Hi all.   We finally found a card for our outdated camera.  Pics were all taken today, 9/10/2012.  

Many are too large to post, so some of my "non-hedge" trees are included.   The hedge and raised planting area are still under construction, but we're getting there.  All were planted earlier this year, the earliest one in April.    About half are this year's cuttings.  Six were potted trees from Thisisme.

I have more pics of the hedge, but they are too big (too many pixels) to post.  also...my apologies for some of them.  I can't figure out how to rotate them.   anyway...I'll try again later.

Looks great!  What types of figs?

Pic 1   (1-6 from this year's cuttings.  7-10 were in pots given byThisisme).

1.   Empty spot in foreground was a sickly, poorly growing UCD Kadota.   Pulled it out yesterday.
2.   Nick's Havasu unknown purple
3.   Unknown purple (from Lukott)
4.   Unknown purple (from Thisisme)
5.   Unknown purple (from Frozenjoe)
6.   Celeste (from Lukott)
7.   Col de Dam
8.   Green unknown (from Thisisme.  May be Alma?)
9.   Black Isha (?)
10  Black Mission (Far end, shown in another pic). 

Pic #2 #3, and #6 is my Nick's Havasu purple.  Brought it with me in a pot.   20 months old.

Sideways pic with red rocks in foreground is the black mission.

Pic #5 (front of house) is an Atreano from a pot from thisisme that had died to the ground last winter.

Last pic is of VDB (from Thisisme) that was doing so poorly in June (a couple of months after transplanting).  I gave it several treatments of hydrated powdered lime (I know, I know...Don't use hydrated lime).  But a couple months after that...it really took off. 

Good job on the hedge and elsewhere!  Your trees look healthy!

Suzi

My tree from Lake Havasu...the unknown purple, has been a very good tree.   It's a very aggressive grower and puts out fruit the first year almost every time.  At Lake Havasu, the year it didn't frost, we got three seperate distinct crops on our second year trees. The figs are large (not huge, but good sized), and taste "figgy." 

The flavor is not intense...there are no overtones of strawberry or pineapple or caviar or anything.   But for me it's been an easy to root, fast growing, prolific producer of good tasting figs. 

If any of you who are knowledgable and interested would like  cuttings this winter in exchange for  identifying it for me I would be most greatful.  

Thanks 

Looks great!  I do have a few questions.

How long is the hedge?  How far apart are the trees planted?  How big do you want them to get?

I am still in the planning stages for my hedge and the rest of the yard - decisions, decisions....

Dave, What is wrong with hydrated lime?

In my studies, this is suggested for faster action results when dealing with soil fertility concerns when Aluminium is to high resulting in an acidic soil profile. 

Congratulations Dave, you did it. Must be nice living in a dry environment without fig rust. Trees look great!

Hi Dave,

The hedge looks great.  Your trees look nice and healthy.  I think when it all grows in you will have plenty of privacy and figs.  Has anyone asked you yet "What are those interesting looking plants?"

Looks great Dave, that border you are building is going to look really nice.

Hi all,  Thanks for the nice comments and questions.

JoAnn,   The hedge portion is 71 feet where it runs along the back fence between the gate and the lot line.  Trees are spaced mostly 6 to seven feet apart and  two feet out from the fence, but the mission in the corner has more room.  It's 5 feet out from the lot line and 8 feet from it's neighbor.  I plan to prune them back to about 4 feet with three or four main branches each winter, and then prune to limit height and maintain shape in the growing season..

Chris, we've had some discussions about lime (how much, what kind, etc etc) here on the forum.  While there was no consensus, a lot of the old timers gave a thumbs down to hydrated lime, suggesting that pelletized agricultural lime or ground up oyster shells was more appropriate.   I have used both and have no complaints about either.  All I know is my  sickly looking VDB really took off two months after treating it with the hydrated lime.

FMD, 55% humidity right now, partner.  We got rain last night and then again this morning, with more on the way.  We can have 60% humidity, clouds and rain one day, and 20% humidity three or four days later with clear skys here in the summer.  Thunder and lightening storms followed by days and days of temps in the high 90'w and into the 100's.  I'm still getting used to it.

Thanks, Joe.  Ya...one neighbor asked.  It's funny though.  When you try to tell people about figs...they all think "fig newtons."  

I've  gotten most of my info, trees and cuttings from forum members.  Thanks to all of you for your help.

Great fig hedge. I bet neighbors will be milling about your property in a year or two.

Dave ,
I use picasa web For cropping , Adding My signature and rotating my photos. And for resizing my pic's I use    http://www.shrinkpictures.com/  .  Nice start to your hedge . I like your use of the pool ladder, but I gotta ask . Is your cat on a lead ? that must be one well trained cat. Mine don't even like their collars let alone a harness .

Thanks for the link Cody.  I'll play with it some later.  Maybe I can fix those sideways pics up above.
_________
Ya, now that my yard is completely fenced, the cats get supervised walks outside most mornings.   Logan (the one in the pic) is in a harness with a leash.  The trick is for them to associate the harness with going outside.    The only time they go out, and every time they go out, it's in the harness.   I always pack my 9 mm and a squirt bottle.  The 9mm is for coyotes and/or dogs in the unlikely (but possible) event of an attack, and the water bottle is to direct the cats away from undesirable areas like the wall (which they can jump).

The harness and leash go on and I pretty much turn em loose into the yard.  The harness is just restrictive enough so they know it's there.  It kind of slows them down a little.  (At least for now).  They like to hang out and watch me do yard work.   I keep within range so I can chase them down when they go over the wall, which occasionally happens.  Lucky for them the lot adjacent to the block wall is an empty lot, so it's not a huge deal to track them down when it happens.  The trick here is not to get all excited and run after them.  They'll let you walk up to them if you're just walking and talking casually, but if they sense you're excited (like my wife gets when she sees an escape  in progress), they get scared and run.

This is turning into a book on cats.   We love our cats.  Can ya tell?

One of my cats is allowed out with me because she stays really close by (likes to be on the porch when it rains), one needs to be on a harness because she wants to run and explore everywhere, and the third is not allowed out under any circumstance because she eats grass and pukes once back inside. When we adopted the first 2 they were so bad! Eating houseplants, knocking things off shelves, on the counters, escaping to the roof etc. I bought one of those half gallon pump sprayers and would keep it fully pumped up and on the mist setting (they would just get a little damp but the noise is really what scared them), just before I sprayed it at them I also made the "tsssss" sound like the dog whisperer and now five years later all I have to do is make the noise and they instantly straighten up if they are doing something wrong. The third we got as a kitten and she was never afraid of that sprayer one bit! she would run up and sniff it and then look at me like "tell that thing to quit it". Aside from destroying one couch she is an angel though. She likes raspberries and blueberries but has not tried a fig yet.

Hello Dave, The unknown purple had two crops of figs this year. Since this was a recouping year from digging up and moving, I didn't pay that much attention to it. I did take pictures of fruit, but i'm still waiting for help from one of my boys to post. There is a site ficuscaricia.com which shows a fig called Casciteddhra. I think this is the unk purple. The breba is more flat from top to bottom and is very good. The second crop has the same colors but pear shape. You will like this fig, might turn out to be your favorite. Your doing a great job on your hedge, looks super.

luke

Hi Brent.  Ya, Jake (aka fluffy),  our other cat also likes to eat grass then come inside and puke.  Other than that he's an awesome cat, so we put up with it.  Most of our floors are tile, so usually it's no big deal.

Luke.....that unknown purple you set me as a cutting was over two feet high in July and looking good.   Tucsonken had posted something about staking our young trees so they wouldn't break up in high winds, and I never got around to it.   Sure enough, several weeks later, it broke off just above the ground.   That's it in the first  pic (second tree in the foreground, and shows it coming back gangbusters.  It's all ready over a foot tall.  (Oh what might have been).  No brebas this year, and the wind took care of any chance of a main crop.

Looking forward to next year.....