my fig plants are getting too many leaves. do i need to get rid of some?

they are about 1 yr old since rooted, and i want them to grow this year so i can have good figs next year (maybe one or two figs this year just to taste). There are so many leaves on each plant, they look like they are crowded. They are all in pots. i have been fertilizing them every friday since about three weeks ago. they are growing fast.

also, when do i need to up the size of the pot? when the roots come out of the bottom? now the weather is getting to 80 degrees here, i need to water them once every 2-3 days before the leaves are drooping.

pete

Have you looked up Info about Pinching?

This will encourage branches and figs to form.

I have had to do it because when I was rooting, the tips turned mushy and brown( First timer so I was experimenting).This has caused many new branches to form at lower levels (but at least I didn't lose the cutting). The one that grew without pinching has about 7 leaves but they are stacked on one another.

i thought about pinching.. but i want these to be more like tree. i don't want them to look like bushes. my idea was to let it just grow tall as possible before pinching and so on for the fruits. but it just look so crowded. it seems to spend all the time putting out the leaves and not growing upwards.

pete

More leaves = more energy = more growth. If the tree thought4 it had too many leaves, it would shed some.

I just took a few pics to show what is going on for me. No fertilizer has been applied yet for this year. i am keeping them in shade for the first year to acclimate first.

Sweet George with NO pinching



Dark Portuguese With Pinching



Byadi WITH Pinching

I'm going to pinch the George after the next leaf emerges.

nice work Dom looks good!!!!

Dom, I am not sure why you think that depriving the plant (looks like its rooted) of direct and full sunlight will help it in any way...?

Thanks!

No Idea what I'm doing but I screwed up after leaving bins closed for a weekend away and ever since they have been screwed up. Up to that point, that were doing awesome. Then mold and mush set in, so to not lose cuttings, I nip everytime it looks like a limb will be lost.

I would rather keep nipping and get cuttings from a future tree instead of losing it altogether.

Hey Dom,

Can you talk a little bit about why you are pinching? I think I may have misunderstood what I have read about the process or you know something that I need to know. I am asking because the Dark Port and Byadi appear to be young cuttings with less than six leaves. I'm curious.

JD

When I was rooting in bins, I left for a weekend. I was unable to vent my bins. I was leaving my bins closed for the entire time since then with absolutely no problems. I would open them once or twice a day, fan the bins to exchange the air and close again until next time.

Since that time I have lost 30% of my cuttings and the ones I didn't were only saved because I pinched off the mold and leaves that were turning to mush. This is why they are forming branches so low. I would have lost the cutting if not for doing this. The moisture in the containers are near or at 100% and I know that most would vent but I had zero problems until 6weeks ago.

I also tried using peat pots for transplanting. At that same point I started using peat pots inside cups to ease transplanting from plastic 16 oz cups to 1 gal pots.

Ever since then, I have nothing but problems. I spray the tops of cuttings constantly with Physan 20 to stop or inhibit mold.

These 2 factors, missed weekend and addition of peat pots, led to an almost complete loss. So far I have saved at least half. Most of the other half have failed completely and the other half are on life support.

Oh well, live and learn!

Thanks for the clarification and expansion Dom. I read the sentence in your post but wWanted to make sure there was a distinction between what you had to do and the pinching that Herman professes (and that I do sometimes) when anyone searches "pinching".

JD

Yeah I would have loved to have done that( hermans suggestion for pinching) with all but I have to tell you, pinching that low is causing more branching directly out of the cutting instead of higher on one main trunk.

On a Raspberry latte, it caused this:







Blue Celeste

Sorry about your luck Dominick. I killed about 60% within their first year my first time rooting.

With the way I have been rooting, high humidity ends as soon as I seen roots in the baggies. But i only keep clear plastic over my bin and the humidity in there is around 70% or less, then they go to open top bins until they are ready for potting in large cups. I try to harden leaves asap, if the plant has roots it will grow more leaves that can survive better in the new drier conditions. I also give them all the light I can, as early as I can so they do not take as long adjusting to the outdoors. I use cfl lights over the small ones and have larger plants jammed in front of windows. Poor light and high humidity is a recipe for mold and soft leaves.

Ben I missed that post about sun.

I want to put them in full or partial sunlight ( acclimated of course).
But that Sweet George you see, saw morning light for 20 minutes and looked like a closed umbrella the other day. Scared the crap out of me ( last one I have after I bombed the others).

The sun I get is pretty intense and warms up the front quite alot, even for MA. Even some 2 yr old trees are wilting now from the sun in front and they went straight out to the front once temps were high enough.

I'm just paranoid!