ok, this is my one fig i started with last year. i bought it as a little plant locally, then set her out in the beginning of september. i left for texas from oct to may, and when i came back, she had frozen to the ground but was beginning to come back from the roots. she did have drip irrigation the whole time. i fertilized. the grass was aggressivly closing in, so i rounduped about 2 weeks ago, and she's grown 6 inches at least since then. that's a yardstick for reference.

the figs here have been there for 2 months, i'l bet. are not growing at all, and are white and fibrous inside.

Hi Mike,

Thanks for posting the great pictures!

When you sprayed the roundup did you cover the tree or protect it in any way? The reason I asked is because I used roundup around my newly planted figs and lost every one of them, some were what I would call rare!

no, i didn't cover them. to use roundup - you have to use a coarse spray with a VERY WEAK stream. you cannot get even a bit of mist on your plants or it will kill them deader than a doornail. you have to wait for no wind and you have to have a dedicated sprayer for roundup. that stuff is death in a bottle, and the slightest mistake means you have no plant.

on the pics, i bought this camera last night, and i'm fumbling with it. those are the first pics i've taken, other than ones of my feet.


now it's putting out tiny new figs. i don't think they'll ripen either. this one sure came out fuzzy.

HAHA
Taking pictures of my feet! You have spent tooo much time in Texas

I have found that if I put my camera on Macro for closeups it works better for me, sometimes they are fair, sometimes they are crummy!

I do not take 2 doz. pictures looking for that one great picture
My Bad

i really believe i can get all my figs to grow like this. the drip irrigation makes a big difference. i'll be more careful with my new figs to better manage them this time around. this one came out ok in spite of neglect, rather than because of proper care.

some of the old timers around here will take a large diamter pvc pipe and saw it in half, and then put it around the plant base to protect it when using roundup. i don't go to such trouble, i just spray very carefully. if you ever do get a bit of roundup on your plant, cut off whatever got roundup on it immediately. i bring a pair of paramedic scissors with me when i roundup for just that purpose. supposedly you can get roundup on hardened wood, but i know from experience it will kill a young tree for sure.

i am going to mulch a lot heavier this year, plus i'm buying these mulch mats that fit around the base of plants. they won't let light through, so they'll kill any grass or weeds, and they will let air and water through. they're expensive, about 16 bucks each at lowes. so i am taking mine and moving them from plant to plant after they've cleared the weeds around it. this way i won't need roundup. i hate spraying that stuff.

what the heck, here's a shot of my front pasture. i'm going right down the middle of these other 2 rows with another row of figs :).

Nice,
heck with something like that in that climate  the misses would make be build something out there to house me for i would be out there all the time in that climate.
Here its hibernation time soon .
Lots of room you have for fig plants.

i really believe it helps your plant to have it freeze off above ground. clears the fmv on the new growth and also gives the plant a respite from nematodes (at least this is my conjecture). so i will clip all my figs close to the ground yearly (except the king) and take cuttings so i can beat jack frost to the punch. i'll get a ton of cuttings off this tree alone :). my friends and family sure won't lack for fig trees :).

man i have got lots of projects out here! when i get back from texas, i'm going to put in a big green/shade house, an outdoor hydro unit, and a tissue culture lab. i'm gonna do a little hobby horticulture. however, i don't think there is any money in figs. it's too much work for far too small an audience. bananas and grapes and houseplants are a much bigger biz. still i don't think i'll ever do more than break even. else why would so many nurseries be biting the dust all the time? it's a labor intensive low yield business, just like everything else in farming. i make my living as an rn, becoming a nurse practitioner - but even that i'm scaling back to low stress job.

i'm currently wrassling with the county in the throes of putting in a video studio (actually a glorified barn i'm using to make health care training videos).

this is more fun than a guy ought to be able to have!!!!! :).

in all honesty, i've seen so much death and so many sick that i'm realizing just how short this all is. so i'm determined to do what i want to have fun rather than worrying about money in the bank when i'm an old geezer.

amd so i fig away! :). you guys are the greatest and this is a wonderful forum.

Mike you took the words right outta my mouth when you said this.
in all honesty, i've seen so much death and so many sick that i'm realizing just how short this all is. so i'm determined to do what i want to have fun rather than worrying about money in the bank when i'm an old geezer.
 
 
more so about the death part.
Best Health

 

this is today's pic. it's now got over 50 figs on it. i'm still hoping to taste on this year, but i've got my doubts on whether they'll actually ripen :). decent growth for 20 days since the last pic. i can't wait till all my figs are this size, i'm hoping next year. this was about the size of my natalina when i put it out last year.

Papayamon, sure looks robust. I hope you get to taste some this year, however, it looks like it'll be gangbusters next year. Are you going to protect it somehow this winter? It must be hard  when having to be away from home for work. I would have never thought you'd get that hard a freeze there, but what Bass told you makes sense.

i have too much stuff to protect. i consider that next year i'll start with a huge root system and i'm hoping it hits 10 feet. i can assure you i'll be pouring on the fertilizer :) and the drip will keep it growing.

i don't have a problem because you typically get the 2nd crop here. this was just so little when i started and it's been in grow mode more than fig mode. i bet i get another 6 to 8 inches before the first frost :).