What do I know about California I live in the great white north..LOL

The plan looks good to me!
It is similar to what I am planning to replace a row of grapes with a row of figs 250' except that I need to keep my cordons close (or below the ground) for hilling up for the winter.

Do you have a photo of the site?  Not sure what posts you are using for your fig trellis?
I have worked with high-tension wire and it is a real pain.  I found, if I keep the rows less than 250' regular trellis wire works fine and much easier to work with. 

Good luck with it  

Has anyone used the A M Leonard Pot in Pot container system. A 25 gal pot which is planted in the ground permanently and a 25 gal liner/pot, which contains the plant, is than inserted or removed at will. At $10.00 a set seems like it could be worth a look. Ships in bundle of 10 from amazon. Any thoughts especially from those of us considering in burying in pots?

I am very new to all things figs but your plan looks solid to me. What kind of container do you plan on leaving permanently in ground?

I like your plan!  Seems good!  Decomposed granite is what we have, and I wouldn't consider it good soil, but we try to amend ours.  Our big problem is digging holes.  We always run into granite that is not yet decomposed... AKA boulders underground.

Good luck with that plan!

Suzi

I mostly like your plan but I question the wisdom of planting what you have now as the permanent rather than the temporary trees.   You're looking at several lifetimes of figs and you're in Zone 10. Why plant a Mission when you could plant Ronde de Bordeau, Col de Dame Grise, Maltese Falcon or Beauty, Sunfire, MVSB, Black Madeira, St Rita, JH Adriatic and on & on.  I'd suggest waiting until you audition several of the best figs and then plant the winners.  Plant some early, some late, some mid season.   Visit Jon, Harvey and several of the other CA growers.  If you invest 3 years to get the best figs your great, great grandchildren will thank you for it.  I'd donate some cuttings to the cause.

Explain to me about biomass peas.  Where to buy and when to plant?  JD just left for tonight's Ducks game in Anaheim.  I'll tell him about the jack hammer.  Maybe we'll just swing down and borrow yours, give it a try, and if it works, either rent or buy one.  Serious boulders up here.  Some you can watch decompose in front of your eyes.  Other boulders are a little tougher.

I looked for biomass peas on Ebay.  NO items listed.  I know it's called something else.........

Thanks!

Suzi

Territorial seed sells many varieties of cover crop, not to mention a great selection of everything else.

http://www.territorialseed.com/category/s?keyword=cover+crop

Paul
That is a very nice setting for a couple rows of figs.  

Here is a link of the trellis system I use for my grapes.  I am planning to try similar with figs this year.

The wire I use is from the local co-op.  Same thickness as the high-tensile but it is much easier to bend and work with.

High tensile is a very strong wire and is a must if you have long rows.
Long term the high-tensile will last longer and may not stretch as much and need to tighten every year.


http://viticulture.hort.iastate.edu/info/pdf/domototrellis.pdf

Seems like nursery pots would degrade over time. Might not or maybe that's not a concern. Just a thought.

@Suzi: Oops, they're called Biomaster Peas: http://www.groworganic.com/biomaster-peas-raw-lb.html I had to inoculate with whatever microorganism that helps them to fix nitrogen. Then we spread them anywhere near where we had drip lines but nothing growing yet, like in between trees.  We planted in late fall and cut down in early summer. I thought it would takes years of doing this to see a difference. However, when I later dug holes near where the peas had grown, the soil was spongier than the soil just a few feet away.

@pino: Sounds like for my short rows, lower tension would work fine.. might just need to add an extra post in the middle to keep the runs shorter.

@Travis: Yes, I would expect so. But, by then, the root system would be big enough to tolerate some gnawing from the gophers. Also, I think they gophers (or moles or voles or whatever) seem to prefer young and tender trees. I think they are less interested in the tougher mature roots. The wire gopher baskets I use are designed to rust apart after a few years so that the root ball can expand.

Hi Paul,

I had buried trees planted in Air-Pots.  As the trees got older, the holes in the containers girdled the roots.  As the solid plastic container begins to degrade, you may find yourself with a similar situation.  Having said that, the root pruning containers do allow for the roots to grow into the native soil without too much circling.  Use one that is large enough to sustain the tree for at least five years (at least 25 gallons).

~james

Hi paul
watch this link:
http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1893343/visit-with-richard-watts-with-pics

The pix show clearly he is using pots probable for the same reason-tight space.

If i was you i would terrace the ground like in the picture i attach

There are alot of benefits to terracing i believe that it will restrict growth in a tight space due to
Air pruning.

Hi cyberfarmer,
Your idea is good. Let us know how they grow.
... Where is the BUT ? Lets pretend I have some questions instead :
If doing a cordon, and planning for cutting down to the scaffold branches each year ... You are throwing away the breba crop . Is that your plan ? ... Why ?
If doing a cordon, you're looking at small size cultivars, or not ?
Since you're in a zone 10 ( OMG, Zone 10 !), your fig trees  don't suffer from die-back, so they could grow larger.

Now if I had to do that, I would grow them in "bushy cordon", with 4 stems coming out of the dirt at each spot - for more productivity.
As for the pots with bottom removed, because you have a dripping system, you won't have my problem of trees suffering from lack of watering in the summer.
I use pots and 80 liters trashcans - in your case, I would use the trashcans - because you won't be moving them around, you don't need heavy duty containers.
My using of buried pots and trashcans with bottom removed is because of rodents and winter protection and so far , so good . Here in leveled dirt, it seems that a 30 cm /1' deep pot with bottom removed is enough to let the rodents pass by the trees, and not being attracted to the root system - at least, for the last 3 years it has been enough by me .

You could take the opportunity to replace all the dirt inside the container with potting dirt/compost from the nurseries - this is what I do as I have a clay ground that is prone to the clay-jar effect .
So for draining I replace most of the dirt .
Just remember, that fig trees in a pot will be slower to grow and less aggressive .
As for the container lasting or not, here my older are 4 years old, and to my big surprise they still look nice. When shoveling nearby, I just open all my eyes for not to hit the container with the shovel.

Thanks for the link Paul!  The inoculation confused me until I went to the link.  I think I get it!  So you plant in fall.  Bummer.  I was ready to do this now, but it probably gets too hot.  Next year!

I was wondering why you want to keep your trees so small too, but I guess you know your land and what you've got room for.  We aren't doing a B&B like you, so we only care to keep the trees low enough to be able to reach the figs and have the trees not block our views.

Good luck with your plan, and thanks for the help in enriching our awful DG!

Suzi

PS, Calvin that is a nice link you shared too!  I'll spend some time wandering around in there!  Thanks