I am planning two raised wide fig rows to plant some of my most promising first year plants this fall. Was wondering if there is a preferred direction to orient the row to provide the most sunlight. N & S, or E & W. Will get pretty much full sun. Thanks in advance.

I have planted a row South to North. 

E-W is generally preferred for row crops, such as corn.
Commercial orchards plant equidistant in both directions, so it shouldn't make much difference.

How close you plant the trees in the row, and how far apart the rows are will determine how to maximze the sunshine. If they are planted E-W close together, they will tend to shade each other. If they are N-S and the rows are close together, then each row will tend to shade the others in the earlier morning hours and later afternoon hours.

Well then rows at 45 degree at North-to-South should take care of all concerns.

Bass,Jon, Ottowan thanks for your replies. I usually plant my garden N & S so maybe it doesn't matter at all as long as they are in full sun? The rows will be about 10' apart and 40' long so I think I can safely get 4(maybe 5) trees in each row. I plan to keep them pruned and about 4-5' tall each spring. It's basically a trial row to see how they do in my climate and will be easier to keep irrigated in a row vs watering individual trees.

North to south for maximum exposure to sun,but,in your very hot Sommer sometimes full sun mean too much heat,so ,it is up to you.
In my climate it makes a lot of difference and need to be ,north to south.

Hi everyone.  I am planting a long fig hedge North to South. 

Having them in a hedge row will make watering (with a soaker hose along the hedge row), weeding, and picking far more efficient. 

Mowing will also be far easier, which is a big deal in the Southeast, where heat and humidity make the grass grow like crazy, and make if really, really miserable to be outside cutting it in the hottest parts of the summer.

I will be planting the big row here in very early Spring (still clearing the trees right now), but the mini-test row (also North to South) worked out fine this summer.  It was far easier to mow up one side, and then down the other and be done, than trimming around each plant individually.  And the natural shading from the plants and good heavy mulching kept weeds down to almost none under the plants in the mini-hedge.

I am also planting all the white figs on one end (because our birds don't seem to bother the white figs; so no net is needed) and all the dark figs at the other end so the dark figs can be netted all together on that half of the hedge (the birds go crazy on the dark ones of course).

I have been growing blueberries in a North to South Hedge for years, and this has worked out great.  You can get more plants in less space, more fruit from less space, and mowing, watering, and picking are far easier and more efficient.  When all the plants are separated and its very dry, you waste a lot of water with plants here and there as the water disperses from the plant watered to surrounding soil.

Hedges are a very efficient plan, and I think they look great too.

Best wishes to all.

John
North Georgia Piedmont
Zone 7b

Thanks Herman, I have decided to plant the north & south. Very good explanation of why. what kind of spacing do you use in your rows?

Hi John, yes, I'm excited to try the hedge row idea. I'm so tired of dragging the water hose to individual plants and drip irrigation system would be a huge project here. I plan on using a soaker hose also. The birds do bother the dark figs worse than the white figs here, but as soon as there no more black figs available, they go after the white figs also. What spacing are you going to use? 

Hey Tim, I am thinking 7' should be fine.  At least that is how I plan on spacing mine at com Spring.  cheers,

Dennis' suggestion sounds very good.  I'm going with a little tighter spacing, 5 to 6 feet, just because I want a quicker, tighter hedge, and I have a lot of fig trees to plant. 

I will go with a little more or a little less space when I know that that particular variety tends to be more upright or more spreading; smaller or larger, but my main purpose is an edible landscape hedge, so I'm spacing a little tighter. 

The first hedge I'm putting in runs about 200 feet, so that's going to be a lot of figs.  And it will remain a work in progress.  I have about 40 different varieties ready to put in.  If there are any that we don't like, or that die, they come out to make room for another fig, either a new one or more space for a neighboring fig we do like.

Even at the tighter spacing, they will still have a lot more room than in a pot.  I also plan to put in a LOT of good soil amendments prior to planting the hedge, lots of peat moss and compost tilled in, topped with several inches of good quality bagged soil, then topped with lots of pine bark mulch, and then start planting.

But today, it's continuing to take out the rest of the trees.

Best wishes to all.

John
North Georgia Piedmont
Zone 7b

I have my straight line rows going in an east to west direction.  Tree spacing was 8 ft. apart in my initial trial row. In subsequent rows, I planted them 10 ft. apart to make it easier for me to mow with my Grasshopper front-deck mower.

Dan

John, your 200' fig row sounds like a good plan and a big undertaking. Wow. Thanks again for your suggestions.

Dennis/Dan, I was planning an 8-10 ' spacing. I don't want them too crowded. Thanks for your input.

John, if you're ever in the mood to take photos of your fig hedge thus far, I'm sure many of us would like to see them. It sounds like a good strategy for finding out what works best, even when you don't have a lot of room, or a lot information from other local growers.

Hi Ken.  I will be very happy to do this.  Right now there is just the short mini-test hedge I planted last Spring, and then 200 feet where I am clearing out trees, a row of Leyland Cypresses I never should have planted anyway. 

That's going to take a while as they are pretty big now, those grow very fast.  If I can get the stump out I do, but these are way past that size, so I use those little dowels inoculated with fungus.  That has worked well with other trees, turning the stump into compost pretty quickly.  But I have never tried this on Leyland Cypresses.  I got the right kind of fungus for these, so we will see. 

Either way, I cut the stump down just below ground level (by digging around it to make room for the saw cutting that low) and cover it so you can't see the stump at all.  My goal is to have the whole bed ready for planting this Spring.  I will take pictures. 

I will also take a picture of the deer fence I built around the garden and our Fall garden.  We have vegetables year round by using hoop tunnels.

Hope you are well my friend.

Best wishes.

John

i lived most of my life in apartments. first in seoul, then nyc.. even in nc. then married my wife and she wanted a house, so we bought a house. now i'm beginning to understand why people want land. if the fig trees are doing well, i might convince my wife to pull up all those ugly maple trees front of my house and put fig trees in that spot. i'm not even sure what kind of maple trees they are, but they are not doing too well. the canadia maple, and japanese maple we have are doing great, but the ones on the front of the house is just ugly, and not growing well.

pete

Hi Pete.  My wife told me to plant the Leyland Cypresses!  ;-)

When I was planting them, I thought "this won't end well" and it didn't!  ;-)

Ten years later, and 20 feet taller, we both agreed that these needed to come out.

But since that means I get to plant figs there, no complaints from me.

It really is a lot of fun having some land and growing things.  Everyday I go out and see what is happening in the garden and the orchard.  Best "reality show" ever, and this one comes with free food.

Best wishes.

John

My trialing row,is for trial not for to grow a fig there,so the space between the very young trees is 2 foot the closest.
Now if I decide that a cultivar is bad and sour then I discard it right from,the trial row.
If I decide a cultivar is good,then I find a place for it troughout the garden,front or back of property and plant it single with as much room around as possible ,but at least 10 foot from the nearby tree,and if the nearby tree is a maple then ,i plant it more than 20 feet from that maple and in the south or west of that maple and not in the North or east,where it will be shaded during the day.