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This thread is actually about my collection of pasty textured, not very sweet, uninspiring figs. The "pasty" description may match Wills' complexion, but we'll have to ask his wife about the accuracy of the remaining descriptors. Alas, I have no photos of Wills to compare to my figs. Be forewarned, I am the written equivalent of a windbag; if you choose to read further, do so when fully awake or, conversely, start reading it to help you fall asleep. Onward!
I have a largish fig collection and will likely eat figs from 60-70 different varieties this year. While I understand that the fig that was unbelievably good last year can disappoint the next, having approximately 90% (up to this point) of one's entire collection produce inferior figs strongly suggests a uniform underlying reason. I have some suspicions that I'll lay out below and hope others will chime in with their experiences and thoughts. But first come some qualifications.
I am not new to figs, having grown them for about 10 years now. My collection has, however, grown much larger in the past three or four years, from maybe 20 varieties to about 100 today. My figs are in pots, are stored in my garage for the winter and undergo an extended fig shuffle from mid March until late May/early June -- we occasionally get frost into early June, though the usual last frost is early May. (That last bit is inconsequential to the discussion, but I wanted you all to know my shuffle pain and share your empathetic responses with me.) The bottom line is I've got some experience, but I explore new methods most years in the hope that my trees each season will be more productive and tasty than the previous season.
The weather this year (and almost every year here) has been good fig growing weather: lots of early sun due to diligent shuffling, decent spring growth, timely fruit set on almost all trees mature enough to bear a crop and a hot summer. My pots are either partially buried or my trees' canopies are large enough to shade neighboring pots, so I doubt hot pots are a big issue. Here are my suspicions, in descending order of probable responsibility for my insipid figs:
*Most of my collection are in 5-gallon pots. I have maybe 15 trees in 10 or 15 gallon pots and started the season with an additional 20ish varieties rooted last year 2-gallon containers. I root prune on a three year schedule, and this would be year three for most of my trees that wintered over last dormant season in 5-gallon or larger pots. I suspect most of my trees are root bound and wonder if that condition is the big reason for the relative poor quality of my crop. I did up-pot six of my best trees from 5 to 10 gallon pots this year. All but one was up potted in July. Several of those show obvious signs of stress, dropping leaves and fruit, so it's tough to nail down what the largest potential effect is on their fruit quality. Some of them haven't ripened fruit yet, and the one tree I did up-pot to a 10-gallon container in early spring is just now ripening fruit. The same potting up-potting schedule exists for many 2-gallon trees up-potted to 5 gallon containers, making it difficult to pin it down to being root bound. Still, my untouched 5-gallon trees are giving me lots of inferior fruit.
*I started using Espoma Garden Tone, 3-4-4 ratio, last season, with good results. My initial tree fertilization this year was in late March, followed by a 2nd application in late May and a final application in mid-late July. For the July fertilization I mixed Plant Tone with the Garden Tone, 5-3-3 ratio, at approx 60-40 ratio, hoping for better growth, especially on figs that have been slow growers for me over the years. In retrospect, increasing the nitrogen to promote greater vegetative growth would have been better done with the first fertilization, but I didn't decide to change the fert schedule and purchase the Plant Tone until July. I need more early growth to support a larger crop, since the growing season allows only one main crop. Anybody think that the application of a higher N fert may be contributing to the blah figs? The ingredients are similar from Tone to Tone, it's the quantity of particular ingredients that changes to give them their particular N-P-K ratios. The figs formed long before the final application and the Tones are fairly slow releasing organic ferts, so I'm skeptical that this is a/the reason.
*My trees were pretty crowded until I spaced them out a bit in early August. I anticipated setting up drip to all my pots, and the installation grew in complexity as I discussed it with a professional until I finally abandoned the idea until dormancy sets in and I can clear the fig area and perform the work without having to move them back and forth a few times. The trees get a minimum of 9-10 hours at one end of the planting area and all day sun at the other, so I don't think lack of sunlight is a cause here even with the crowding.
I will soon have figs from 2nd year trees in 2-gallon pots begin to ripen. The same is true for 2nd year trees potted up to 5-gallon containers, mostly in early spring. All set fruit a bit later than my more mature trees. While the 2-gal trees will have their roots somewhat crowded in these pots, I don't think the conditions mimic the root bound conditions in most of the older 5-gallon collection. If these figs, which were fertilized the same was as their larger, older relatives, end up being far superior, and there is evidence that this may be the case (see my other titillatingly titled thread), I'll lean even more heavily toward root boundedness being the cause.
Please share your thoughts.
I have a largish fig collection and will likely eat figs from 60-70 different varieties this year. While I understand that the fig that was unbelievably good last year can disappoint the next, having approximately 90% (up to this point) of one's entire collection produce inferior figs strongly suggests a uniform underlying reason. I have some suspicions that I'll lay out below and hope others will chime in with their experiences and thoughts. But first come some qualifications.
I am not new to figs, having grown them for about 10 years now. My collection has, however, grown much larger in the past three or four years, from maybe 20 varieties to about 100 today. My figs are in pots, are stored in my garage for the winter and undergo an extended fig shuffle from mid March until late May/early June -- we occasionally get frost into early June, though the usual last frost is early May. (That last bit is inconsequential to the discussion, but I wanted you all to know my shuffle pain and share your empathetic responses with me.) The bottom line is I've got some experience, but I explore new methods most years in the hope that my trees each season will be more productive and tasty than the previous season.
The weather this year (and almost every year here) has been good fig growing weather: lots of early sun due to diligent shuffling, decent spring growth, timely fruit set on almost all trees mature enough to bear a crop and a hot summer. My pots are either partially buried or my trees' canopies are large enough to shade neighboring pots, so I doubt hot pots are a big issue. Here are my suspicions, in descending order of probable responsibility for my insipid figs:
*Most of my collection are in 5-gallon pots. I have maybe 15 trees in 10 or 15 gallon pots and started the season with an additional 20ish varieties rooted last year 2-gallon containers. I root prune on a three year schedule, and this would be year three for most of my trees that wintered over last dormant season in 5-gallon or larger pots. I suspect most of my trees are root bound and wonder if that condition is the big reason for the relative poor quality of my crop. I did up-pot six of my best trees from 5 to 10 gallon pots this year. All but one was up potted in July. Several of those show obvious signs of stress, dropping leaves and fruit, so it's tough to nail down what the largest potential effect is on their fruit quality. Some of them haven't ripened fruit yet, and the one tree I did up-pot to a 10-gallon container in early spring is just now ripening fruit. The same potting up-potting schedule exists for many 2-gallon trees up-potted to 5 gallon containers, making it difficult to pin it down to being root bound. Still, my untouched 5-gallon trees are giving me lots of inferior fruit.
*I started using Espoma Garden Tone, 3-4-4 ratio, last season, with good results. My initial tree fertilization this year was in late March, followed by a 2nd application in late May and a final application in mid-late July. For the July fertilization I mixed Plant Tone with the Garden Tone, 5-3-3 ratio, at approx 60-40 ratio, hoping for better growth, especially on figs that have been slow growers for me over the years. In retrospect, increasing the nitrogen to promote greater vegetative growth would have been better done with the first fertilization, but I didn't decide to change the fert schedule and purchase the Plant Tone until July. I need more early growth to support a larger crop, since the growing season allows only one main crop. Anybody think that the application of a higher N fert may be contributing to the blah figs? The ingredients are similar from Tone to Tone, it's the quantity of particular ingredients that changes to give them their particular N-P-K ratios. The figs formed long before the final application and the Tones are fairly slow releasing organic ferts, so I'm skeptical that this is a/the reason.
*My trees were pretty crowded until I spaced them out a bit in early August. I anticipated setting up drip to all my pots, and the installation grew in complexity as I discussed it with a professional until I finally abandoned the idea until dormancy sets in and I can clear the fig area and perform the work without having to move them back and forth a few times. The trees get a minimum of 9-10 hours at one end of the planting area and all day sun at the other, so I don't think lack of sunlight is a cause here even with the crowding.
I will soon have figs from 2nd year trees in 2-gallon pots begin to ripen. The same is true for 2nd year trees potted up to 5-gallon containers, mostly in early spring. All set fruit a bit later than my more mature trees. While the 2-gal trees will have their roots somewhat crowded in these pots, I don't think the conditions mimic the root bound conditions in most of the older 5-gallon collection. If these figs, which were fertilized the same was as their larger, older relatives, end up being far superior, and there is evidence that this may be the case (see my other titillatingly titled thread), I'll lean even more heavily toward root boundedness being the cause.
Please share your thoughts.
I've not created any new methods or fertilization techniques, simply measured the dosage and documented the results on small volumes so that it could be applied and scaled up.
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