Any Fig Fanatics?

[Shawn T. W.]

The frost definitely got to it ... I was watering today, and it looks pretty pathetic today!

Still 7-8 green figs on it ...

What's the best way to over winter it?
This is the "Chicago" variety ...

I live in 6B hardiness zone ... Trim it back to 6"-8" like a rise bush, and mound dirt around it? Or mulch ?

 

[Alan W.]

The frost definitely got to it ... I was watering today, and it looks pretty pathetic today!

View attachment 4336913

Still 7-8 green figs on it ...

What's the best way to over winter it?
This is the "Chicago" variety ...

I live in 6B hardiness zone ... Trim it back to 6"-8" like a rise bush, and mound dirt around it? Or mulch ?

Here in KY I just leave them alone. Depending on the severity of winter they will either come back out from the stems or die back to the ground and send up new shoots. If you pinch the tops of the shoot off about a month before frost it will cause the plant to focus on the figs.

 

[kenmbz]

I have mine up against the house almost to block the wind a bit.
I leave them as is (I am 6b too) and sometimes they die back in a severe winter.
I trim when they are dormant, not sure if that is correct but seems to work for mine.
I had it die back during one really bad winter, though I lost it, but a month after normally it would have leaves, the base started to show green, it's now at least 8 feet tall, after last winters pruning.

 

[part-time-Farmer-NC]

If you are a tea drinker, grab the leaves and let them dry out. Crunch them up and they make a pretty good tea.

I don't do anything to ours other than prune and fertilize em.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

Hey Figgers! Almost have the spot I will be planting my 4 figs prepared. I had to take a couple trash trees/bushes down and irradiate some ivy in the area before I planted. SO it has taken me longer than I had hoped. I will bring the mini ex home to make the final preps and dig the hole for the 5 year old in a 25 gallon pot. They look SOOOO ready to take off. They look very happy in their little pots, I can't wait to get them in the ground this weekend. I will be plant them in groups of 2 about 8-10 feet apart. I am thinking about trying the espaliar method with 2 of them. This is where you train them to grow laterally along a wall, fence or trellis system. The area I am going to plant these was a bunch of crap trees and bushes that hid the view into our property in the summer. I would like to grow them almost like a fence row or hedge to provide that privacy we once had. The good thing is figs are very resilient, so if it is too much work or they don't take well to it I can just prune them back to a more normal shape.

I am trying to get more food growing on my little 0.6 acre lot on the outskirts of the city. Feels like uncertain and expensive times ahead. Doing my best to potentially insulate myself from that into the future. These figs are just one part of that plan.

 

[rumwrks]

We're up to (counts) 10.. 11.. 12.. maybe 15 varieties (if the two cuttings I just got take) this year. My "main" fig variety is a rescue I collected cuttings for from off of the side of the road where it had survived 25-30 years of -20F weather, repeated county then city verge mowing, and several attempts by adjacent homeowners to pull it out. It's not the best tasting nor the most productive fig but dang is it tough (and it's still a decent fig.. just not the "best' fig ever). I believe it's a brown turkey derivative having talked to folks who lived there a long time. I'm now in slightly more temperate climes so have started expanding my collection. I've been doing mostly self rooted because figs sucker so vigorously it's hard to control that (plus we do occasionally get some top kill here) but I think it'd make a robust rootstock.

A neighbor down the road a bit has another type of fig I don't have yet (that I need to get cuttings from lol) that is solidly 15' high and wide.. it's huge and last year it was entirely covered in figs.

There's some good info here on pruning techniques (especially fan pruning) - Figs: pruning and training | RHS Advice

Also consider putting in some vertical pavers or similar around the root ball to restrict root growth otherwise they can get a bit over vigorous and produce more leaf than fruit.

I've been planting them a bit closer than you are, more like 6' or so.. but a lot of that depends on your pruning practices and space (I have a rocky outcropping in the orchard space that's perfect for figs but the soils a bit shallow for most fruit trees).

 

[rumwrks]

Anyone ever try grafting a fig tree? I'm guessing they are all in the same Genus or cultivar that should allow that. Better look that up...

Catching up a bit late.. but yes. They're a touch fussy for the first couple of years because of the large pith makes for weak wood in the best of cases (even ungrafted) but if you want a lot of varieties in a smaller space (cocktail trees) or want to improve growing vigor by using a stronger rootstock it's definitely an option. Because of the wood type a modified cleft graft is most commonly used. I've been mostly self rooting because of the suckering problem makes it challenging to maintain

Pretty decent instructions here:

Propagating Figs by Grafting - One Green World

Figs are one of the first plants many gardeners try to clone because of their notoriously quick and easy ability to be rooted from cuttings. And what could bring a gardener or homesteader more joy than propagating plants for free from ones that they already have? Even though rooting figs...

onegreenworld.com

 

[HawkinsHollow]

WOW! That is a lot of variety, what is your favorite? We will have 4 varieties; Brown Turkey, Celeste, Negri, and LSU Purple. Looking forward to it.

 

[rumwrks]

WOW! That is a lot of variety, what is your favorite?

Most of them are at the "less than a foot tall" freshly propagated from cuttings phase so it's a bit early to pick one. My only real producer at this point is the rescue fig (I have .. 4 maybe 5 plants of that if the one I'm not sure about survived). Historically I've really liked some of the berry fig varieties and the honey figs for fresh eating, although when I was in more prime fig country it was some 30 years ago and mostly it was "well the really good one in some neighbors backyard is really tasty" .

Earlier this year Off the Beaten Path Nursery had some cutting sales and MOST of them took (we got a cold hardy pack and another mixed "favorites" pack - all sold out now but there's always next year). They shipped two cuttings of each, but they were long enough I split all of the cuttings and planted four of each. I also picked up a couple more kinds at a local scion/cutting exchange that I'm currently waiting to see if they take or nor.

I think I've (at least partially) figured out the propagating from cuttings after struggling with it for some years. The problem is that cuttings really don't like to be wet.. and they really don't like to dry out.. so you have to figure out some way to maintain relatively constant high.. but not saturated.. humidity for the few weeks it takes them to actually take. I put them just barely at/below the surface in a really loose coir/perlite potting mix just wet enough that water didn't quite run out when you squeezed it, covered them with a clear plastic bag.. and then left them alone for 3-4 weeks in a warm but not sunny (indirect light) location. I've also seen folks having a lot of luck with the "fig pop" method of propagating.. but haven't actually tried that myself (we got some bags to give it a go after this years propagation frenzy.. for next year ). If they get too dry.. they dry out and the roots die off.. and if they're too wet they rot. Also patience.. My Violette de Bordeaux cutting looked DEAD all last year.. and this spring it bounced back to life and is taking off!!

My current "definitely alive" list is:

13th St (my name for the aforementioned salvage fig)

Red Lebanese (Bekaa)

Keddle

Ravin De Calce

Blanche d'Argenteuil

Randino

Yellow Long Neck

Teramo

Florea

Marseilles Black VS

Violette de Bordeaux

 

[ultrarunner]

We just have Mission Figs from cuttings taken about 100 years ago at Mission San Jose…

Mission fig - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Shawn T. W.]

I just got a bag of these cubes ... Hormex Rooting Cubes - 50 Cube Bag & 2100 Bulk Box

To go along with this pack of powders ... Hormex Rooting Powder Pack #1 3 8 - Rooting Hormone

I'm eager to try my hand at it!

I looked about a week ago, and no sign of fig life yet, apples had some blossoms ...

 

[HawkinsHollow]

I eventually want to try my hand at air layering, that looks so cool!! Is that what you are referring to as "fig pop"? Never heard of that?

I think it would be cool to be the johnny appleseed of figs. Plant them in abandoned places that no one would care. Could save a life some day, or give you an astronomical yield.

 

[rumwrks]

Is that what you are referring to as "fig pop"?

These video explains it pretty well.. it's basically putting the cutting into a baggy with a coir or peat and vermiculite mix and maybe a touch of lime if you're using peat (the coir is more ph neutral so I don't bother there). I haven't actually added the mycorrhiza maybe I'd have even better luck if I did.. but the real key seems to be moisture control.

I've found figs take 2-4 weeks to really get going from cuttings a lot of the time (or sometimes longer.. sometimes MUCH longer) so I guess don't despair if they're slow. And even then even fairly profession folks only get something like 60-80% take rate depending on the variety (some are just more difficult than others for whatever reason).

I've had bad luck with trying to root apple/pear or cherry/peach/similar cuttings.. they're super fussy it seems. Air layering goes better or coppicing and then mounding with sawdust a rootstock to force suckering and then cutting out the rooted suckers. I have very few self rooted plants of that type (one primitive cherry, a handful of apples, and a couple types of european plum) and most all of them are preferred fruit or cider varieties on improved rootstocks. I've had cuttings even leaf out with stored energy and then fall over dead.. IDK.. I know it's possibly but the success rates seem pretty low.

 

[part-time-Farmer-NC]

I took some cuttings and swapped them with my SIL's fig tree. not sure what variety they are but are tasty and really big. Mine were BT.

I also tried grafting (3 different techniques) of persimmon tree scions. I have good FUYU that have been really prolific. My son as a native persimmon , they are supposed to be in the same family so I plugged a few to his and onto mine.

 

[rumwrks]

persimmon tree scions

I haven't tried grafting persimmons, I think they're supposed to be similar in difficulty to apple/pear? I've had pretty good luck so far doing those... It seems like there anything that's stable enough for a year or so and has good cambium contact pretty much works.