hiya guys. when i look up the water needs of peaches, i get exact info.

when i do the same for figs i get generalities.

i need to know in advance. i'm in a drought and there's no sense planting more figs inground than i can keep alive.

so, in hot weather, how much water does a 2 year old just transplanted need? how about the year after?

once they are planted, i can tell if they are suffering and in pots they seem to need 7 gallons/week.

i'd like to plant 5 or 6 figs this year, the same next year but i can't plan without this info.

i do knowthat very old trees in new mex can fend for themselves, but i gotta keep them going to that point.

so, any info, ideas, suggestions would be very nice.

I would say like everything else, there is no exact answer.  Not only from variety to variety and location to location but daily, weekly and monthly requirements change.  On a hot windy day, more water will be required than on a cool overcast day.  Is the tree in ground? what kind of soil?  If it is in a pot, even more water since pots dry out faster.  I think it is impossible to definitively say how much water anything will need at any given time or age.

The advice I got and go with is to not over water, if I see the leafs wilting a bit, they get a inch or two of water and that is it.

I realize this is not really helpful when your looking for a number of gallons so you can budget your water use.  I feel your pain on the drought, I removed the sod from my front yard last year due to drought and water restriction.

yeah, co, i lost my lawn too. i'm putting astro turf in my garden. can you estimate how much water you use when you do water new inground plants. there are few cloudy days here in summer, just blasting sun at 4500' .

So far, I only have two fig trees which are currently in 3.5 gallon pots (I hope to get them in ground this year, next at the latest). In the pots in full sun with no shade from dawn to dusk in the 90+ degree heat with nearly no humidity, they got around a 1.5 gallons each no more than once maybe twice a month, plus a little rain (not enough to be significant).  So in ground even with my sandy soil, I'm sure that typically speaking, they would use the same or less. 

We receive more than 300 days a year of full sun, so I feel your pain.  Plus the high altitude makes the sun more intense. 

thanks co. be nice if you signed with a first name so i didn't have to call you co.

um i think i misunderstood your msg.  surely you didn't mean you watered those figs once or twice/month? or did you?

using the same size pots i was giving 1 gal/day.

Yes, once or twice a month.  They had thick vigorous growth and each of them produced around two dozen figlets that I had to remove since it was there first year. (just got the rooted cuttings from aphahn last spring).


Scott

thank you scott. since our conditions are similar, perhaps i used more water than i had to.
you think inground uses less water? i was thinking more. there was no rain here from march to august.

not sure little trees can find any natural water at all.

Susie,

It is my experience that plants in pots dry out faster and use more water. The root system is smaller and limited for one, the (usually black) pots heats up in the sun and burn off soil moisture. Knowing that most figs come from hot dry climates, I was instructed to only water them when they start to show a little bit of wilt. Not enough wilt to cause harm, just when the leaves are a bit droopy, and it has worked out wonderfully for me.

Scott

i'll try that, scott.

Let me know how things work for you.  I have used even less water over the winter, since they went dormant in October, they have only been watered an inch three times.  The terminal buds are fat and happy.

Scott

i shall,. you too please.

Indeed

my 1 gal uses more than 1.5 gal of water in a month at 90 degree and it's humid here and raining very often.

in summer with day temp at 90 and above, my 3 gal containers will have to be watered twice a day. if i skip a day, the leave will wilt. if i forget for 3 days, they will dry up and all drop.

and i had them all drop leaves due to malfunctioning drip system while i was camping.

Those difference are why I can't see any definitive way put a number on water use.  Is it the soil in the pot? The variety of fig? Geographic location? Unknown or unobserved variants. Combinations of all the above and then some.  I will keep a watering log this summer and get a clearer picture.