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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] figs

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  • From: Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] figs
  • Date: Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:54:12 -0500

I'm in zone 6; albeit 'hot' zone 6, in southern west-central KY - about 70 miles NW of Nashville TN.
For a number of years, I had several figs in-ground in my orchard. For a couple of years, I tried covering them with piles of leaves hauled home from residential areas in town. They all froze back to the ground, whether covered or not, so I just stopped bothering. Most would re-grow from the roots/crown, but rarely were able to set and ripen fruits before freezing weather set in in Nov, though I did get a good crop that ripened on LSU Purple one year.
Subsequently, I rooted cuttings from all I had in the ground, as well as any other varieties I've accumulated since then, and keep them in 15-gallon pots, which I stick into the crawlspace underneath our sunroom whenever temps start dropping into the 20s in late fall.
I still have a couple of survivors out there in the orchard - one of which is LSU Purple; I've not looked recently, but guess I need to - it may be ripening some figs now.
My biggest problem with potted figs is keeping them watered - they're planted in a soilless potting mix, with extra pinebark fines mixed in, so they're really well-drained, and if I don't water them daily, they dry out rapidly. If I leave town for even a couple of days, I can't really count on my wife or kids to water them adequately, and I come home to wilted fig plants that have aborted their fruit.
I'm thinking about doing 'pot-in-pot' with them, to alleviate this problem, but it'll require digging some pretty good-sized holes to sink another 15-gallon pot in the ground to set the one containing the fig into, but it should alleviate some of the problem with their roots drying out - but then I might have a very difficult time getting them up in the fall, as I'm sure they'd send some roots out into the surrounding soil - it's very common for me to have cut some pretty substantial roots that have exited drain holes in order to move my pots in every fall..\



Lucky Pittman
USDA Cold Zone 6
AHS Heat Zone 7
Hopkinsville, KY




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