weather forecasts before performing this kind of pruning. I will wait until I actually see some cherry canker somewhere before I start spraying after pruning. I have to keep customer expenses down. If you hadn't posted about it I wouldn't think about cherry canker much at all. Thanks again.

Best time to repot F carica is in the spring immediately before or at the onset of budswell. They can be repotted after leaves fall if roots are fully protected from freezing temperatures. A full repot is inherently damaging because you will be removing 1/3-2/3 of the plant's root mass. If you're asking if it will irreparably damage the tree, the best answer is probably not, but it is much easier on the tree if you time repotting as herein described. If you're conflating repotting as potting up (a pot size), the answer is, potting up can be undertaken any time of year, so long as aftercare is appropriate. Potting up in the winter is somewhat concerning because the new soil volume will be recolonized by roots slowly, which means any soil saturation will tend to be a limiting factor for a longer period of time than if the plant was potted up while in active growth phase. Potting up is a half measure which ensures the limitations of root congestion are always in play, and these limitations can be immense as the congestion eventually reaches lethal levels. It would be helpful if we knew where you live. Al

Quick return to this thread (I'm trying to get in a flurry of replies, been short on time): Al, you said As far as root-pruning goes, you will likely only undertake it every 3-4 years. Those plants that you have buried will be easy. Depot, saw the bottom 1/3 - 1/2 of the roots off, clean the roots & prune the fat ones. Then - right back in same container. You will likely see a diminished crop in years that you root-prune, but subsequent crops should be greater as a result of improved vitality. Does this mean, though, that as Herman had mentioned, whenever I root-prune yearly to unclog the bottom of the container, that I'll have a diminished crop from the pruning? it didn't sound like that was everyone's experience necessarily, so I want to understand the relationship between the degree of pruning and the lack of productivity, when it sounds like it might be the inverse from some of Herman's recommends. Also, with my figs being so young, I'll just mention that I don't need a saw, only a scissors to prune them at this point! (on a tangential note, I ended up pruning more than roots last night, when de-potting one of my figs: I found a rather large, slightly-slumbering arachnid of a copper-red shade lurking in the roots as I untangled them with my fingers - ICK! the scissors came in handy, rapidly, and now shredded spider parts are a component of that last batch of soil 8-p ) Again, from Al: With regard to your soil choice: A plant that is grown in a container that is not in contact with the soil will benefit more from the gritty mix than those you sink, container & all, in the ground. The reason is simple: there will be no perched water table in the containers that are in the ground. The surrounding soil will act as a giant wick & drain the water. So are you saying that ones being sunk into the dirt will have more wicking action and need a *more* moisture-retentive soil mix used? and that the ones above ground will need the better aeration qualities to avoid a PWC making the bottom portion of the container too soggy for roots to colonize effectively? just trying to clarify my understanding (I do appreciate having grasped the entire PWC concept, that's helped me strategize how I re-pot and mix my soil combos). And a flag to Herman, I don't know if you saw my query? (see above in the thread): Herman, do you trim your container figs to any particular size or shape? (Some of mine were pruned to single stem by the nursery; some seem to grow upright with less branching as a natural habit, others want to branch a *lot*.) I have quite a few single-stem cuttings that are little (24" or less) and have hardly any branchings - I don't want to pinch out the top growing tip on these this spring to make them branch, do I? this is an area I'm not familiar with, is how to prune and *when*, to encourage the fruit. I checked the archives in this forum and saw things about pinching back growing tips, but how big do you let the figs get first before touching them? Thanks for help, everyone! (still looking for Leon to chime back in about his grandfather's fig and any pruning that might've been done when unearthing it in the spring) Sherry (counting down with 15+ figs to re-pot)

Once the roots/soil mass of a plant become congested beyond the point where the entire plant can be lifted from the container with roots and soil intact, the growth rate is reduced. It continues to become reduced as the plant becomes more congested. What the man in the video did wasn't really root-pruning and a full repot, it was much, much closer to simply potting up. Repotting, which usually includes bare-rooting, and potting up are distinctly different. Repotting ensures your plant will have at least the opportunity to grow to it's genetic potential within the limits of other cultural factors, but potting up ensures it cannot. When a plant becomes as horribly root-bound as the one in the clip, it's growth would have been negatively affected for a number of years prior, and will remain permanently affected until the condition is corrected. What the man in the video did to the tree, did not correct the problem. He returned the tree to a pot in sad shape and the tree will suffer for it. Trees that are only potted up are in continual decline, even in spite of what you the grower might look at as a growth spurt after you pot up. What you as a grower look at as a growth spurt is no spurt at all, it is only a plant suffering from depressed growth, returning to a growth rate a little closer to its genetic potential. Here is what really happens and how repotting vs potting up works: Imagine that plants can grow with a vitality level of 0-10, with 0 being a dead plant. We'll say that the best we can achieve in containers is a level of 9, for the sake of illustration. Over time, say 2-3 years, soils collapse and roots get congested, which negatively affects vitality levels. Let's say that over 3 years our plants decline to a vitality level of 5. When you bare root your plants and do a full repot, removing about half of the roots and concentrating on the larger roots, you can return your plant to a vitality level of 9, and you can do it indefinitely - every time you repot; but if you only pot up, you cannot return the plant to a vitality level of 9 - perhaps only 8 is attainable at first. Then, while both plants are again in decline over the same period, the plant that was potted up might slip to a vitality level of 4 while the repotted plant only slips to its usual 5. Potting up again only restores the potted up plant to a vitality level of 7. The plant slides again to a level of 3, and potting up restores it to 6. Then 2 restored to 5, then 1 restored to 4. This steady decline may not occur after potting up only 4-5 times, but the illustration is what actually occurs to containerized plants that are only potted up. The reason bonsai plants can remain at the peak of health for hundreds of years in tiny containers and be passed from generation to generation is primarily due to the fact they are always root-pruned and repotted and not potted up. Al