If you guys and gals had some newly young fig trees growing in half sun half shade and the temperatures are over 90, do you water your trees daily?  I do.  I'm getting ready to build me a drip system.  By newly I mean, the cuttings were propagated 3 months ago and are now able to handle full sun.

I created a semi-fast draining soil and the weather here in Western North Carolina has been extremely hot for June.  We're talking over 90!  The soil in some of my potted trees were not holding up enough moisture.  I had to change my soil to somthing that would hold more moisture.  So I had to repot them up to a bigger size new soil and place them in the shade.  Even in the shade, the temperatures here was 89.  Argh! But I'm glad I repotted them.  cheers, Dennis

Hi Snaglpus,
yes the fast draining lightweight potting mixes dry fast in 90 heat with sun.
By curiosity and because it was cheap about 4-5 bucks a bag at HD i bought as pictured here scotts seeding soil, its not a potting mix per say and heavier than potting mix , its retaining more water as i found out this season in container im useing it in.
I water my trees but when i come to this container it clearly is retaining more moisture and the tree is not suffereing at all because of it as the fig tree looks normal and healthy.
Im not saying this is a fix or anything as i avoid anything like that,  just 1 of things along the way that i have experienced in growing my plants.

I'd be watering every day, and maybe twice. You might try watering with a compost tea, with a fair amount of solids in it, to help decrease the drainage, over time, and increase the water holding capacity of you potting mix. Just a thought, not a proven technique.

Martin, I must agree with you on the Scotts turf builder. My gritty mixes have to be watered at least every other day while the pots with Scotts can go 3 to 4 days with out needing waterings. It's been very hot here also, in the mid to upper 90's every day.  I might add that your Martin's unknown seems to love it.
"gene"

I use the cheap  Super Soil Potting mix, the not so well draining stuff for my larger and smaller  trees and our new >90F temps. They do fine because of the heat and I dont go broke on UPM.

I've been using a base soil mix similar to the one Martin showed in the pictures (I cannot remember the brand). I doctored it up a bit, added pine bark mulch, perlite, vermiculite and some SM to it. I didn't measure the ingredients (kind of like I cook), just eyed it up and added until it looked good.
So far, my recently-rooted cuttings get a little wilty in the heat of the day but they spring back after a watering. I have been watering at least once per day, occasionally twice. They are all in one gallon pots.
The ones that wilted too much from transplanting got a top trimming. I removed the wilted leaves and left just buds. All have rebounded and are growing nice new leaves and roots out the bottom of the containers.

John
Zone 7
NC (Piedmont area)

It also helps to wrap the pots in tin foil. It really keeps the soil temp down a lot if you are using black pots.

I guess I'll just start using the potting mix straight from the bag and not add anymore perlite with it. That should reduce the drainage some.

Also, When I go home I will go out and buy some saucers to place under the pots. I will use Sals method.

The 1 inch deep pots should do right?

It is 6 p.m. and temp is 98* It has bee an unusually hot May and now start of June same. Most already know this but mulching really will help whether pot or in ground I also use saucers under pots this time of year I don't let water sit in saucer for more than a day or 2 I let it wick up and then skip a day of watering seems to work, my soil mix is also fast draining but I like it especially when we get our rain storms that can dump a few inches in a short time

I water every day with a drip system and new pots get a drink from the hose. I have a light medium of compost pine bark and perlite fast draining. I would suggest digging your pots into the ground 1/3 to 1/2 way up the pot it allows the roots to search out their own water source and keeps the base roots cool. Our black pots can really heat up which is good in the spring but can be bad in summer heat and direct light. Continue to water daily and dig them in you can alos mulch up around the pots if need be it works but not as good. search out a post by bass on how to do this very effective meathod.

i have just switched to everyday watering.  i don't remember the sun being so intense, but a lot of my figs have stopped growing in this heat.  i figure water is the answer.

Its hot here in Tennessee. I have most of my figs in Smart Pots and they need daily watering. :-| I missed a day and my Giant Celeste is still showing damage from it.

I do not think the temperature over night here is going to drop below 80F.  At 10:30 PM I was outside pulling grass for only about 10min and was sweating non stop.  The humidity here is very high and in the afternoon the real feel temperature can rise over 100 F.


My figs are still not ripe but the figs are not dropping yet.  My fig tree is young though and it has been dry in April and May.  

i'm having a full on drought.  seems like i'm just not getting any of those scattered thunderstroms.  frustrating when you see it thundering/raining all around you, yet you go a couple of weeks with no water.  i guess that's why i got drip, but i'd sure love a good hard rain.

It's crazy how that works. Down in Ocala I have been getting tons of rain the last 3 days. Looks like more is on the way today. Good for the plants, but it makes going outside a steamy mess.

Having the same drought problems here in Southeast Texas. Some around have had some decent showers, but not here. Have had a couple showers, but only last 5-10 min. which only creates a steam bath.Have been watering non stop. Fig trees are loaded---hope July doesn't turn out too wet. Would be a shame to have watered down and split figs after all the time (& money) spent keeping them watered. I guess time will tell.

Martin, that seeding soil is good stuff!  I got a bag and should have used some of it the other day....forgot I had it.
Jon, I'm having to water every day now.  I had to move 6 of my 5 gal trees and a few 3 gallon trees to my covered deck.  Since then, I've got one Negretta getting ripe!  Yipee!!!  My whip Hunt started a bunch of suckers and it is growing fast!  My 3 gal strawberry fig and my Chico Strawberry fig started to scald on a few leaves so I moved them to my covered deck too.  Both got figs and I don't want to loose them.

The other day temps got to 93 in the shade and I had to water all my figs again.  This Fall I'm changing my container fig soil!

yep a couple of days ago i left gainesville after checking my drip system yet again, because it's so dry it will kill anything that isn't getting water.  i drive through ocala and it's raining so hard i have to slow to 20 mph on the interstate becuase i can't see more than a few feet.   i wish it would rain every day for the next 3 months.  this is killing me, or trying to kill my figs :(.

Hi Mike.  We went through about 10 years of drought here until the regular rains returned.  And although we complain about the humidity now we are very thankful to have the rain.  Watering can keep plants alive but they really seem to thrive with real rain.

I remember well though the frustration of seeing rain in the distance only, or driving home through rain just to see it bone dry when you got close to home. 

This went on for about 10 years in one of the longest droughts this area has ever seen.  So eventually the frustration of being emotionally involved in whether or not it would rain just got to be too much, and I finally just had to resolve myself to this: The drought will end when it starts raining again, and that's not up to me.  The only thing that is up to me is how much I suffer in the meantime.  It's going to rain when it rains, and not a minute sooner.

Hope you do get some good regular rain soon though.

Best wishes.

John
North Georgia Piedmont
Zone 7b

this is compounded by the fact that i have lots of rust/dissolved solids in my water, which tends to plug up my dripper flags.  so you've got to keep after the system to keep it going.  looking at running all my water through a catalyst media for iron removal.  i need to have my water analyzed by the ag agents so i can figure out the best course of action.   of course, all this is tough to do when you're working 60-70 hrs a week 120 miles away. 

basically, my water sucks compared to rain :).

any failures you don't catch fairly quickly = dead plants, especially since mine are pretty much all under a year in the field.  last year we had bountiful rain.  this year is another story.