I know little about gardening and plants.

This 2-3 year old fig tree lives outdoors in North Carolina in full sun. About a month ago its leaves started turning yellow and falling off. I don't water it.

After winter it grew lots of nice leaves. In April they all get eaten by an animal, e.g. deer maybe? Then by June all new healthy leaves came back and it seemed to be doing really great. Now in August it looks like this picture.

How do I save this fig tree? What could be the issue here?

How do I save this fig tree? Same way you would save a pet whose essential needs are not being met. When you ask a plant to live in a pot, you normally accept the obligation to provide for its well being by ensuring the conditions you've asked it to tolerate are not outside of the parameters Mother Nature programmed it to deal with. At all times, the plant needs enough but not too much of each nutrient, water, and sun. It needs room in the grow medium to support new root growth and temperature/ humidity levels that allow the plant to prosper and complete its normal processes and cycles. There isn't enough information to determine what exactly is at issue, but a good starting point would be to examine your watering and fertilizing practices to ensure they are appropriate. Too, if the roots haven't run thorough the drain hole(s) and into the soil below, root congestion (being rootbound) after a 2-3 year stay in the same pot would be of considerable concern to the tree's ability to function efficiently.
Al

I will check on the rootbound concern. Thanks!

Regarding the fertilizer and watering practices, what I'm trying to communicate is I do nothing. I'm here because I want to do something. What should I do? This is day-0 on my gardening journey. I know nothing. Someone gave me this plant. Feel free to link me to things I should read.

Thanks in advance!

First, Check to see if it needs water.

I agree, it totally needs repotting. If I may suggest: place some netting over it (even if just at night) to keep stupid deer from knibbling the leaves. Or spray with hot pepper spray.
Our fig trees here in Texas are grown in-ground and are huge.
Also are you not watering because you're getting rain? If you're having drought and aren't watering, the tree may already be entering its winter dormancy to save itself.
I wish you the best of success, a fig tree is nice to have!

You posted that you don't water it.
Why is that?
Figs are a very thirsty plant. Also looks like the pot is quite small. What you have is a tree.
Either a much larger pot, or, ideally, in the ground. In my humble opinion.

Thanks for all the replies. I'm going to try to repot it tomorrow. I will also start watering it. How frequently and how much? Feel free to point me to something to read of reasonable length.

I don't water it because I'm naive. I realize now what I'm about to say is wrong. To my non-gardener, naive brain, it rains and all the trees around me grow outside happily on that. Today I learned: Water the fig tree. Got it! Remember I'm a day-0 gardener, but soon to be day one!

Suggest that you look at our database for Fig. Figs (Ficus carica)
Click the link, and you can read a bit about it.
The one you pictured reminds me of the one I have, which is the Brown Turkey, but the link will take you to the "generic" Fig entry.
Good luck! And good eating, once you achieve the desired growing conditions.

Thanks! What's funny is I actually looked at that before posting and I misunderstood when it said "Drought tolerant" to mean "I don't need to water it more than rain". lol that's not what that means!

Anyone have a fertilizer recommendation? I've never fertilized it with ... anything. I don't intend to overdo it with fertilizer, but I think it's probably more or less starving right?

Go out and stick your finger into the dirt of the pot as far as you can. Wet? Dry? Soggy?

The good news is your tree is not starving to death. Fertilize it twice a year using a balanced fertilizer at half strength. If you repot, skip fertilizer until next spring.

Hi & welcome to the site! And to gardening!

Your story includes surviving winter. Was it outside in the pot the whole time? If yes, then it's safe to declare that it is "hardy" - meaning that it can handle the local conditions as a permanent ground plant.

Adding water to a potted plant often can get to be a real drag, even if you enjoy it most of the time. An easier care regime, if the opportunity exists, would be to dig a hole and put it in the ground. Somewhere where it won't have "weed'n'feed" applied nearby.

Has it been sitting in the same place for more than a few weeks? If so, as mentioned, the roots might be established in the ground below. You can chop it loose by shoveling horizontally under the pot.

When you lift it out of the pot, if not too rooted into the ground, if the roots look like a pile of snakes, it may need some root pruning. Take a pic if you find that and add it here to get some specific suggestions.

It's a super hot time to be messing with it. I would wait until its not so hot to do much more than water for now.

Know that cutting into any part of it will release latex sap, which causes a rash like poison ivy if your skin is sensitive to that. If you're not sure, you don't want to find out the hard way. Wear gloves, sleeves, and wearing eye protection is not taking things too far. Getting a squirt in the eye sends people to the ER. If you do get some on your skin, wash it off with cool water and soap right away and that should prevent rash.

First, check to see if you can lift the pot from where it is now. If the roots have run into the ground, that fact might be what allows you to be asking questions about a currently viable plant and not a dead one. Now is not the time to repot a hardy fig, nor should you remove it from the pot and simply plant it. If the roots won't be subjected to freezing temperatures, you can repot in fall after the leaves fall or you can wait until spring to repot; just make sure the job is completed before leaves start opening.

If you choose to plant it out, it would be best to do it in spring because You'll need to bare-root the plant and correct what will certainly be a myriad of problem roots. Roots that encircle the root mass, girdling roots, crossing roots, roots growing straight up or down, and roots that are j-hooked or growing back toward the center of the root mass should all be corrected whether you repot or plant out. If you avoid that important step, the root issues will very likely come back to haunt you by jeopardizing the plant's future viability.

If the roots run into the ground, you probably don't need to fertilize at this point. If they don't, you should fertilize and continue to fertilize about every 3rd or 4th time you water until the plant goes dormant. Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 would be an appropriate choice if you intend to keep it in a pot. Unfortunately, no one can provide meaningful advice for fertilizing a tree planted out (in the landscape) unless they are working from a soil test analysis; this, because what is essential to add is determined by what is already available.

Al

Agree with all the others who have helped....
Potted figs seem to cast off leaves frequently, and I'm in the exact zone as you are, and have one in the ground. Mine is a 'chicago hardy' and it is hardy in zone 7, in a protected spot near a fence, and drought tolerant. Its 12+ years old, and about 8 feet tall and just as wide. And, very productive.



If you don't know the type of fig, yours may not be hardy in your area.
But, yeah... I've made lots of cuttings, and many have leaves like yours right now.



Are they pot-bound? Sure!
Here's the proof!




They all need to be up-potted into bigger pots. Figs have really robust roots. I root-trim them a little when I pot if they look like this, and try to spread out the roots in the bigger pot. Sometimes I cheat, and just do the root-trimming and slip it back in the same pot- but it's a non-judgmental thread here, right? (and I've got extras if one succumbs- you don't.)

Winterizing. It's getting late in the summer for fertilizing if it will be going dormant. You could fertilize now lightly, but don't wait any longer. The plant needs to start winding down it's growth to prepare for dormancy. I start to lesson the water as well. If you'll be growing it indoors, that fertilizer timing may not matter.

If trying to leave it outside, remember that it won't be as hardy in a pot as in the ground. I let my potted figs get the first few frosts, and then give them a few more weeks outside- which will strip all the leaves and bring them into 'soft' dormancy. Before the real winter hits, which would be hard dormancy (or maybe death,) I take the pot into an unheated garage to over-winter without light or water.

The in-ground fig gets no protection.

Good luck with that fig!

And, wear gloves!

and

I live in fig country - no need to plant them as theey groww wild everywhere. I have 'tamed' a few though. Figs need very little fertilizer. If you fertilize more than twice a year, its too much. Pot size doesn't matter. I had one (until recently) in a 2 gallon pot for about 15 years. Never repotted and never fertilized. I barely took care of it (care was adrpper to its pot) and it thrived. They do better with regular water but keep them on the dryer side of wet.

The size of the pot chosen doesn't ALWAYS affect a plant's potential initially (as appropriate pot size is primarily a function of soil choice), but it has a huge impact eventually. Figs in the ground might need very little fertilizer, but figs in pots are voracious feeders and need regular fertilizing if they're to be at their best.

I'm intimately familiar with the increasingly negative effects of progressive root congestion, and equally familiar with how a lack of adequate nutrition affects a plant's opportunity to realize as much of its genetic potential as possible. This allows me to say that no tree restricted to a 2 gallon pot and grown under conventional container culture could be said to be thriving for even 5 years, let alone 15 yrs, and it further defies reason to suggest it might have remained a thriving tree in spite of it having rec'd no nutritional supplementation.

The term "thriving", when used to describe a plant's state of vitality, means the plant is relatively free of stress and is growing at or near it's genetic potential. This isn't just an abstract idea, it's the reason behind why nursery ops regularly pot up plants, preferably before the soil/root mass an be lifted from the pot intact. Nursery plants are too often potted up after roots have reached a stage of root congestion where the planting should be culled (soil/root mass can be lifted from the pot intact) because it represents a problem tree if planted out.

Trees regularly fail even when planted out in the landscape because most growers are still unaware of how important rootwork is to ANY tree planted out and to all trees grown under conventional container culture, long term.

Al

I should clarify... I lost the little fig in a pot this last winter when a massive oak fell on it. I have started a few more replacements though.

Thank you to all the thoughtful replies. Not only am I excited to do all the suggestions you've given here, but to also join this community as I go on my new gardening journey. I'm watering it and giving it just a little fertilizer and then I'll wind down the watering towards winter to prepare it. Please redirect me if I've misunderstood the general suggestions.

Then in the sprint I'll either repot it into a bigger pot or plant it in the ground. Is that the time to do that along with root trimming (if that's the term)? We may end up moving is my motivation to not just put it into the ground now.

If you are planning to eventually put it in the ground, I wouldn't root prune. That is good advice for permanently potted trees.

Root systems of trees, whether in nursery cans or balled and burlapped should always be checked and correction of problem roots undertaken before planting out. Here are a couple of reasons why:

Do you think the tree above, straight from a nursery can, has much chance of surviving if planted out in the landscape. Of course it doesn't, and it's long term chance for survival in a pot is shot if root issues aren't corrected.

This is how it would look after a few years in the landscape,

dead as a door nail.

Here, Linda Chalker-Scott, PhD, discusses the importance of tending to roots before trees are planted out: https://gardenprofessors.com/w...

Al