Topics

rate of leaf vs trunk growth - concerned

Hi everyone -

I bought a dormant brown turkey fig, fully pruned, last December and planted it in good soil in a large container.  We live in Colorado and we placed it in a nice sunny corner of the living room.  After a few months we started to see it budding out, and it rather quickly developed a couple shoots and then leaves which have become enormous - easily 8" across.  And now we have a cute little bulby thing that we imagine is the start of a fig.

All in all, the tree seems wonderfully healthy, though we've noticed the leafing out has slowed since that first incredible burst.  At this point it's about 5-6' from soil level to the top leaf.

Our one concern is that we've noticed almost no growth in the diameter of the trunk.  I have attached a couple pictures to give you a sense (sorry, not sure why they are coming out on their sides).  Is this OK?  We have not yet fertilized it - the soil we used was extremely loamy and rich, and I heard mixed advice on fertilizing - and we give it a good watering about once a week or when the soil seems dry.

Any advice welcome - maybe we're fine, but we thought should ask.  Thanks!




    Attached Images

  • Click image for larger version - Name: fig_photo1.JPG, Views: 59, Size: 814543
  • Click image for larger version - Name: fig_photo2.JPG, Views: 65, Size: 976687

The plant isn't happy about the low light levels, which is what's causing the huge leaves. The plant pushed its initial flush of growth using the energy it stored last fall, which is why it 'burst' into growth. Now, it's not making enough food to maintain that level of growth (again, due to low light), and you're observing the results, manifest in the slow/leggy growth. The tree wants to be on the other side of the glass.

 

Al  

Interesting.  We should be safe to set her outside soon.  


We do get a huge amount of light in that location, though I guess the glass makes it less useful to the plant?

Would you recommend fertilizing as well as moving to an outdoor location, or is this the wrong time for that?

You also need to introduce it to full direct
sunlight gradually, as it will get sunburned.

I'd use dilute houseplant fertilizer. and gradually get it more and more light.  If it will be a while before you can put it outside then get 2 100W 5000K CFLs and put one on either side of the plant near the top.  Put them on a timer with 16 hrs on, 8 off.   Keep watering it when it feels dry on top.

Once you gradually introduce the tree to, and grow it in full sun, the plant will be better off.  You are seeing the results of incorrect culture, and not enough light.  Read post #2 again.  Outside is where the plant should be.

Once it is growing outside, you might get some lower buds that will break, and grow into branches.  Encourage these branches to grow, and if you can, don't prune them back.  This will cause the trunk to thicken.  If you could let the lower branches grow for a few seasons, that trunk will fatten up very quickly. The more branches, the fatter the trunk.  When you are satisfied with the trunk thickness, start cutting off the branches close to the trunk, but don't cut them all off in a single growing season.  Also, pinch out the terminal bud, and the tree might send out some branches near the top end.  You will be training the tree into a single-stem standard....a classic tree shape.  If you leave the branches, you will have a multi-branched fig bush.

Hope this might help.  Enjoy your fig tree/bush.

Frank

There are two approaches for moving plants from low light to high light locations and the resultant photo-oxidation (sunburn) that can accompany that move; but first, let me say that leaves are only capable of adapting to light changes within a certain range. I'll explain that with some numbers.

 

Let's divide light levels into a 1-10 scale with 1 being extremely dim and 10 being blazing light. If a leaf is formed under a light level of, say 4, it's range of adaptability, even with gradual exposure to brighter light, might only be from 2 - 6 or 7. IOW, leaves formed at a light level of 1 - 6, will probably never be able to adapt to a light level of 9-10. The plant will simply shed the leaves and grow new ones. This is especially true when the transition is from high light to low light.

 

This next might cause a gasp, but if your plant is reasonably healthy (ie, not circling the drain) you CAN simply move it from low light to full sun. Yes, the leaves will be burned and shed, but they will be quickly followed by a flush of new foliage that comes in perfectly adapted to the new light conditions - not the end of the world. I'm not advocating for either practice, ie gradual acclimation or just dumping them into the sun. The later practice does tend to significantly increase back-budding, however. Bright light, air movement, an adequate N supply, and of course, pinching, are other ways to create additional lateral breaks, but Edward's tree will always be limited in its ability to backbud on the wood that exists now because of the extremely long internodes formed under low light conditions. Fortunately, that will change with regard to the new wood that forms as soon as the plant is transitioned to direct sun.

 

Al 

Gasp!

A couple of years ago, I bought a one-gallon fig that had been grown in a sheltered location, with plenty of shade, humidity, and protection from wind. It had large, flat, paper-thin leaves. Even putting it in filtered shade in Tucson's hot, dry, occasionally windy climate was a shock to it--the leaves got tattered and dried out around the edges, and when I moved it into full sun they basically curled up and died. Soon afterward, it grew the thick, tough, smaller leaves I'm accustomed to seeing on my figs, and did just fine. Since then, my experience indicates that even tiny, tender figs tend to do quite well in full sun IF they have a decent root system with access to water at all times, and they don't get too hot.

Reply Cancel
Subscribe Share Cancel