I have people asking me about the soil mixture i'm using for my potting plants.It is very simple:i use soil from "deep in the woods",black one,very rich, mixed with 30%aged horse manure,and some rabbit,chicken pooh.Again,i am watering my plants with rain water or from the small creek behind my house.Now...I wanna show you a little "experiment"...this year in may, I started 2 cuttings,from the same varietie,in the same time,6" each one...one in a 5 gal pot with regular potting soil from Home Depot,and the other one in a 55 gal drum with my mixture.As you can see in todays pictures,the one in 5 gal pot is 20" high,compared to 47" high,the one in 55 gal drum with my mixture.Any comment will be appreciated.Thanks for watching.

I love this!  Soil from "deep in the woods".  Man can only attempt to copy nature.

Marius, very interesting experiment. I guess what surprises me is that apparently the ground soil you are using drains well. I would have thought that it would be to heavy and dense. The biggest problem I have is to much water from the constant heavy rains here in New Jersey especially for very young plants (the bigger ones usually are ok) Thanks again for the pix!

 Peter

I would guess the "soil from deep in the wood" is really a natural compost because of the decomposed leafs, grass and branches; with the addition of composted manure Marius get the "best of the best".
I wish we all had access to such "black gold"!

Marius,
Thanks for posting your growing mix, experiment and results. The results are not actually conclusive. To get a better comparison, both cuttings would have to be planted in the same sized container. I have grown cuttings side by side in different sized containers with the same mix and have observed surprising growth in the larger container compared to the smaller ones.

I will agree that the organic custom mixes that I have tried have produced superior results compared to the peat based mixes. My problem is the limited number of Rabbits and Chicken that I'm currently raising, compared to the total number of fig plants : ) .

Just yesterday I was watching our pigs root in their newly opened forest area. I thought to myself that the humus would make some good soil. Thanks for confirming it for me. I guess my recipe would have a little pig manure whether I want it or not.

Jeff,what pigs...wild pigs??

Marius,

Almost two month ago, I took your advice about using the soil from the forest and using it in containers for figs. However I did not use the soil from forest in the figs containers, since I didn't had to up pot any of the figs or etc. Using that soil made a 5' mulch ring, 3 inches deep around a slow growing Peach tree. Well, we had some heavy down pours since then. That 4' tree is now over 12' tall and growing vigorously. So I know it was the rich, dark soil that I brought from the woods.

Next Jan or Feb when I root prune, I will pot few of my mature trees in that soil. Much better than paying $37-45 for a bag of Promix. And pallets of pine bark mulch, perlite and etc....


Navid.

Haha, they can be kinda wild sometimes. No, we have a small farm and raise Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs. They love to root around in the woods for nuts and grubs and such.

Navid,in September,when you will visiting me,i'll show you some more secrets...:)))

no secrets on this forum boys...share the wealth with us all
thanks for the postings

marius - are the pots very heavy to move around in winter?
much heavier then the pro mix pots?

I don't have a 'woods' to get soil from, but I plant my trees in a mix of yard topsoil, ample compost, well rotted horse manure, and some spent planting mix - if it's available. Most now go into 5 gallon containers. When I was first moving figs up, for some (thankfully not all) I used a version of the gritty mix often mentioned, ...and it was a dismal failure. The plants in that mix simply did not prosper until I tranplanted them into something richer. Maybe it works where there is regular rain - but here, in my yard, a good homemade 'primitive' earthy mix works far better. I need something that retains water for more than a day in a low humidity situation - a classic Mediterranean climate.

If you ever purchase a Monrovia fig tree from a nursery, their pots are filled with heavy black soil and topped with pecan shells.