Where was it during the day? Back outside...but in sun?

Was there a compelling reason to transplant this fig at this point in the season?

Transplants should be sheltered/protected from direct sun and wind for a couple weeks.
Basically, your plant's roots need to come back "online" before it'll begin taking up moisture.
The more stable the plant is in the pot, the sooner the roots will re-establish themselves in the mix.

Josh

Figs are very easy to transplant and even start directly in the ground from cuttings.

Just keep it out of direct sun as mentioned for awhile. After a week or two you can put it in the sun, if it still wilts just put it back into shade.

Even in the leaves fall off, the fig will still grow new ones. I've started figs directly in the ground from cuttings, they lose their leave, but if watered well, resprout.

You will need to water every day in gritty mix, especially once the fig gets bigger.

thanks for the help, guys.

josh - i transplanted it as a test (i have about 5 other figs to transplant). they all live outside right now but will be brought inside to overwinter and i thought that it would be an opportune time to transplant to the gritty mix.

im happy to report that it perked right back up after the thoroughly watering. maybe i'll just plan on keeping the newly transplanted figs indoors until next spring after i move them to the gritty mix.

Yes, be sure not to let it dry out during winter either.

Once the roots start to fill the container, you will find that watering will become less frequent. Do not forget to feed regularly once it perks up for figs are heavy eaters!

The best time to replant fig is when they are about to break dormancy in my case.

Mike

You can not over water the gritty mix. The amount of leaf surface on your fig compared to the amount of feeder roots will cause them to work hard to keep up with the transpiration. Your tree was obviously well fed in the previous mix, but you are starting over with a mix containing NO plant nutrients. I would water well daily with a weak fertilizer in all the water,at least for the next month. I also would keep it outdoors in a partially shady area. Al

Hello again,

Unfortunately, I'm finding it necessary to re-post to this thread I began last year. I recently transplanted a 3ft avocado tree to the gritty mix and it is stressing out. Unlike my little fig (which is doing great, by the way), the avocado has not perked up at all with daily waterings. It is being kept out of direct sunlight, but it has gotten progressively worse since the transplant about a week ago. The leaves haven't started falling off yet, but I think they will any day now. They're already becoming dry and curling up.

Should I be worrying? Even if all the leaves fall off, will it eventually come back strong?

I'm attaching a pic to show how sad it looks. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

{{gwi:48913}}

The fig you had trouble with was repotted while it was in leaf, which is always going to be stressful. There is no way to determine how you went about repotting the avocodo w/o you telling us, so no one can determine what might have gone wrong. Did you keep the roots wet while you worked? cut pie-shaped wedges out of the root mass? fertilize right after the repot? remove a very large fraction of the roots?

Sometimes, it's necessary to remove some of the foliage when trees are in leaf if you suspect the roots remaining after the repot might be inadequate in supplying the canopy with the water it needs. Resist the urge to water as soon as you see the top of the soil drying out. There is little water loss from the soil because of the condition of the plant and the glazed container, so I seriously doubt if you'd need to water more than weekly until growth resumes. Whether or not the plant responds depends on how well it was growing before the work. It looks like it was doing well, so it should be OK. I can tell you though, that you need to change something in your methodology to prevent this type of reaction in your plants. A little wilting and pouting is to be expected for a week or two, but not to the degree you're seeing with the avocado.

Al

I did keep the roots wet while I worked out the loose soil, and then I took off about 1/3 of the roots starting at the bottom. I didn't fertilize right after the re-pot, but I have fertilized once, weakly, since.

The plant was growing excellently before the re-pot, so I assumed it would bounce back no problem. No such luck.

So, to clarify, I should possibly remove some of the foliage and stop watering daily?

Many thanks!

I've transplanted a total of one not-at-all-succulent plant (Ribes sanguineum Koja, flowering currant) from garden centre soil to a gritty mix, but I didn't have any problems with it wilting. Apart from keeping the roots wet during the bare-rooting process, I kept it indoors in a coolish room (~17C) with a plastic bag loosely draped over the foliage for a couple of days. The pot was also standing in water and had some heavy rocks on the surface to clamp the roots down some and keep them still in case of accidental jostling. It grew a bit bendy from the slight weight of the bag and dropped most of the forming berries, but the leaves themselves were unaffected.

There was also a Vietnamese Coriander a couple of years back that I transferred into a 5-1-1 (ish) mix, and that one did lose all its leaves because I absentmindedly put it back outside where it was. It survived though. They're pretty aggressive when it comes to putting out new shoots.

I lost an avocado I transplanted to gritty mix, most likely because I was too aggressive with root pruning. I kept it in shade and may have watered too much. In the long thread about avocados as houseplants, Josh (greenman) talked about how sensitive they are to transplanting. I've put at least 25-30 different kinds of plants in gritty mix with great success, so I don't blame the mix.

yeah, it must be the sensitivity of avocados in general since i took good care not to overly stress the plant during the transfer. oh well, i can always grow another on from the many avocados we consume in our house. and hey, it still might come back. keeping my fingers crossed.

With the amount of foliage on your avocado and the unavoidable loss of feeder roots during the transplant, the wilting was impossible to avoid. The only way you could have eased, NOT ELIMINATED, the problem would have been to remove, probably 50% of the existing foliage. It take a while(and a few mistakes)to get a feel for how much foliage can be supported when the roots have been compromised. Al