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
_______________________________________________
nafex mailing list
nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Reproduction of list messages or archives is not allowed.
This includes distribution on other email lists or reproduction on web sites.
Permission to reproduce is NEVER granted, so don't claim you have permission!
**YOU MUST BE SUBSCRIBED TO POST!**
Posts from email addresses that are not subscribed are discarded.
No exceptions.
----
To subscribe or unsubscribe, go to the bottom of this page (also can be used to change other email options):
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex
File attachments are NOT stripped by this list.
TAKE STEPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM COMPUTER VIRUSES!
Please do not send binary files.
Use plain text ONLY in emails!
NAFEX web site: http://www.nafex.org/
Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.