very nice!

Some great work Harvey. Congratulations. I am also thinking of developing a simple irrigation system on 17 acres in the next year or so as no fruit tree I plant makes it through the summer.
I have black soil with river frontage and thought that it would be a natural environment for growing things. I was wrong. LOL
I really like the way you designed your irrigation system. Are you using well pumps and is your black pipe a regular drip line or thicker? Which company did you use to do this?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Harvey,

Thank you for the most interesting post.  You have the makings of one fine looking fig orchard.   To be sure your farm operation will be a must visit for any fig aficionados passing through the Delta part of the state. 
Better put up a big fence………. LOL

Sas and Bosco, thanks.  It is going to need to expand by another row, maybe even two, to accommodate additional fig acquisitions since I now have around 200 varieties.  There are still a few that I'd like to get but I think I'm going to slow down soon.  I might even cull some out this year.

Sas, I put the irrigation system in myself and didn't use anybody to help design it, etc. but a farmhand helped me install it.  The black hose is typical drip hose and the irrigation supply company where I've bought supplies from for many years carried everything I needed.  I think the black curly things are called p-curls or something like that and this is the first time I've personally used them but they are used on wine grape vineyards in the area extensively to hang the drip hoses onto the wires.  The only regret I have is that I wish the T-posts on the end were a heavier version because they bowed on my a bit when tightening the wire.  For this orchard I am using well water but can switch to my river water supply if I desire.  I have a 5 horsepower pump that runs water from the Sacramento river for my chestnut and pomegranate orchards but the expansions I've previously made to that system are already maxing out the capacity of my pump (pressure drops off a little already), pumping 125 GPM.  I use microsprinklers on my chestnuts which use up the majority of that orchard.  The drip emitters for my figs don't use that much water so it is easy for my domestic well to supply that water (my domestic well can provide 30 GPM if I have a larger line than the 1" supply line for my figs which really only supplies 10 GPM comfortably).

I will post photo updates when I get time.  I was a bit surprised that I did have some winter freeze damage to some varieties this past winter.  We only got down to about 26F but had about 45 nights with frost.  Even DFIC 0023 that was a couple of years old and 5' tall died back to the ground which surprised me.  I may cull that one out.  Others that were damaged were younger so I will let them recover and hope for a milder winter so they can get some more size to them before the next cold winter.  I've had figs for maybe 15 years and never seen cold damage to any of my other figs so this was a surprise for me.

The information that you've provided is priceless and much appreciated.

All my four in ground fig trees froze their tops off this year. I'm thinking that I should wrap them during the next couple of winters and see if they could escape the winter injuries. The other trees in pots that were left close to the wall sustained minimum damage.

Hi Harveyc,
Here we had a mild winter (Down to -15°C in December 2013 for 10 days in a row) , and though my BT has 4 terminal buds burned and lost five centimeters
on some stems - BT cold hardy who said that ? - .
But the tree can handle that. I just noticed a behavior on BT that I had not seen before. On 3 stems where the terminal bud got burned, a side bud grew and is now on top of the stem,
as if it was the original terminal bud ... Funny .
Just to say, I would let the trees grow for five years before removing any tree - except if they die completely of course.
Did you use any winter protections ?

Your orchard is a nice project, lucky man !

No winter protection here for my figs except for the select few that I keep in my greenhouse to gain some size over the winter to allow planting in the spring.  There are many figs growing wild here.  I'm guessing that some of the varieties I've acquired in the past year or so are just the more sensitive type.

harvey,

looks like you have everyone's dream set up right there :)

I hope so, Pete.  I do have some concerns about the water table in this area of my farm maybe keeping the soil too damp during the growing season.  The trees are planted on the berms for this reason.  There is a good chance that no irrigation will be necessary once the trees become established.

It may be everyone's dream set up, but it's also a *lot* of work.  Too bad figs don't ship well.

I love to spend time in CA.  We could also visit Oregon for fall porcini.  And I'm definitely ordering chestnuts again.

(BTW, Rafed, Looky here!)

 
Harvey, do you get any of these in your orchard?  Some CA orchards get a lot.

Bob,

Are these the ones that take you to Lala land?

Rafed,

I'm sure Bob will clarify but those look like some variety of Morels. Quite tastey and prized buy "shroom" hunters.

The ones you're referring to look much less interesting and unassuming (not to mention - not recommended). Appearances are almost always deceptive when it comes to mushrooms.

Nice pic Bob.

Sorry Harvey, almost forgot to compliment you on that orchard. Very nice indeed. I wish we could grow ours unprotected like that. I'll have to settle for the step-over method & cover them in winter I guess.

Look forward to seeing your update pics.

Harvey that is looking awesome. I'm so jealous!

Bill,

Thanks for the info.
I don't know much about shrooms and I know better than to get close to any.
I was just having fun.

Looking forward to seeing photo updates!!

Harvey, can you give some advice on weed control.

Hershell, I had two workers how weeds for two days a couple of weeks ago!  I am not an organic grower and will probably use glyphosate to help control weeds along with Surflan in the fall as a pre-emergent.  But I might try switching to organic because of pressure from that pesky Gary. ;)