I know that some of you are growing figs in harsher conditions than I am.  Our daytime temps are mostly over 100 now, nighttime temps in the upper 60's and lower 70's, and humidity is in the teens and twenties.  Afternoon winds have been around 15 mph, which really dries things out.  My soil is clay, and I have 4-6 inches of straw around my trees as mulch.  Trees are all 2nd and 3rd year trees, and most have been in ground for just over a year.

The fig trees are looking fabulous.  Lots of new growth, and a fair crop of fruit for such young trees.  But I am watering heavily every other day.  I am considering going to every third day.  What are you all doing?  How often and how much water are you using on your trees?

I know that everyone's conditions are somewhat different.   Just looking for some feedback.

Dave,

My trees are planted in the ground.  I have them on drip irrigation.  I'm watering them every 3rd day.  I water at night and give them a deep soaking.  They seem to really like this schedule.  The baby trees that I planted this spring are getting an additional soaking with the hose between waterings.  Everything looks happy so far.

Today we hit 113 degrees, tonight's low is 75 degrees. I have clay soil also. We have pockets of thick clay, but the first two feet of soil is softer lighter clay. I've learned to not cover the root ball of newly planted fig trees with my native soil, the clay is too sticky and thick and doesn't let the water drain. Instead I cover the top of the root ball with wood bark mulch. Almost killed a few fig trees that way last year because it was too hot and not enough water was reaching the roots.

I'm watering everyday in the morning and in the afternoon. I try to let the soil dry out, but after a day the leaves start to wilt and they start to burn. Even with shade cloth protecting most of my in ground figs, they still seem to be struggling. Its just too hot here. I converted to the containers, they drain more easily then my clay soil and I can move the containers to more shaded areas when the JULY heat wave hits us. I also have several of my avocado, guava, mango, and citrus on a drip irrigation during the nights.

What are some fig varieties that can handle desert heat?

Hi Henry,

When I was in Lake Havasu City I had similar issues.   My kadota produced fruit with thick rubbery skins, and my black mission never did produce.  VDB produced, but since we were only there for two years, none of my trees got a fair trial.   My little locol unknown did good, even in it's first year there.  I have another unknown from frozenjoe which also does very well in extreme heat.

Some things I did to try and mitigate the extreme heat are...shade cloth on new trees (you're doing that), and planting next to a structure (a wall) which protected them from the afternoon sun.   I mulched heavily in Havasu with woodchips I got free from our local Park & Rec.  6 to 8 inches deep.  That's a big pile of mulch, but it helped a lot.  Here I am using straw.  I was also watering twice a day some times at Havasu.  Wetting the mulch around the trees also increases the humidity as they dry out.  That helps some.

One thing I didn't try, but thought of.  If you have a big tree...planting on the east side of the tree should help with the afternoon sun.

Wish I had some better ideas.  All I can say is mulch...mulch...mulch.

I have trees that are on their 2nd season in the ground and a tree on it's 4th season in the ground and trees planted this season in the ground. It's hot and dry here. Not like Brawley. I know what it's like there. I lived in El Centro for a few years. I do not envy your humidity Henry. Anyway all of the trees are on a drip system with the exception of a large VDB which is on it's fourth season in the ground. All of my tree are mulched with bark. The trees on drip are watered every 3-4 days. They are not on a timer so I water them when it looks like they need it. The fourth season VDB that I water by hand gets roughly 5-7 gallons of water every 2-4 days.

So far everything seems pretty happy with two exceptions. It's not that they are bad varieties for the desert. There are reasons they are not happy. One is an LSU Gold that I dug up. I moved it to a pot with potting soil and then planted it in the ground just before it got hot. It's 25 gallon root ball is potting soil which was then potted in native soil. This tree is not happy. I should have bare rooted it before planting and planted it in native soil. The other tree that is not happy is a Janice Seedless Kadota whip that was planted just before it got hot. The other five trees are happy as clams in full sun.

Here in NM now that we are in the 100s I still only water 1/week with a deep drip system. My trees have lots of straw around them then has made a huge diff in my watering frequency. My nex experiment will be to plant rows of sacrificial corn so between my rows (I have around 150 trees in ground) to cut back on the intense sun. My trees are ok with the heat, its our high-desert sun and winter desiccating winds. 

I am near Los Angeles. The figs are in pots, I am watering every other day in the early morning and spraying the leaves every other night in between.
They are quite happy. The temperature so far has been between 85 and 95.

Thanks everybody.  That's the kind of feedback I was hoping for.   Looks like I may be watering more than necessary.  

Tucson, AZ here, as a newbie fig owner.

I have a Panache and a VDB that were planted in ground last October.
They are planted where they get afternoon shade from about 2:00pm on.
The weather here has been hot; 105'ish highs and 74'ish lows for about
two weeks. They are on a drip system and have bark mulch and a built
up watering basin about 6 feet in diameter. I water them ever other day @
about 8 gallons per. Eventually I'd like to get them down to a once every
4 day schedule, which is what the citrus trees they share the drip circuit
with would prefer. I think they need to be more established for that though.

The trees are doing surprisingly well and are growing pretty fast and holding
onto some fruit. They show some stress by rolling up their leaves in the
brightest part of the day, but they unroll every evening with no apparent
damage. June and Early July is the hottest & brightest time of year here. By
late July we are (hopefully) into the monsoon season and we get some rain.

One accidental discovery is how well they did with being planted out in early
October. They went dormant in December and went through one of the colder
recorded winters here unprotected without a hitch. Because of that success, I'm
going to wait till early October to plant out a couple of the cuttings I have going
under the patio. I've normally tried to plant other outdoor trees in March-April, but
I think fall works better for figs.