It's not looking good. I had watered a few weeks ago when I first took it out and now the soil was dry so I watered it a bit more. Each morning I look at it and it looks like it has spider web threads. It's not a web but it has very light strands on it and I take them off but the next day new ones are back. I don't know what that means. I had been told by a local nursery not to feed because it would stress it..

To my mind, shipping a 4' leafed out fig tree nearly bare root (which is what it sounds like you're describing) is pretty lousy. While soaking might have helped, I really don't think you're at fault here, and, if the tree doesn't survive, I think you have good grounds to demand a refund or replacement. Nonetheless, figs are pretty resilient, so it's likely that it will bounce back. In the meantime, though, it's possible that it will drop most if not all of the existing leaves. While it attempts to recuperate, keeping it in partial shade is probably a good idea. Be sure to keep the soil evenly moist (but not waterlogged), and definitely don't fertilize it. If you decide to buy more trees in the future, I'd steer clear of Willis. From what I've read, they have a spotty reputation, and there are a lot of good alternatives. Also, figs grow very fast when provided with the right conditions, so there's no need to pay for large trees in my opinion. In fact, smaller trees with a better shoot to root ratio will probably grow faster than a big tree that's poorly balanced.

floral_uk, even I, an experienced garden didn't appreciate how dry a soil mix can be. I took a seed starting work shop this past spring and was surprised at how much water the instructor added to the mix. A lot of us keep learning as we go along, hopefully improving our techniques. I had to read a suggestion to mulch my garlic bed with straw to prevent most weeds from growing. It was a great improvement to my garlic bed and also preserved moisture. I also attended a tomato growing workshop which a friend declined attending because she "already knew how to grow a tomato". Some of us learn by making mistakes. It's unfortunate that Ryan dug up those plants and hadn't added enough water to the soil mix but hopefully he'll keep reading garden forums and learning. It was a big help to me that when I started vegetable gardening, Boston tv was starting the Crockett's Victory Garden series. I also bought the book and other garden books. Happily, the month by month guide for the garden is applicable to my zone here in NH.

Trees don't die from a "normal" fertilizer application! Provided you didn't apply 10 times the number of spikes suggested, that wasn't the cause of your tree's distress and it would be unlikely for it to happen so rapidly even if it was. Re: fertilizer 'spikes'.......next to spraying the foliage, about the most ineffective method of fertilizing to come down the pike! Convenient for the gardener but of minimal benefit to the plant being fertilized. Trees access soil nutrients via a web of fine feeder roots located just under the soil surface. But these spread out over a wide distance from the base of the tree in a roughly circular pattern. Concentrating a delivery of nutrients via a fertilizer spike in just 2 or 3 locations means 95% of these feeder roots are not able to access and most of the product will go to waste. You don't need to throw the spikes out.....just grind or break them into a coarse powder and apply as you would a typical granular fert, on the soil surface around the dripline and water into the soil. Just as with any other plant, if the necessary soil nutrients are not available, a tree will benefit from a fertilizer application. But most plants in reasonably fertile soil will not require much and trees generally demand less, just by virtue of that big, spreading root system. If a tree's performance is poor, with slow or stunted growth and an off color, then get a soil test first to determine what nutrients are lacking and then address that need.