I went into the greenhouse and saw this on my Oxford fig. One of them literally split inside out. Which is ironic since a fig is just an inverted flower. So really it's growing like a normal flower?
Anyways...
I'm sure as a fig person who lives in a rainy area you probably encounter this more often than not. It's caused by too much moisture or humidity in the plant. This occurs usually at night time when there is less evaporation.
The fig is actually just an extension of the stem and plant and is the area most prone to be affected by high moisture.
I know exactly why it split. It was hot a few weeks ago and I cranked up the watering in the greenhouse. It has been slightly more mild and cool lately and I haven't adjusted it back. Hence the extra moisture and splitting problem.
Here's a more "sciency" version of what is happening when your Figs split.
So from my experience of growing figs here in the Pacific Northwest. I've come up with a list for Fig Varieties that should do well in ground in Seattle. (This is with little to no protection through the winter time).
How'd I come up with this list? These are figs that I left outdoors all winter in pots and in ground that have fruited for me. I'm in Zone 8B
This is a growing list as my collection begins to grow and it will evolve over time. So stay tuned in to this article.
This list is not just about if the figs will survive the winter. It's about figs that will fruit within our climate. Zone 8B
It's the first day of Summer and my enthusiasm for figs has been renewed. Well I've been doing nothing but up potting and it's tiresome when you have over 300 pots to deal with. I'm only about 40% done with the work.
Anyhow, it's all worth it when you see the fruits of your labor. Especially on this Socorro Black Fig.
Last year my Rainier cherry never ripened a single fruit. So I bought it a friend. A Lapin cherry to help pollinate it. Well it was a great investment because this year I got to taste some home grown cherries and it was Dee Liscious!
After being ravaged by a some critters last yr. I've been protecting my fruit with fruit nets. It may seem a little too paranoid and over protective but it's not without cause. My Persimmon tree last fall was completely wiped out.
There were only a couple dozen on this tree and that is barely enough to feed me and Nolan. =)
Here's a pollinator chart in case you're wondering what trees to get.
While I was in Taiwan, the breakfast bar had these succulent plant leaves served as a salad item. Of course I was quite curious and tried one. I had no idea that there were edible succulents. They were quite tasty. There was a hint of acidity and crunch.
My Akane Apple tree is absolutely loaded this year. As much as I would love to keep all of them, I cannot. It's better to thin out the small or damaged apples to just a few per branch to grow higher quality apple.
There's a farm in Japan (http://www.sembikiya.co.jp/en/) that grows the equivalent of Kobe beef but with fruits. They use the best quality soils, fertilizers, conditions, and watering schedule for their fruit trees and plants. In most cases they will trim off all of the fruit except for one to let all of the energy go into one fruit.
This is also why they charge and arm and a leg for their fruit because the flavor is unbeatable. A musk melon can cost you $270 dollars and a single apple can cost you $21. Pretty extreme don't ya think?
Well I'm not going to trim off all of my apples but just enough to create a balance of quality fruit and have enough to eat and share.
Nolan of course is always by my side ready to assist.
The only problem is that he is not as judicious in the picking and everything within his reach is getting plucked.
After a few minutes of picking apples, the bottom branches are quite bare but at least I get to keep the apples higher than 3ft. =)
Update: 7/5/18
Sadly, I did not thin enough from this tree. Two branches broke off of the tree from all of the weight of the apples.
I love visiting local nurseries. Especially in the Seatac Des Moines area. With the close of Furneys, it was great to see someone start a Nursery business from scratch.
Meet Troy:
Troy has started a nursery business growing a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. His list of cultivars is quite large and is still growing. Outside some of the larger nurseries he has one of the best selection of fruit trees around Seattle.
He runs it with his wife on a small plot of land in Seatac. His story resonates with mine and I highly recommend him to anyone who loves fruit trees. Especially exotic ones.
I picked up a Chilean Guava, Miranda Jujube and a Chocolate Persimmon from him. The Miranda is already starting to set fruit amazingly.
So root pruning is best done when the tree is dormant, just before they begin to wake up in Spring. For Seattle, early March is a perfect time to do this.
I root pruned my 5yr old Black Madeira in march, is just one giant mass of roots. You can hardly see any soil left in he photo below.
So several problems arise when the roots get so bound up like this.
1. It literally will choke itself out and displace all of the soil.
2. It tends to dry out too quickly
3. Stunted growth
4. less fruit production
The benefits of root pruning:
Some say that any time you up pot you should also do some root pruning maintenance. Since ficus are quite vigorous it will not hurt the plant. As roots grow and become larger, they lignify and get knotted up within a pot it, which restricts the flow of water/nutrients to areas of the plant where they can be used. It also causes a lack of O2 to the roots.
The symptoms of this is the vitality of the branch extension and growth throughout the growing season. If the branch shows very little new growth during the growing season it maybe stressed from the entanglement of roots which means that it may need to be root pruned in the next dormant season.
The best time to do this is while the plant is still dormant and before it wakes up from dormancy, usually after the plant has hit it's chill requirement in early spring.
It's best to cut off a 3rd of the bottom of the roots, then loosen and trim off the thick matted roots that's left. The BM's root ball was crazy. It was so dense, that it was probably suffocating itself.
The damaged roots will send a chemical message to the plant to stimulate new root growth. These new roots will be the true work horse for nutrient up take. I also sprinkled some mycorrhizae on the roots as an added bonus.
It usually takes about a month for the plant to recover and in 4 weeks after you should see some stellar new growth. At first you'll notice that other figs will have a head start but by mid June the root pruned fig will be all caught up. So don't fret if you do not see immediate results.
Some folks will root prune every year. but It maybe better to go every 3-4 years. The best suggestion is if you have more roots than soil in the pot or if you see minimal growth, it's time to root prune as well as up pot.
The aftermath of the root pruning.
The other benefit is that this will save you from having to continuously up pot to something larger and heavier. It's not easy carrying around 20 or 40 gallon pots around. We only have one back to use.
Update in June:
Last year this plant added on only about 6 inches of growth. In 3 months, because of the root pruning, it has already pushed out 4x times the growth at 24 inches.
I was fertilizing the plants when I ran into this little guy. My Tauro fig, less than 2yrs old.
I had him partially shaded and was surprised to see that it had a breba fig that was nearly ripe. Not even the Desert Kings are this close to ripeness. Naturally being the first fig of the season I have to protect it.
It's growing in a self watering pot which is why it looks so strong and healthy.
Check out the leaves on this guy.
The color of the fig is nothing to write home about. It's got a brownish color with green neck.
It should ripen up and a few days I'll be able to do my first review of the season.
Update: 7/3/18
Sadly before I had the chance to taste the Tauro Breba. The ants have found it and made a buffet for themselves. Oh well time for the next one.
At the risk of getting a stomach I did break it open to taste a part of the fig that didn't get touch. And from what I tasted it has a strong figgy taste and slightly melon like. It would have been good to eat.
My Jamaican Cherry is on year two and it's starting to flower.
It's grown tall but not as full as I would like. I'll prune it back this fall to get a fuller affect.
However I'm excited to see little flowers on it. None of the flowers have turned into fruit so I wonder if it requires a pollinator.
I actually lose more cuttings during the up pot stage more than I do during the rooting stage. Which makes the method of rooting in tree pots a bit more advantages, since there's no transfer. But really that's only 1 advantage compared to the fig pop method which is hands down the best way I've rooted figs.
Well I lost more than usual because of my month long vacation in Asia. Not being around to tend to new cuttings while they need you most can lead to lots of dead cuttings.
However instead of just throwing them away, I put the "dead" cuttings flat into a square planter and bury them completely.
Sometimes you may get a lucky and a cutting survives.
I was doing some maintenance in the yard when I began to notice that there was a trend to all of my figs in air pots. They all looked terrible! These were DIY pots that I created which were equivalent to about 3 gallons. They definitely worked the same as regular fabric pots but man after a couple years the results were very telling.
Check out the difference of the figs in self watering pots vs fabric pots. It's drastic. The figs have only been in these pots about 2 yrs. The ones in Fabric pots look dry and have very little new growth.
Well that was enough for me to load them up into the wheel barrel and re pot them into regular 5 gallons.
When I unpotted them, which was a pain to do, the roots would grow tangled into the fabric, I noticed that they were all very dry. The fabric pots caused the roots to dry out too quickly.
After the re pot. I've noticed all of the old leaves have fallen off and new ones all have grown in their place. The new pots are making the figs much happier. I'm even seeing figs on them now.
1 week later this is how they look like. The leaves look full and healthy!
In all fairness. I think fabric pots serve a purpose and do a great job at keeping plant roots from become root bound. The reality is they probably do too great of a job of helping plants great a robust root system. Which means they outgrow their bags faster than normal pots. Which also means if you don't up pot them more regularly, you'll end up with a very sad looking plant.
The Guomi bush is absolutely loaded this yr. Not really known for it's taste this bush is better known as a nitrogen fixer. It's the main reason why I plant it.
When fully ripened the taste is semi sweet with a large pit in ratio to the size of the berry. It's actually not Nolan approved. He prefers to pick em and throw them. The taste has a bit of tannic flavor to it which is not pleasant on the tongue.
Picking them is kind of a pain too. They're small and it takes a bit of time to get fill a bowl. But with a couple of bushes you could probably make a jam from them.
