Fig plants were thirsty today as of late they have been getting a lot of rain and there waterig needs were nil from me. Its been about 6 days since last rain . Today went thru seven -5 gallon buckets of water and gave them nice does of fertilizer as they have not had any in a while.
Next week im calling the next town over to see about there availability of rain barrels they had advertised for a decent price.

Ciao Martin, I was thinking of the rain barrels too, I love to use buckets below the rain spouts to collect the wonderful water god gives us in rain. It is the best thing for plants.  Seems after a good hard soaking rain, the figs and everything else reaches way up like saying thank you!  They also grow a couple inches quickly with the rain water.  We haven't had any rain recently, it has been very dry here, we are going to have a heat wave this week, its being warned for all animals and people to stay inside as much as possible as it will be touching 100 degrees, Tues, wed, thurs, Friday.  It has been a wonderfully Hot, sunshine filled spring summer here in Central, Penna. Most of my mother fig trees are loaded with figs. Violette de bordeaux and Celeste were the first.    Didn't need to go to the South at all for beautiful weather. We've been in a cold rainy spell for last couple years, now it is finally going back to normal with these hot summers!  Yeah, I am happy with this weather.  I also love to wash my hair in the rain barrels,with rain water, my hair is very long, and it helps to soften it, there is alot of good things to do with rain water, Good health Martin,
Ciao

I never collect rain water, but I have a well that produces good water.  I use it for all my stock water, the garden, the yard, washing cars, etc. 

The rural water district furnishes our house water, but tests show that the well water has fewer particulates, and of course our house water is chlorinated.  The only reason that I do not use the well for house water is that I have not had it tested for agricultural chemicals.

I've found that by keeping the fig pots in a base tray with about an inch of water at the bottom they stay continuously watered and grow faster.  I do not do this with the large, producing figs as I have no bases large enough to contain them.

Edit:  I must add that before you put any rooted fig cutting into a base tray with water in it the cutting must have well developed roots in the top half of the rooting pot.  If it has too few roots above the water line it will die, die, die.  Remember what Al has said about the perched water level; the fig must have roots above this level.  If it has roots above the perched water level it will thrive.
Ox

Hi Maggie, was collecting rain water a common practice growing up in your part of Italy?

Rain water has more nutrients for the plants, its way better than tap or well water. Check out this thread....
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/carolgard/msg0822473216529.html

Yesssireeee i have used rain water as much as possible but in summer run out as i collect it when it gathers in the rocks where some of the tree sit. Neighbors must think im crazy when i get my big umbrella and many gallon jugs holding them under drain spout when raining.  ; )
I could always tell rain water is much better than tap water as i been growing garden for many seasons by watching what the rain does next day to plants as opposed to the hose.
Its no secret thats for sure !
We get well water thru town dug wells but its junk , cant make coffee,cant wash cars leaves spots, leaves calcium deposits on faucets, only thing we do is have water softner which softens water and helps some but not good for my fig plants but thats ok we wont live here forever.
Always procrastinated about rain barrels and now will get one then another next season.

Martin, some rain water is good, some is not.  In some parts of the country the rainwater is really acidic.
Here it is fine, but my well water is good here too. 
Ox

Martin, I've been thinking of using rain barrels too. I think I could just cut a couple of the gutter downspouts in the back and fit them through the lid of a food safe plastic barrel to keep the mosquitos out. I've seen them fashioned on pedestals with a faucet attatched at the base for more water pressure. Are the ones you are looking at something you are going to make yourself or one of the premade types? They are awfully expensive here. Just curious.

Tim, if you look around you should be able to find suitable barrels at reasonably low cost. I have a few 50 gallon barrels that were used to import olives and such. Cost was $15 Canadian. The tops were like canning jars, a lid held on by a turn on ring. I took out the "lid" and used screening in its place so the water flows in and the mosquitos stay out.

Grant

Tim its premade .
They range from 75.00 to 120.00 here in different colors and some odd shape ones as well like a square type i saw in stores which i did not care for . Next town over is selling them from townhall for 60.00 that has to be picked up im going to call them tomorrow. I just want to make sure it has both fittings to make it less hassle for me,
with hose spigot near bottom and another fitting for hose near top for the over flow.
Whats is ironic is before i retired they had the 55 plastic drums nice thick ones in black, white and blue that i could have easily fashioned one for my needs that had soap in them. Now i heard they count them and send back to where they come from so i cannot get one , i used to get the 55g nice thick steel ones for burning cans when i worked there those carried oil in them.

Thanks Grant  and Martin, I've seen them for sale here used(the plastic drums), but never checked into it. That's not a bad price at all, Martin--- beats buying them at Lowes or HD. Good luck with it.

Ciao Sal, yes, collecting rain water is and was a common practice back home growing up.  Our rainy season is in the winter, Nov, Dec.Jan.  Our region has the best cleanest water in the whole country, it comes from the mountains that run down the center of the country, we have so many names for these mountains, too numerous to mention. We were closer to the sea, there was a large well that supplied our homes.  This days, they are modern now, for the most part, some families still have the wells and use them.  Alot of times also, the women would take the laundry into the center at a public well and do the laundry there or in the streams, it was alot of work for them, but the clothes always got clean.  There are also large towers that collect the rain water and is used for alot of irrigation in the Fig and grape orchards, apricots, Plum orchards.  Olives can be drier, they don't mind, because in the summer, it is very hot and bakes the ground and it doesn't rain much until the winter. So saving this water is a big practice and very very importanta.  Also, I think I  to mention saving the water that we caught fresh water fish,  we would save this water in large tubs and water with it as well because the fish water was soo beneficial to the plants, any of them.  Ciao

Thanks for responding Maggie. The reason I asked was when I was a young lad 12-15 yrs old I visited Sicily twice and I do remember how precious water was. My family would fill up pots for the days cooking and the bath tubs to use for flushing and what not. Yes they had running water but after a certain time in early morning probably about 10:00am the pressure would drop and just trickle out if any at all. My other uncle who had a home at a lower elevation in the same town (Linguaglossa) would have water for the most part of the day. This was 30 plus years ago I'm sure by now the figured out how to get water up hill. ;) My wife and I visited Italy in 2008 and even though we did not make it to Sicily you can still see how much water is protected even the toilets had 2 flush modes to conserve. Wine was cheaper than bottled water which was a good thing.lol I guess we just take a lot of things for granted which one day will come back to bite us in the ass

Sal, you're right. We take so much for granted, which will indeed bite us.

Scarce [and prudent use of] water has been a factor in the US too. My dad grew up in Santa Barbara CA, which has about the same annual rainfall as Siracusa, Sicily.  The home [built by my grandfather] didn't have piped-in water for years. My grandfather designed it so the rainwater was funneled through sand and charcoal filters and deposited in a cistern beneath the house. A chain-and-bucket mechanism was used to lift the water into the house.  Any other structure on the property having a roof...shed, workshop, stable...had gutters and drainage systems that directed the rainwater into the orchard or vegetable gardens. My grandfather was determined than not a drop of rain go to waste.  

The house roof also held a glass-covered box filled with black-painted pipes...you guessed it, a solar water heater. According to Dad, they were quite popular before the distribution of natural gas [and of course, electricity] made tank-type water heaters feasible.

Our visits to my grandparents' must have sunk in, because my parents, brothers and I all have rain barrels or other methods for collecting and distributing rainwater.  I distinctly remembering that every night, my mom would fill a container with warm water downstairs and carry it up to their bathroom so she could wash her face....because she hated seeing all that water go down the drain before the water got warm. Likewise we had a bucket in the shower for the same purpose....so the first to shower could capture the water until it got warm.

When we bought our home, I set up a rainwater catchment system with rain barrels. Our neighbors thought it was wierd. Now, it's more fashionable, so they all have them! :-) 

We have enough water around here so that only the garden enthusiasts catch rain.
I poured six inches of rain out of my gauge yesterday.  Between city water for the house and the well for all other purposes water is cheap,

Seventy five years ago I lived in a country house in S. Texas where there was neither well nor city water.  The gutters on the house moved water to a large tin cistern outside.  No filters, no sand, no charcoal.  Water had to be boiled.  I hate now to imagine what the inside of that tank must have looked like.

As for any special powers of rain water, I doubt that this is so.  A bit of Atmospheric nitrogen and oxygen perhaps, but well water does as well here, and is perhaps less acidic.