Tony (Hllyhll I think) and I had a discussion awhile back about total growth of a young fig bush in a season and was kind of guessing at what I thought some could do.  Who wants to try to measure each limb of a fig and the branches and all that?  Well this morning I decided to measure one of my stepovers because it is so easy.  

Brief recap:

They are VDB and were started winter of 2013 and planted in ground as 1 gallons March of 2013 or close to that.  Each plant was allowed two vertical limbs and during the summer they hit 6 feet or so and I laid them down horizontally crisscrossing the two limbs to avoid a weak crotch angle plus I liked how it looked.  In February of this year I cut all the vertical growth off and chose the stubs I wanted about a foot or so apart alternating one to the right then left.  Once growth started each stub produced 2-5 sprouts and I went in and removed all but the weakest one which was allowed to grow.  I did not really understand at the time why you would keep the weakest.  

Ok back to the measuring.....I chose the biggest plant of the 7 to measure but they are all fairly close in size, within 10% of each other.  It had 19 verticals and the tallest of them is currently 14 feet tall.  The total growth of the 1 year old plant in 5 months is a staggering 194 feet and they are not even close to being done.  

Each and every node has a fig there are very very few nodes that are barren and there are still figs at each node 14 feet up:)  I now understand why they said use the weakest sprout. They are in full sun just from 9:00 am to noon.....after that the sun has to pass through two layers of screening before it falls on the leaves.  Part of the growth I am sure is from the ducks that like to hang out under it in the shade and ducks do what ducks do.  The figs are great, big, tasty but that said I am seriously considering ripping them out this winter and replacing them with what I will hope be a less vigorous variety.  Ideally I would like it to top out at 8 feet or so.  I have had none of them snap yet but the potential for that exists.  

For those that don't know you remove the entire vertical part each winter and each spring they grow up again.  If anyone has a suggestion for a less vigorous variety I would love to hear it.

The fruit pics are from a couple weeks ago.  The fruit now is ripening about 4-6 feet from the ground.

 

 

The support you can see is 6 feet tall. The vertical stems have still never branched which is a good thing.

 
The crisscrossed trunk, about the size of a tennis ball at soil level, perhaps a bit bigger.  You can see the rebar I welded and cemented in to support the horizontals.  The smaller horizontal in the picture that goes under the rebar...I started leaving all the late volunteers that sprouted in an effort to slow the vertical growth down. 

I've been watching this project in a few threads and at first I said "wtf ? " but I can see now what a good idea this was and how the VdB was a good choice for it.

How much fruit did you get out of you plants this year Will?

are you going to have the heart to cut to '2-3 nodes'?  it sure looks great. Great job!

Grasa,

You absolutely have to.  Cutting the verticals off just does not matter.......next spring it will just grow back to 14+feet and the process repeats.  The real question is do I have the heart to rip it all out and replant another variety or varieties.  That will be tough.  But......I have been known to rip out 5 year old blueberry bushes just to make room to trial a new variety.  In fact this winter 50 4 year old 5 feet tall Emerald blueberries are getting yanked to be replaced by a new better variety......such is life. 

Part of the reason for this project in that spot is the pool cage needs rescreened every 7-10 years.  With this system in the winter there is nothing there but the horizontal trunk so it can be redone easily.

Consider grafting new variety onto it!, with Grafting you get fruit quicker also.

Gosh, I just repoted my one Emerald BB.  I wish I was near, I would go 'rescue some from you'.

Looks great!  I'm doing something similar, though up here in zone 6 I intend to run my horizontals at ground level so that I can bury them in the winter and so they can set extra roots (with my short season, I think I'll want all the root power I can get). 

Blackjack and Petite Negri are both supposed to be dwarfish, they might be less vigorous in your environment.

Wow, that is phenomenal growth!  Thanks for the update.

My VdBs are only 18", and I plan on pretty much copying you (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery) but in a smaller space.

There is no way mine will grow that much, I have part shade, less vigorous starts, etc, and I'm now seeing that as a good thing, good god that thing is a monster!

I do have some areas though that get more sun, I see this as a way to squeeze more plants (fruits) into a smaller foot print, so I will try other varieties as well.  What fertilizer do you use?

Thanks again!

You could try a heavily infested Black Jschia from UCD.  I hope you're keeping track of how many pounds of fruit you get from each plant.

That's my favorite tree on f4f and you want to rip it out!  haha

Come dig them up and they are yours:)

I second the grafting idea. 

Between now and the spring, you can collect cuttings of up to as many varieties as you have verticals, and come springtime, put a chip graft of each variety evenly spaced along the top of your horizontals.  Each graft will give one vertical, unless it branches. . .

I don't have anything on your wishlist, but I'd be delighted to contribute some cuttings if you go that route.

Brackishfigger,

Hmm...I had actually missed Grasa's last post so thanks for mentioning it.......It is something to consider.

You should try it with the col de dama's, they are still vigorous from what I have seen but maybe these are better figs for your climate with less growth than VdB.

Great post Wills, I really enjoy the progress through the photos.
Fig food for thought

WillsC,
Thanks for posting the Updated picture and progress info.
Your success has added more proof for the merits of the Japanese espalier pruning techniques.

Wow I wish I can do that.

WillsC, how did you train your ducks not to eat all the figs..LOL

Grafting would make a great conversation piece not that you need another one with the ducks and all.

Very impressive growth. I look forward to having something big enough to do this someday as well.

Is there a limit to how many horizontals you can have? For instance , if you have a 50' diameter space to work with could you lay down your first 2 horizontals. From there you have all your verticals producing. At the end of the season select from those verticals and so on. I can imagine many different shapes and patterns if this is feasable.

Jeff,

I don't think there is a rule:) It is all an experiment really.  For people in the north it would make it easier to protect but if you remove the verticals it would delay the harvest.  

Wills, would you consider trying this with other fig trees of yours, possibly in an area where they get full sunlight?  I notice that my fig trees that are sheltered from wind and partially shaded grow much taller....reaching for the sun.  Perhaps reducing soil moisture would slow them down (assuming you irrigate them, I seem to recall a drip hose in your other thread).  My trees trained on wires (instead of rebar) get lots of wind and that definitely keeps them shorter.  I haven't put in crossarms yet for the vertical supports and was thinking I'd put them at 3' above the horizontal limbs, but now I'm wondering if that will be high enough.

Harvey,

I am going to try it in a different location but I don't think it is the lack of sun.  The node spacing on the plants was normal so they were not light starved.  The uprights are not wispy as you can see in the pictures.  It would be easy in Ca to reduce soil moisture in Florida that would be tough as it rains frequently in the summer.   You probably did see irrigation as I have lines run to every plant on the property, micro spray heads, drip does not work well with our sand.  Here the rains don't start till June as a rule plus I use the heads for fertigation back fed from a pump tank.   This may just be a very vigorous strain of VDB or so I have been told.....no clue but I still blame the ducks. 

Probably a lot of things you could try to reduce vegetative vigor:

• constrain the roots by trenching, permanent or yearly
• french drains to draw away water
• plant a cultivar that produces a heavy breba crop and main crop to focus energy on fruit (can't leave all of last year's wood but could leave some)
• periodically during summer strip a lot of leaves
• allow 2 verticals to grow per node and possibly strip ALL the leaves of one of the verticals periodically
• simply allow multiple verticals to grow per node (this won't reduce total vegetative growth but could reduce height of any growth, and height seems to be the issue)

Wills,
I have not been paying attention. Can you point me to a thread that will allow me to start at "chapter one" of this project as it looks very interesting.
A possible variety to try = Osborn Prolific.
thx,
mgg