North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Ernest Plutko" <ernestplutko@wiktel.com>]

What is the Difference between heat zone and cold zone?  

---- Original Message ----
From: lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu
To: 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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