bump

I'd not have fertilized and kept in bright shade with no direct sun for a few days after transplanting.

Sometimes they fail, you changed soil type and location, 2 hits, I guess too much. They may recover but it will be hard to tell for a couple weeks. it will take that long. I would keep them under plant lights till recovery and keep them in the shade, outside once recovered. Slowly expose them to more direct light each day. At least one week in shade then increase exposure to direct sun.
Figs seem to root easily, but don't always establish well. Once a good root structure forms, and they are used to environment, they seem to take off. I lost a couple as I rooted in a humid environment, and the shock of the dry air killed them. I had to ween them off high humidity. Currently I have 6 plants and don't need anymore. They are in all stages from just rooted to established. Once established man they grow quickly!
I'm far from an expert. I'm learning myself. Go to the figs forum and ask, or the other fig forum not part of houzz, for expert advice.

Thanks everyone. Thanks Drew - I will keep them under the plant lights. After a week I notice there is still some green on them although for a couple not much - all the stems are still hard - haven't become mushy so I am cautiously optimistic. I hope I don't lose them. I spent a lot of mornings in February on getting up daily at 4 am to water them while they were in the perlite/vermiculite.

One further question I have which relates to the partial reason I moved them now anyway, I noticed when all of them first leafed out they all looked really great -- nice green leaves etc, After several months i.e. February to June some of the leaves starting getting brown and/or dropping, This happened even before I tried fertilizing them. After fertilizing it didn't really help the situation -- didn't get worse didn't get better. The plants were still under the lights during this time, So, I thought perhaps the perlite/vermiculite just couldn't hold onto the nutrients or the plants couldn't absorb them for some reason -- after a day or two I watered each with water only to wash out excess salts. I would then later fertilize again, I did this routine a few times but it didn't seem to help. Also putting out new leaves seemed to have slowed ... so this is why I transplanted them, It seemed like they were starting to go downhill so I thought I'd better move them. I hope they will recover in a couple of weeks under the lights.

Should I fertilize weakly during the two weeks? 1/4 strength maybe of the foilage pro/protekt/superthrive (not sure superthrive actually does much but I thought I read somewhere on the forum that it seems it is helpful to the roots during transplant time).

Have a good day all!

Brian

I'm not sure? My approach was so different. I rooted mine in whole sphagnum peat moss on a heating mat, no light, in a gallon plastic bag. Once rooted scions were placed in a small containers with half a 3-1-1 mix and half compost. A gallon plastic bag was put over the top to keep it humid. They were placed in indirect light through a window only.

After about 3 weeks foliage formed and one corner of bag is cut to reduce humidity. About 2 weeks later, a 2nd corner was cut. 2 weeks later I remove bag for a couple hours, and slowly ween them off humidity. Next they go outside in the shade as mentioned in other post. At this point I used 1/2 strength fertilizer.
Soon I transferred them to a bigger pot size, and growth starting taking off.

These are all different plants I have in various stages, I also have a couple scion in peat right now, whole stranded peat not powdered. This method didn't always work. Some failed to root. Other died later I think from not weening them long enough off humidity. As mentioned I didn't fertilize till they were used to environment. But they were in 1/2 compost that has an NPK of 1-1-1.

I currently have 5 in larger pots.

on getting up daily at 4 am to water them while they were in the perlite/vermiculite.

I would also have not watered daily, they were probably a little stressed from overwatering, and the transplant and change of environment put them over the edge.

Just a general observance though, I have no experience with figs, or their water requirements/tolerances. Perhaps Drew could weigh in on that aspect of this issue.

Those are some nice looking plants Drew, Thanks everyone for comments. Just a clarification on the watering, I had them in nursery pots so when I watered with a sprayer I would tilt the containers in multiple directions for a couple of minutes literally to allow excess water to drain out (as best I could determine). Perhaps they may have still had too much water in the mix.

Any thoughts as to why they looked good up until a week or so ago in the perlte/vermiculite mix and then started to drop leaves and have some leaves get brown?

I assumed it was because the internal energy reserves were lowering and that they needed fertilizer since lighting watering humidity etc had not changed,

Is it possible the perlite vermiculite mix too tightly binds the nutrients so they are not as available to the plants? Or perhaps as the medium dries the concentration of salts is too high to allow the plants to uptake the nutrients?

I believe Al T has mentioned both

Thanks,

Brian