I went to Bill's for the first time on Saturday. It was great to meet Bill and enjoy his talk about taking figs out of storage. His setup is about 15 min away from mine. He has been growing figs for 14 years and really makes me look like an amateur. He uses self watering pots and sells them along with the custom made pot moving carts. I'll be seeing him again. He's a super nice guy!

Got any pics of the carts

Does he not cover his pots with the black plastic anymore?

I did not take any pictures of the carts assembled, but they are in the top picture. They are specific to his pots only. They are in 4 parts and you assemble the cart around each pot to move them. It's very easy. Takes about 10 seconds. Reduces the amount you lift by 80%.

His explanation of the plastic was that it was good for his young trees 3-4 years in the pot for moisture control. After that the trees are old enough not to need it. He also said that he has 250 pots and just did not want to do the work. I take that as: you could do the plastic, it's not a bad thing, but not 100% necessary as the tree gets established. Most of his trees have trunks as big as my arm so I'm going to guess he knows what he's doing. He also stressed that his soil mix is very important. It's a Loam and mushroom compost mix.

One thing that he said that I did not realize was that he only adds lime to the soil one time and then the tree is good forever. When he root prunes the new soil has lime added but that's it. A little Ozmicote every year as fert. I'm not sure if that is true for pots with standard drain holes.

Thanks! I was under the impression he used 100% mushroom compost?

That's what I Thought too, but when I've seen mushroom compost for sale in other places it was a lot lighter, almost like a peat based mix. I have some of his pots and I used the soil he sells. Although, I didn't get it from him. With that mix, pot, water and tree it is very heavy! I'm going to set the pots up again this year and try something lighter.

Wow look at all those happy Figs. Where is Bill located? And where do you source the mushroom compost? I have never heard of that. His trees sure are a testament to his understanding of what the Figs are happy growing with. Thanks for sharing these inspiring pics and info. Happy figging, Jodi

He is in NJ. I'm not sure about the soil. I bought it at a nursery down the road from him. It was just a big pile to buy in yards. i asked for mushroom compost.

Wow, nice setup!  And that is A LOT of figs!  Like the self-watering barrel pots.  Thanks for the great info, Aaron. 

Those are some beautiful looking trees

I'm no expert on SWP's but he called it "planting mix" not straight mushroom soil. And yes it's from a place close to him. Sunshine farms or something like that. You can call him and pick his brain. He's very easy to talk to.

I was working in Somerset NJ and had to stop at this house. How funny it is seeing these pots. I wonder where he got them.

WOW. Bill not covering the pots in plastic is something new. I didn't get there last year but 2 years ago everything was in plastic. I have grown many trees in the standard wooden 1/2 whiskey barrels and Have had excellent results,but IMHO i feel the plastic SIPS do even better. I'm sure the work involved covering all those pots has become too much work for Bill these days
I get it

I don't remmeber the name of the place it's on rt202. I went there just to get a good soil and mentioned Figs. they recommended one and told me they sell it to a fig nursery down the road.

I was at Bills this past fall. All of the large pots with large trees that I saw were covered in black plastic. Not covering them must be something new.

Spoke to Will via phone years ago. He was extremely helpful and nice. One day will make the trip to attand his fig festival.