High tunnel Fig production

[Christiemaeq]

Hello! I am wanting to get into small scale fig production. I am looking into getting a large greenhouse to grow more warm climate varieties. (I am in western Washington) does anyone have experience growing figs in greenhouses? Any tips and advise would be much appreciated!!💚

[pdxian]

I'm in Portland, and I grow a lot of figs in greenhouses, We are a wholesale propagation nursery, and we have over 80 varieties.

[fruitnut]

I've been doing it for 15 years. Mostly with very good results. This is a very good climate for greenhouse fruit production including figs. I've harvested main crop for almost 7 months but 5 is more common. It could be even longer if I dropped the fruits that need chilling and kept the days warm all winter. The climate in western WA isn't nearly as good for figs even in a greenhouse. You have too many clouds and too much humidity. We are 75% sunshine all yr long. You are way under that for at least 6 months.

The key to growing high quality fruit in a greenhouse is water control both soil water and humidity. Too much water leads to excessive growth, poor fruit set, and poor quality fruit. You'd probably do better in pots than in ground because that makes water and growth easier to control.

The covering on my greenhouse allows for 50% light transmission. You need more than that in WA. You need as much as light and heat as possible. So no shade cloth and try for 70-80% light compared to outside which is about the highest you can get. Then you need good equipment to control heating and cooling. Let in all the heat and light you can and have enough fans and a wet wall if needed to hold high to 100F. You want 90-100F with low humidity for figs.

With the right setup you could probably do 4-5 months main crop harvest, maybe more.

[fruitnut]

In WA what you'd need for ventilation is one 36 inch exhaust fan geared down for 1/4 hp motor for evey 800 sqft of greenhouse, or equivalent. Use big exhaust fans rather than shade to hold down heat. Have the greenhouse out in the open. No big trees nearby.

Here's my greenhouse today. It has three of the 36 inch fans but really only needs two for adequate cooling because it also has a good wet wall. There are both in ground and potted plants mostly 25 gal fabric bags. Some of the in ground plants have 8ft of growth and will grow ~4ft more even with no more applied water. You might be able to tell that some of the overly vigorous in ground trees don't have much fruit. But they will have lots of cuttings...lol

[Joshawa]

Wow beautiful gh my dream life. You made it come true on my behalf.