Thinking about raised beds for my wet yard and espalier.  This is the result, instant horizontal fig from a potted plant transplanted into the side of a raised bed.  

 
Will it work?  If a vertical growing fig tree is laid sideways with the main pruned off, will it try to stand up or will it need something to keep it horizontal as if it were being bent over?  

Let's imagine the raised bed is a ring of coated chicken wire or hardware cloth.  Some of you may have compost piles already like this.  Would it act like a big air pruning pot?

One could make as big as needed pretty easy it seems.   

If you know of a topic with this having been done please link me to it, thanks. 

 

I think it will need support of the weight of the growing tree will  simply bend it to the ground. But all you have to do is set two short posts and place an iron pipe or rod between them. Fasten the tree to the support and let her grow. It looks like a very interesting idea.

My only concern is that the sides of the open bed would get really hot, thus so would the roots. So you would have to have a large diameter bed, say 36 or maybe even 48 inches. But that is not difficult to do.

Perhaps we could put pine bark around the outside as it's being filled, a few inches thick ought to do it. 

Should work. Instantly, all buds will have equal dominance, and should sprout verticals.

See Japan 

 

I agree that it will work with no issues.  A little bit of maintenance every few days to keep the growth trained. 

I would also assume that the roots will sent out vertical growth from the raised bed since this is the normal growth pattern.

Chas-

I love the idea!  Congrats for coming up with something so novel.  I could easily see your concept being exploited to grow other fruit trees.  I can envision the planting of multiple trees like the spokes of a wheel, and making a circular, espalier garden.  You'll just stand in between the "spokes" when harvesting the figs/fruit. 

Space saving, compact design, with high yield potential.  Great for small urban pocket-gardens, small spaces, as a special feature in larger areas, etc.  Once the initial set-up and planting is done, it should be easy to maintain, water, and the trees can be easily trained.

You could also make the chicken-wire central rooting area more permanent, and use stackable, interlocking, retaining wall, concrete blocks as a substitute.  When stacking, you could leave out some of the blocks so that the trunks of the planted trees can extend radially, outside the block structure.  Just substitute concrete blocks/bricks/stones for the cylinder shown in your diagram in post #1.  (Fig trees planted using this idea will have to be considered as in-ground trees, and will need some protection in colder areas).

Thanks for sharing this idea.  With threads like this, who needs to buy books?


Frank


EDIT:  I assume that you have devised this concept to be used as a permanent planting system, and my above comments were made with reference to a permanent planting.  I also assume that when the trees are laid and planted sideways, they will be unpotted.

It looks like an option for growing in-ground trees in the colder zones. 
Would be easy to cover in the winter. 

Love it!  Great idea.  I agree you may need to support the tree, no big deal.  If the raised bed is large enough I don't thing you need to worry about the roots getting too hot, but you could always shade the roots.

Sadly it may be awhile before I can try this.  Maybe somebody else will and share the results.  

Another thought hit me that might help heat issues in the pile while conserve moisture.  A larger diameter wire cylinder by a few inches all around would make a space to place the pine bark or whatever mulch around the root media pile and if the inner cylinder was a few inches shorter then the mulch would spill over the outside and cover the root pile entirely and maintain a neat appearance.  That make sense?
 

Instead of a circle you could do a berm and plant the trees every 6-10 feet or so.  You could even alternate sides that the trunks come out of and make a very efficient, space conserving system.  Assuming you can leave them out all winter.  Doesn't help those of us with low zone esteem.  :)

I think if this works, why not a side version?
http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/upside-down-fig-tree-6929346?highlight=upside+down&pid=1283052813#post1283052813

Chas....

After some additional thoughts I realized that your idea is sort of like a modified "strawberry pot", you know, the kind of clay pot with the pockets cut into the sides.  Of course, your design is on a much larger scale.  If figs trees get water, nutrients, sunlight, and have soil around the roots, that's pretty much all they will need to grow, no matter how they are planted.  They can grow upside down, sprout from walls, cracks, etc....so, they will grow with your planting system, too.

Good ideas.


Frank

Have you ever seen the compost socks used for erosion control and small space gardening Charlie? You might have a better chance of protecting the roots if they are closer to the ground. You could probably make some jumbo ones with landscape fabric. 

Hi Charlie, if you have enough land, you could consider digging a nice shallow pond and use the dirt to construct a 2-3 foot bank around the pond, Then you could plant dozens of fig trees all around the pond on the raised banks. Then during the dry periods you would have a watering source. Of course you would need the land and the dollars. Several of my neighbors had a backhoe operator dig ponds and used the dirt for driveways and foundation pads. Then planted hedges and palm trees for landscaping. I know, they should have planted fig trees. Also, there would be enough dirt to use for constructing mounds elsewhere for more fig trees. Just a thought. Good luck.

I understand. You will think of something, you are very creative and not afraid trying something new or different. Good luck.

You might look at my experiment with putting some figs in bags in this thread. Those figs are doing well. I tied some branches down on one to get them to spread. I should probably post an update anyway. Let me take some pictures tomorrow and I can do an update to tell you what I've learned from it.

Yes Tom, please post an update.

Okay, it's up.

Thanks Tom. I have it saved.