Hello everyone, well my fig orchard is complete.  Well almost except for the irrigation system going to be installed in about 2 weeks.  My fig orchard is on a hill.  In some places it is 30 degrees and less in others.  I have 67 fig trees installed in the ground.  A month ago I rented a one man auger.  And I don't care what anyone tells you!  A one man auger is really a TWO MAN AUGER!!!  I installed each tree by myself.  I'm a pretty big man, over 6 feet tall and over 200lbs but the day I drilled the holes in my orchard, I had a severe head cold which turned into a touch of pneumonia.  Just to get the auger out of my pickup and drag it up and down the slope of my orchard took a lot of strength out of me!  But I drilled 47 holes in 5 hours taking breaks in between each hole to catch my breath and strength to hold the blade in place.  On the 40th hole I got careless and the auger bit popped my knee.  I went down. The blood started to flow through my jeans and my knee swole up like a softball.  After I yelled and screamed, I finished the final 7 holes! 

Below are a few pictures.  Therer are a few trees that died to ground and are now coming back to life.  I've got 3 in ground Black Mission trees that I will be pulling up tomorrow morning and replacing them with a few others. 

Here is a list of what I have in ground now.
Byadi (BS)
Celeste
Peter's Honey OGW
Votata
Atreano (OGW)
Lamperia
Los Lunas
Brunswick
Marseilles White
Native Black DN
Genoa DN
187-25 UCD
Italian Honey OGW
Green Greek
Celeste
Smith RR
Petite Negra
Pananas Purple VS
Desert King
HOK (Heaven Only Knows)
Black Celeste
Bellclaire GM #14
Kathleen Black VS
Dark Portuguese BS
Deanna RR
Marseilles Black VS
Paradiso GM #9
Martin's Unk #17
Violetta
Brooklyn White BS
Atreano Gold
Hardy Chicago VS
Celeste
Black Italian DN
Don Fortiss VS
Black Mission (Lowe's)
Italian 258
Chico Strawberry
Black Mission (Lowe's)
Gino's VS
Sal's Coreleone BC#31
Black Mission (Lowe's)
Chico Strawberry SV
Strawberry BS
Ronde de Bourdeaux BS
Strawberry BS
Shar Italian DN
Brunswick
O'Rourke DN
Bourjassotte  Greise
Charlotte DJ
Melanzana Merdoscola
Charlotte DJ
Negronne
Taco KK
Stella OGW
Ischia Green
O'Rourke DN
Weeping Fig
LSU Gold HS
LSU Purple HS
ABQ1

I took 2 pics of my fastest growning trees since I've placed these in the ground 4 weeks ago.  They are Hollier and Atreano.  Just look at the figs on my Hollier!  Last year my Hollier figs were tiny, not this year!  I fertilize each tree with 3, 8-11-11 fruit tree fertilizer spikes.  They last 6 weeks and work well for me. I install them using an electric drill and a bulb auger. 

I took a top view picture of a tree that is sooooo slow to leaving out but was a super sweet fig.  Last year, I posted pics of leafs and fruit from this tree.  Some were saying that this tree is a Celeste.  I disagree.  I have 3 Celeste fig trees in ground and every Celeste has leafed out except this guy.   The buds are starting swell and push out.   I also added a few picture of my backup trees in case some of these in my orchard die, I have backups to plant in their place.  These are in 5 gal+ containters.  They are:
Violette de Bourdeaux (about 8 of those)
Malt Black
Black Jack
Atreano
Raspberry Latte
Celeste
Brunswick
Scott's Black
Sal's
Marseilles VS
Hunt
Lemon
Ischia White
Pappa John
Italian Purple
White Gem
Hardy Chicago
Blue Celeste
Golden Celeste
Paradiso
White Triana
Black Triana
La Goccia D'Oro
Monstrueuse
Black Maderia
Texas Evb White
Flanders
LSU Black
Tiger
and a few others

Well, I've got to finish laying out my concrete pavers and running my main water line.  Thanks for reading my post.  Good luck everyone and may you have the best year growing figs!  cheers, and...

HOW BOUT THOSE FIGS!!!!!

If I was you I will discard all Brunswick type figs before your orchard gets infested with fig beetle!.
Any fig that sour so bad like Brunswick and has a large eye and an interior cavity,is a host for fig beetle.
Once it establishes itself in your orchard it will push trough fruits with smaller orifice eye and sour them ,before ripe.

Great job Dennis. Thanks for keeping us posted. Looks like a must visit place if I have a chance to be in NC. I like the HOK variant name. Hope its an awesome one.

Dennis

A great fig collection indeed!, keep up the good work.

My cuttings will be ready soon.  Let you know in a few days.

George

Great job Dennis, I hope the damage to your knee is too bad. Your hillside reminds me of Jon's hillside in Ca. Good luck with all your trees and looking forward to more pictures of the trees and fruit as they mature and ripen.
"gene"

Very Impressive, All the best 

VERY NICE! Awesome list of varietals. My experience with Brunswick has not been the same as Herman's. Did have a few spoil after the weather cooled down in the "fall" and one fruit became waterlogged after a hard rain while it was ripening. Otherwise...YUM! Good luck!

Good God Dennis! You have been busy. Very nice work.

I can predict the CNN Headline news in about three years:

• Man starts the largest fig nursery in North Carolina...in his backyard! 
• North Carolina man donates figs to local food banks.
• Man's blood tests positive...for fig?!?!
  

Dennis, I am here to officially advise you that since you have so many fig cultivars in your collection, that you must now register your collection with the Federal Government's "fig gene pool" !!!!!!!!

........nice collection and looking forward to your future reports on those cultivars.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

Dennis beautiful job.

Hi Dennis,
 stock up on some extra camera batteries and a fruit scale.
Wow thats a lot of figs your going to have once they take to the ground.
Can see the sign menu out front.

Fig picking by the pound.
Fig wine
Fig bread
Fig plants for Sale

Great job, Dennis! I was sitting here scratching my head wondering where the Blackjack was till I hit the 5gal section ;). Great selection indeed!!

OMG!  This is an intervention Dennis:

Please . . . repeat after me: "My name is Dennis, and I am a fig addict."  ;-)

That is a fantastic collection Dennis, and a very, very impressive set up.

You will have many, many happy years with this.  Lots of fun, and lots of great food to come.  And good health too.

Sorry to hear about the injury though.  Power tools can be dangerous and unpredictable, especially in this rock hard red clay.

I greatly appreciate your sharing this Dennis.  There is clearly a tremendous amount of work here, but the payoff will be even more tremendous.

You are an inspiration my friend.

Best wishes.

John

p.s. Thanks for the tip on removing the Brunswicks Herman.  Another F4F member said the figs he got from "Michigan Fig" turned out to be Brunswicks.  When I first started ordering figs from Ebay, I didn't know anything, so I have a couple of those from MichFig.  I'm going to take them out to be safe, and then their next assignment will be cooking hot dogs.  Better safe than sorry.

Best wishes to all.

John

I am inspired. Great job.

Wow! I am amazed! Great job!

Dennis, your fig project has a lot of potential.  For those of us who grow figs in ground in the mid atlantic region it will be real interesting to see what you learn about varieties and growing techniques etc. in our climate.

Dennis, all I can say is wow. You did a tremendous job. That's an impressive list, too. Best wishes to you! Tim

I really hope these cultivars planted in ground survive this winter. I can't wait till summer to try the fruit.  I got plenty of space to plant more fig tree, if the wife let me!  She's been wanting a garden.  Yesterday, my neighbour gave us half of their garden space, a huge area 70 x 50.  So now I have play farmer john and plant veggies too!  I want to plant a few UCD & Richard Watts trees in my yard if the cutting are successful.  I have them in my garage and they are doing well.  I'll keep you guys posted on the progress of these trees throughout the year.

Hi, Dennis!
I'm seeing you having fan:-)
I'm watering my figs every day plus other my fruit trees around 3-4 hour..
I had a system, but my husband broke it when he move the grass.. So, now I have fan every day, plus at night I'm watering my huge trees..
But..I don't think I will create watering system for the figs..Seems to me, like different varieties need different ammount of water.. So, I just give every one just what they ask for...
But one thing real help me..I cover all pots with pain bark, I cover all soil like with a 1 inch of pine bark..Every fig over couple of days start look much better, and every one have new and healthy leaves...
So, I even start to think cover with it my in ground trees..
Seems like plants real feel better with it..
Olya.

Looking good Dennis.
Keep up the good work and keep us posted.

Wow that's impressive nice work!

Wow Dennis!  Congrats on a lovely fig orchard!  We all have fig envy now:)

This is awesome Dennis! I hope your knee and figs are doing well.