Hello,

  Any fig growers experiencing a bad spring weather wise?Its been cold and wet here in RI ,6 straight days of rain.Ive noticed very little growth thus far,hoping things warm up.

Geo

Having cool spring weather for awhile now. So far good for breba production as frost will make most brebas to drop. This will affect/delay main production. Yesterday and the rest of the week forecast is more typical of fig weather. Hope forecast trend stays on.

We are experiencing a drought in our area........and that is affecting the growth of my in ground trees. Not at all complaining because others have the misfortune of too much water from the Mississippi River floods. Our spring has been cooler than normal too and the hurricanes stayed away last season.  This is caused by either of those El Nino or La Nina ocean current effects....not sure which one causes this type weather pattern.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

I was going  towrite a seperate thread but here goes.

Here in South MA-The weather has been 50's for 5 days or so and Rain.

The trees have basically just stopped growing- suspended animation.

I have only about an average of 3-4 in of growth. Last year it was at the 6 inch mark. It has slowed the advancement of my rooted cuttings in 1 gallon pots.

All my in ground fruit trees have been affected as well.

Right now its more like March weather. We were about 7 -10 degrees warmer, on average, last year.

It really stinks. The jet stream just doesn't want to rise.

Last year was the freak, not this one. This year has been cool so far, while last year was freaking hot!

You guys can send me a few inches of that rain,lol. Having to water in ground figs once a week to keep them from being stressed. My luck, it'll wait until fig season is in full swing.

yeah. We jumped from "Winter" right into Summer. Had about 2 weeks of Spring. Been in the high 80's to high 90's for about a month now. We did manage to get 3/4" of rain last week. Otherwise our drought continues. As for growth, things seem to be going well. Even ahead of scheduel. Watering my in-ground trees every 7-10 days. Good luck to us all!

Watering my in ground trees (many more besides just figs) twice a week right now.....still refusing to put in any sort of irrigation system. Glad I am retired.

Tim,

You probably are right.....the rains will likely arrive during peak fig production!!

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

Last March got 6 inches in 2.5 days. Clay ground couldn't handle it. Inch of water in basement.

This year rain spread out. Little in the way of very warm temps yet. But when warm, sun is intense. Trees haven't been able to acclimate so when the heat is extreme lots of drooping on a few.

But the grass looks good! Not as much mowing as those down south though. Thankful for that.

Hope to get some apples and cherries this year.

Early Spring was warm, even hot, but now late Spring has been unusually cool and wet,

Two weeks ago was the anniversary of our 2010 Nashville Flood - a 1000 year flood event - where we got between 13 to 24 inches of rain in 48 hours (depending on your location).  Luckily this year even though we have had a lot of rain and some minor flooding - last year has not repeated itself.  Most of this spring here has been cool and wet.  Not heavy rains, but very frequent.  So much water in the rivers, fly fishing has been out and will be out for a couple more weeks probably.  oh well at least I haven't had to water anything yet!  All or our water has been kept behind the dams as much as possible until a couple of days ago - now they are letting it out big time - usually both the generators and the spillgates. 

I can't compare to that event and I'm sure not all stories are told. But the 6- 8 inches last March did damage to the New England area, especially up North in NH and Maine. Rivers swelled, spilling homes and businesses down their banks.

If that much fell here, I can't imagine the devastation. This area is not prepared for anything other than snowstorms and even those are getting worse.

6' to 8" of rain is quite a lot of water anywhere.  Yeh, floods seem to follow me around.  My hometown of Seguin, TX, got 3 100 year flood events in 5 years (or something like that) when I lived there 30+ years ago.  They've been hit 3 times since - but lots further apart.  Got caught up in a flash flood on the Medina River near Bandera, TX while camping in '74 or '75 where we barely got out.  We were told 12" in one day upstream.  My MIL moved down the street from us in Nashville, and in a freak flooding incident had her garage and car under water (first time in history had flooded there).  Like lots of other places 100 years ago, parts on the rivers around here would get flooded often.  But the Corps has taken care of lots of that with the Hydro dams.  We get much less frequent flooding of the big rivers.  Of course the streams will get up and if you live on one of them - you'll ocassionally get water. 

Moral of story - don't live near Caneyscud unless you like the water LOL

Hey Dan, I'm still dragging the hose too! My trees are so spread apart, that drip irrigation would require lots of digging. I've been using a soaker hose around my trees. Much more efficient watering and I don't have to stand there holding the hose. Isn't it funny how it always seems to wait until the figs are ready to rain? Hope there is an end to this drought soon. 

Ruben, glad to hear you got 3/4" of rain. When it rains here it rains hard for about 5 minutes---barely gets the driveway wet. You are right the figs are growing like crazy in the heat. On the bright side, the figs should be really good with this drier than usual environment.

Temperature in the upper 80s  and lows in the 70s for the rest of the month.  My water melon plants are growing fast and should get some melons soon.  The figs are growing fast but must water occasionaly.  Very little rain here so far this year.

 I'm watering my in-ground trees. TV says, that so far this year , we are 8 inches low on rain. And, it is last of JUne and July when dought/lack of rain usually hits.
Plus, Like Dan, we received no hurricane rains last Sept/Oct.
  I'm going fishing !!!   Fred

I have watered my outside potted fig trees twice this spring, overabundance of rain.  One day in late April, it rained 4" in about an hour,  my pond overflowed even with the overflow  pipe unobstructed, my favorite big catfish got too near the bank and a predator pulled it out and ate most of it. I discovered it when I saw a murder of crows eating what was left of it.  About 20 potted figs were too close to my gutter downspout and got flooded but were quickly moved with not apparent damage.  The temperatures have been very erratic, but all n all, the growth of my plants so far have been above average.