I've taken a break from forum posting. That break might not have been good for my progress, but now I'm back. I did make one post some days ago talking about the Walmart "Ischia" figs.

Well... I'm thankful that Driveway Farmer was so generous to this beginner. Many of my cuttings are weak or nearly lifeless, but a good number of them are pulling through. One of his RdB is my strongest cutting of all. It has several stout shoots and is planted in a 3 gal. pot. Another promising RdB was knocked over and broken by some critter (probably a groundhog). There was one shoot left on it, but it never made any more progress and is now going downhill. 

I've had some very good results from RdB so far. It seems very tough... a survivor. I still have at least one (usually multiples) of most varieties I've tried so far. I wonder that some of them that are weak may be too far gone to really progress.

This was really a bad year for me with farming. I didn't have much left in me for that, but I thought I would give it a shot. I made a lot of errors this year. For one thing...first and foremost... I'm a lazy procrastinator, and I overthink things. It took  awhile to get all the cuttings in media; then it took awhile to get them all potted; then it took awhile to get them into full sun, and by that time... conditions didn't seem the best. I hesitated to take them off the porch, especially the weaker ones because I worried about animals disturbing them. Gotta have a lot of light, but now I'm having trouble with the hot, summer sun stressing them out. Can't win for losing... :( I painted the pots and their holders with lime to help with overheating. That seemed to help some.

I've had to put a top layer of plain, ugly clay dirt in all my pots. This seems to discourage curious groundhogs from having a field day digging up the potting soil and wreaking havoc. It's not perfect, but it seems to help a lot.

What does it mean when parts of the leaf turn brown and crispy? Sun/heat stress? Fertilizer burn?

WHY ON EARTH ARE NURSERY POTS BLACK! 

I've learned some lessons from all this. I think I'm starting to figure this stuff out.

1. The containers matter alot! I now am more prepared container-wise. I have both trade gallon and 3 gallon pots in fairly large numbers. I even have trays made to hold the gallon pots. These would have been my favorite pot. but... I have discovered a pretty bad problem with the gallon-pot-in-tray system -- namely -- overheating. Both tray and pot are black, and it seems to catch and build up heat. Has anyone else noticed this?  AM Leonard finally sent me those fabric pots I ordered. I haven't had the opportunity to try them, but I suspect that fabric pots, perhaps even homemade fabric pots, may be a big part of my future. The possibility of increased root breathing and less heat stress has my attention. Another thing is that I began with plastic drinking cups. I never got to root all my cuttings this way because I panicked after overwatering them. I had drilled several small holes for drainage, but it wasn't enough to drain soaked peat moss with a little perlite. I have successfully rooted some this way though, including the use of parafilm tape, and several are still in those cups. I might consider using them again with much larger drain holes. However, those little, round cups are hard to secure and stabilize, and they are small. Nuff said...  

2. Minimize Transplanting! Nearly every single cutting that I got from each seller attempted to grow. A few hadn't thrown roots yet when I examined them, but most had, and very few... if any... I can't really remember for sure if I saw a single one that just spontaneously dried up without ever trying to grow. I had a few that took awhile or dried up above the soil level or something, but success at initial life was at least nearly 100 percent. Something else is coming into play. I read in another thread somewhere-- not sure if it was here-- that mentioned the weak link being the period after being transplanted into potting soil. Maybe it's not the potting soil. Maybe it's the transplanting? I'm still doubtful. In my experience, putting the cutting into a pot sometimes causes a severe disturbance. Often, top growth that begins in the rooting media stops dead in its tracks and wilts or is severely retarded after transplanting. This problematic growth tends to be the under-soil type, and it's like it just doesn't adapt well to above-soil conditions. That doesn't even mention root damage. Yeah, it's a fun experiment, but, if you've got a bunch of gallon pots, then why fool with the shoe-box of peat moss at all?

3. Soil matters... but it's not about expense. I'm wondering... Do I really need expensive potting soil, or would I just be better off with a coarse, friable garden soil, perhaps mixed with some good topsoil? I wonder... The use of fabric pots would reduce the problem of soil aeration/drainage even more. Then the problem might be soil weight... What does it take to root successfully without rot? Is it about fancy sterilized mixes with such and such fungi, or is it just about good drainage and aeration? I wonder if I wouldn't be just as well off with the cheapest coarse mix I can get. I have used a lot of fairly cheap Miracle-Gro potting mix mixed with some more peat moss. I wonder that I should lay off on the peat moss. Maybe what feels good to the hands is not the best for the plant perhaps? Maybe a bigger fabric pot of cheap, soil would be better than a little bit of expensive soil in a small hot black pot. More soil is better? I'd guess that bigger pots overheat less? 

4. A strong start at the right time, in the right time frame matters. Some people here seem to have trouble rooting too early, but it seems that I have trouble with the summer heat. It's like the plants are on a race. They start best early but not too early. They need to grow quickly while they still have the strength to do so, and they need to adapt to the sun before the heat of summer. Once substantial growth begins, they need full sun exposure under spring, not summer sunlight.  This way, they will be strong enough to flourish under the hot sun.


Does anyone have trouble with the summer sun? Considering the nature of figs, it is strange that they have trouble like this. Perhaps it is the potted culture?

Wow, you did a lot!!! Yes, it all matters!! Its a fine balance with any plant not just figs. BUT, once you get it figured out somewhat, its much easier & less stressful.

Leaves turning brown & crispysound like sun burn but then again it could be anything. Keep your cuttings out of direct sun and spray them with diluted liquid kelp.

I DONT KNOW why nursery pots are black!! They should be white! By the way, i need to paint some of my pots too.

Itsounds like you have had great advice from Driveway Farmer. Good luck with everything.

I meant that Driveway Farmer gave me a lot of extra cuttings. :/ Not too proud of having them die on me.... :/

I don't remember what advice he gave me except that he didn't use disinfectant anymore. He might have been the one to point me to the cup and parafilm technique, but I don't remember.

When you say to keep them out of direct sun, maybe that means I should have kept them on the mostly shaded porch all along???  :( Don't plants need maximum light for maximum growth? I thought maybe all that shade was holding them back. But then, I have trouble once I take them out. Kinda weird that figs love to grow in hot, dry, Biblical climates, but when I go and put them into pots, they can't stand a little sunlight. :P This is Virginia, for goodness sakes! Not El Paso, Texas! We never get huge amounts of sunlight anyway. We're too far north. There are certain times of the year that you can't even sunburn around here! I'm sure some of you real northerners know what I mean. No, this potted culture is too delicate for lazy me. I may keep some in pots, but this kinda gives me even stronger reason to go towards a protected in-ground culture. The fig that my neighbor gave me years ago is doing great in the ground. It just dies back too much. :(

So here's my idea I've had for quite a while on winter protection. Wanna hear it? Here goes:

Row Cover Fabric

Stick some timbers into the ground, and bow some plastic pipe or something over it to make a hoop house. Cheap and sturdy. Nothing too intrusive... Just some support. Minimalist. Stretch over some overwintering fabric like Agribon-30 and Viola! Full-sized, in-ground trees without insane amounts of labor or mouse girdling. If you have several in a row, you could even find ways of gentle heating, like maybe radiant heat from a  warm water hose or fog or something.

I used to use old hay, but I keep getting mouse damage. The hay is free, but I wonder if I shouldn't go ahead and spend some money on a better solution.

What do you guys think? Would it be that easy, or am I going to have problems, like snow loads?


By the way, some of my cuttings seem to be doing okay in the full sun now. From what I gather, maybe they just have to get used to it.

Here's an interesting idea that might explain some of it. I've been taking carotenoids (lutein, zeaxanthin, astaxanthin, lycopene, beta-carotene, etc.) lately in a cool little experiment. They're known for being yellowish/reddish pigments and antioxidants. Some of them accumulate in the retinas to get rid of dangerous high energy light like UV. You might say hey help keep you from burning your eyes out. They also tend to accumulate in the skin, causing a skin condition known as carotenosis, where your skin simply turns yellow or orange. Studies are suggesting that some of these pigments can actually protect you somewhat from sunburn. Moreover, studies are also saying that a little of this coloring makes people look better. Perhaps this means that all this tanning is the wrong way to look at the problem. I am fair skinned, and I cannot tan properly. Health professionals are always condemning tanning as a cancer creator. Maybe there's another factor to be looked at. Maybe we wouldn't have as much trouble with sunburn or skin cancer if people simply knew how to stay healthy.

Humans can't produce these substances, but plants do. Why??? For the exact same purpose! To protect themselves from sunburn! It just takes awhile for the plants to make this natural sunscreen within their leaves.