last year my little Hardy Chicago was growing really slow at the beginning of the season. So based on something I read on a blog, I put a translucent "box" around it:

 

It seemed to really help speed up growth. I am doing the same thing with that HC this  year too. But I decide to try a controlled test. So I put a similar shelter, a white bucket w/o a bottom around part of another fig. Some of the new shoots inside, some outside:
     
Now I will be able to tell for sure if this causes faster growth, longer nodes, or anything at all. Has anyone else ever heard of this or tried something like it?

 

the plant wants more sunlight so it reaches for it?

That's a possibility, but it also seemed to cause the buds to break on the HC, both last year and this one. Maybe just coincidence. Since I can compare node lengths on the control experiment that should tell me a lot.

It will be warmer inside the box/bucket so you might speed up growth from that, but without as much sunlight the internodal distance will be longer and the branch weaker.  That's my bet.

Hi Genedaniels,
It seems that you are not afraid to remove light from that tree, so my question is : Why did you remove the bottom of the bucket ?
I would have left it for a better and bigger greenhouse effect - as you're looking for heat it seems ...

Do you have a third tree :) for an entire bucket  .

What would you think of putting a clear transparent plastic bag over that bucket to keep the heat inside ? Or try it next year.
I would expect a white bucket to repel heat .
Plastic material although would retain heat even without the bottom.
A dark bucket would keep more heat but remove too much light so a bad idea IMO.

Here, I would be afraid to push the trees as you are relying on sun heat to keep them heated.
That means that on cloudy days the system gets screwed, and the tree is left colder and that could be a problem for my tree .
Here we have 2 sunny days then 2 cloudy ...
Keep us updated :)

jdsfrance, my idea is to imitate the use of "growth tubes" that are used for some fruits, like muscadines and grapes. These are plastic tubes growers place around the main trunk on young vines to force faster growth. These tubes are made of opaque plastic that allows light through, but traps heat at the trunk. The plastic sign-board I used on the first tree is very similar to the material "growth tubes" are made from. The plastic bucket was one that I just happened to have around the yard which the bottom broke out of. But since it allows quite a bit of light to pass through, I thought I would work.

The last farm I lived on (5 years ago) we were part of a program Virginia funds to keep livestock out of the creeks. I won't go too deeply into this program but it included the state splitting the cost of planting hundreds of trees inside grow tubes. These tubes are great for the maples, etc. as they protect the trees from the deer (up to a point), sun scald, wind, etc. I wonder how well these tubes would work on fig trees. These tubes are mainly designed for single trunk trees but that's about half my collection. These tubes also help protect trees from the harsh weather and I wonder just how much protection they would give a fig tree. 
Is anyone using these tree tubes?

The problem with regular tree tubes is that they would make the tree long and leggy, whereas I want short and "branchy." That is why I made a kind of tree tube out of the white poster board. I am hoping it will have the same effects. In fact I want to get some more of the stuff and put a "tube" around the UNK green I transplanted. It is growing nicely but I want to give it a boost since it the little trunks are so short (12-16 in) right now.

Gene, do you suppose that it was the text on last year's "translucent box" that you used that help the tree grow?  :-)     (sorry, I just couldn't resist!)

Hi Gene,

Do you happen to know or remember the blog with that information?

I recently planted two fig trees in my back yard for the first time and they look very small and weak. Ideally, I would like to sit under my fig trees to give me some shade and also for privacy from the neighbors. I don't want to wait so any information on how I can accelerate the growth of the tree I would appreciate. 

I live in New York so zone 7. 

Thank you

Tricia

Fertilizing can give you a lot of thick growth.

bob, how much fertilizer? what kind? how often?

i just put my trees inground forthe first time, and i'm floundering.

Here are photos to compare how much the HC has grown since I put the plastic-cardboard around it. The difference is 5 days growth.

 
 
It is a little hard to gauge, but the shoot you see grew 6+inches in those 5 days.

gene, i've never seen such fast growth. how are you fertilizing?

Miracle Grow every 7 days, full strength. But I think it has a lot to do with that plastic-cardboard "grow tube" I made around it. I am really temped to buy some and make a box around my new 'UNK Jacksonville Green' and see if it pushes it.

I use a lot of water soluable, non-burning fertilizer.  Some miracle grow and lots of osmocote spread around the area and watered in.  I also use organic stuff (compost, Espoma, pine needles, coffee grounds, whatever I can find.  My soil is pure red clay.  Your needs may vary depending on your soil but in a plant struggling to come back I want it to have everything it needs.  There are those who disagree.  I give it less fertilizer as the season progresses.

Bob, you sound like me. I have red Arkansas clay. So I dig a big hole, and plant my figs in rotted mulch, manure, and diggings from my veggie compost pile. In fact I plant everything in this kind of hole. I believe in $10 plants in $100 holes ;-) My raspberries and blackberries are monsters because of all the organic material worked into the soil.

Thanks for the information. From reading this blog it seems to me that fig trees like water, drainage and heat. I will try the white bucket idea.

Your photos look amazing! Thanks for the post. 

Here are my two trees I just planted. I mixed a little compost in with the soil (5-1 ratio). I hope the bucket adds something. I fertilize once a week with "Foliage-Pro" 9-3-6. Any suggestions appreciated.

 
 

thanks. i never tried MG full strength. i shall now. i've got sandy clay, almost sterile.

if i can attach a white plasTic bag to chicken wire, i'll try that too. i just ordered the wire because i had some bad bunny damage to my HC today.
loaded the .22 too.

 it just occurred to me that 5 gallon buckets with the bottom removed would stop bunnies as good as chicken wire. so, two of my trees are now surrounded by buckets. i'll tell you if my experience is like yours.

I continue to force growth on my Hardy Chicago. The main shoot quickly reached the top of my plastic-cardboard box. That shoot has grown from 3in to 18in in 13 days.

 


But the little enclosure was getting crowded, so I added another piece of the plastic to give room inside the enclosure. Now two shoots on the other old trunk are taking off. They were maybe 1 in long when I enlarged the enclosure. Look at them now:

 
They are 4-6 in long now, that is only 3 days after I enlarged the enclosure! Also, I noticed that three new shoots are emerging since I enlarged the box, one on each old trunk and one straight out of the ground.

Now, the timing of this quick growth might be coincidental with the timing of the enclosure around the tree. But I think there is a good possibility I am looking at causality here.

However, I should note that the white bucket around the other fig did not have any effect. If you go back and look at the first post,  you can see that some shoots were inside the bucket, some outside it. After two weeks there was no difference so I removed it. My theory is the plastic cardboard material is much more translucent and therefore allows a different wave of UV penetration. I remember reading something about this on a site about grow tubes for Muscadine vines, which is where I got the idea from in the first place. 

I want to make some more plastic cardboard enclosures for my other figs that are just coming out from the roots. But that darn stuff is so expensive I refuse to buy it. I keep looking for some political signage that I can recycle, but for now everything around here still looks to be in use.

gene, i've put some cut off clear plastic bottles on smaller plants.

i noticed that the figs enclosed by buckets put on some brebas in days, but that may be coincidence.