Project Figs

Yup, looks like figs to me. I had a fig tree for several years here, which gave me two crops a year. Mine was not hardy, and I got tired haulling it into the basement each year, as it got bigger and bigger, so I ended up giving it away. It is truly interesting to hear about a hardy fig. Keep me posted about its progress next spring.

-- jroot ....... Southern Ontario .......... grow zone 5A ...................."Gardening is an exercise in optimism." ....... . . Author Unknown

What? Southern Ontario is not tropical?

You can move to New Zealand and plant it outside…

-- Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves. - Thoreau

(rub it in, Daltxguy. ... rub it in)

Jroot… maybe you could try again and prune it like in the video on “high density landscaping”.

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)

Debbie – I planted two cold hardy variety figs last year, leaving both outside over the winter. One returned after a very mild winter. Not sure if I want to bury this winter or not, but I did plant five more to increase my odds.

-- If you wouldn't spray it in your mouth, why would you spray it on your food?

I don’t have high hopes for the one I’m leaving outside .. but – it says that it will come back so, maybe.

I see that my big plant has a little fig on it. They say that I should pick it off so that the tree can put energy into the plant itself but you know I’m not going to. :D

My brother was telling us the other day about how delicious a fresh fig tastes. I said that I was going to have to hide my fig tree so he can’t find it!

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)

Sounds like a fun experiment to me. I am always up for growing something I can eat. Vince and Debbie, let me know how they do over a few winters and perhaps I will have to tuck one into my forest too. My neighbor in Las Vegas grew them and we would trade pomegranates for figs. Fresh figs are delicious but I would definitely have to have a kind that could survive our winters outside without too much preparation.

-- "To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves." M. Gandhi

That would be awesome of you could keep them alive over the winter.

-- Bon,Hastings,Ont.....zone 5a....Always room for one more

Crossing my fingers!

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)

I planted a fig tree about 5 years ago and it is about 10-12 feet tall now and is producing fruit at least once a year and maybe twice this year, hoping.
An old friend of mine told me years ago that his wife planted some and they just wouldn’t grow or produce fruit. After a few years he became very frustrated with them. His family had horses and one day he decided to either kill or cure them by adding manure around the base. He said they took off growing like weeds.
It has been my experience that manure will make them produce lots of limbs and foliage but not fruit. After my tree got so tall I quit using manure and that’s when it started producing fruit.
I used Moo Doo but Black Kow or any composed manure will do or you can use pure manure if you leave it out in the weather for a year.
Good Luck Ms Deb.

good to know. Thanks.
10’ tall—a little difficult to move in and out of the house. I’ll have to do some pruning, I guess.

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)

Taoist – Good info. I feel a test coming on, two of the same variety of figs will be treated differently, one with and one without composted manure.

-- If you wouldn't spray it in your mouth, why would you spray it on your food?

someone else will have to do that experiment. .. or donate me another fig tree to experiment with :D

or were you volunteering?

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)

What you folks are calling hardy fig trees are what we call Turkey Foot Figs. We live in zone 7a and most years the trees will winter over outside. I have not pruned ours YET but I have read that pruning will make them more productive. I better have my stuff together before I prune it because the wife doesn’t allow very much of that to go on.
The wife also planted a fig tree in the back yard but I don’t think it gets enough sun as our back yard is full of trees. I put some Moo-Doo around it last year but the results were not very impressive. This year I put some 6 month old horse manure around the base and it seems to be doing better already.
I have seen some beautiful fig trees pictures of trees in Florida and California. I’m just not sure exactly how to prune ours but until I figure it out, the idea is on simmer.
MsDeb I could ship you a fig plant but it would be dead by the time it got there…sorry.
Vince- Let me know how the experiment works out.

chuckling at the “YET” ...

my understanding is that horse manure isn’t much more potent than putting straw down so perhaps a rich manure is too much for it.

re: shipping a plant – I appreciate the thought :D

re: pruning, in one of the videos on “High Density Landscaping” by Dave Wilson Nurseries they said that one of the “espalier” trees was a fig, I’m pretty sure.

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)

My first fig tree was a brown turkey fig and it would fruit too late in the season to ripen, so every October I would see the pretty green fruit shrivel and freeze. I purchased several Celeste green fig trees and they have florished and are fruiting. The fruit is still green/hard but will ripen soon in this hot weather. It had 3 major flushes of fruit last year, enough to feed the birds and my family and friends.

-- A weed is a plant that is growing where it was not purposefully placed by human hands.

I am hopeful!

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)

interesting: http://athens.patch.com/articles/the-incredible-edible-fig

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)

MsDebbieP….We are currently enjoying our second crop of figs this year. The birds got the first one but this second one is larger and the figs are ripening in succession so we have been able to harvest at least one bunch of them so far. We have been very fortunate in that we have had a normal amount of rain this year but have had to do a little watering in between the rain showers. I read your entries about gray water and rain barrels. The liner sounds like a good idea especially since you can place it where ever you want.
A few years ago I got tired of looking for cheap rain barrels so I got some plastic trash cans and made my own. They cost me about 45 dollars apiece, and have helped much with the garden.
I thought that your comment about horse manure was interesting to say the least. A local horse farm has composted horse manure for sale and I got a truck load for the garden and yard. We are now getting tons of tomatoes/okra/beans. I am going to get more for the yard as winter sets in to help the grass as our soil here is really poor in nutrients.
Hope the water project goes well for you and keep us posted.

Thanks.
My “one” fig has dropped off (soon after I mentioned it, actually) so no figs for me this year.

As for the new water reservoir. It is working but so are the rain clouds so it doesn’t look like we will be putting it to use this year. That’s ok I’m ready for 2013

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)