Most of my figs are in pots. They are in an unheated greenhouse all winter. They come out in April. When and how do you northerners fertilize your potted figs? I've been doing it in June, but I think that is a bit late. I should preface by saying I'm only willing to fertilize once, or at the most, twice per year. I prefer to use something granular and I'm not going to use fish emulsion, bat guano, Guinea pig toe nail clippings, or anything like that. I've been using a 10-10-10 / lime mix, but I'm willing to experiment (a little).

Everybody will give you a different answer. Many have it well thought out. I'm lazy, I do it fairly simple. First 10-10-10 is about the worst stuff in the world. Ratios are way off not just for figs, but for any plant. I use Dynamite control release. It says it lasts 9 months if temps are under 80F. My experience is it lasts about 4.5 months, which is not bad. NPK ratio is decent and includes micro nutrients. Osmocote says 6 months, so lasts about 3 months. I also add Plant-Tone or Garden-Tone once a month. I start in April. The start of the season is where they do the best. I'll put my trees against anybodies. The biggest fig this year started from a cutting in February is now 8 feet tall, first year. I have a few 6 feet, and a few 5 feet, and the rest are 4 feet tall now. A few smaller that i started later. I also never add lime. I like the pH  between 5.5 and 6.5. Hard to do if adding lime. I use gypsum in my homemade soil mix. Takes care of any calcium needs, as does the fertilizer, more is not better at times, the gypsum is probably not needed, but it tends to stay neutral, as pH is really important. Lime can sky rocket your pH.
Here is one of my first year cuttings, unk. Teramo, photo taken about 6 weeks ago.


This photo was about 75 days ago. Red Lebanese (Bass)


This is the 8 footer, photo taken 10-06-16 Sweet Diana. Not the best photo, as it was backlit by the sun. This one is in ground, but got the same fertilizer regimen.

Very impressive. Which Dynamite control release? There are several different ones.

Hi Adelmanto,
Just curious : When and how often do you water ? ... (once a year ... LOL )

Even in ground, I fertilize from March to August sometimes mid-September. I'm using 10-10-10 . This year I tried 5-10-10 something like that. But next year I'll get back to 10-10-10.
I water (depending on the weather) from February to November . In the growing season May-September I water once or twice a week (even 3 times in the Summer). Just last week, I had 2 potted trees wilt ... because we had no serious rain for 2 months ( had, since it has been raining this week ) .

In pots, I need to water the trees more. So nutrients get washed away. I don't see how one could fertilize just once a year... but, that's ok for me, everyone is free .
In the ground, after big rains, it is the same. So I fertilize them all, once a month from 1st March to 1 August sometimes 15th September.
Some years, I add mulch, wood ashes, Lime (on the trunks that gets washed to the dirt) and occasionally manure (hard to manage the supply chain - get, store and dispatch- as I don't own animals ).

To get back to your watering schedule, did you think of using a liquid fertilizer ?
What are your results with your trees ?
Do you have a pic of a tree at beginning of the season and now ?
I've seen reportages where people keeping trees in botanic garden say that what works best is removing every (/other) year the top 5cm of dirt and replace with new loam ... and every 5, remove and replace 5 cm of dirt all around the roots - it has to do with the texture of the dirt getting messy as time goes by.

Thanks for the info so far. I was thinking that 10-10-10 one time per year is like 3-3-3 3x per year. Lower ratio's, in proper proportion, more often, makes sense. Generally speaking nitrogen helps leaves turn green and grow faster, phosphorus helps roots grow, and potassium helps fruit production. Unless I'm mistaken. I overhead water every day. It's not over kill, but I can see that by October the nutrients have leeched out. I've got good growth, but I'm not happy with fruit set and getting the figs to ripen before frost. That's why I want to get started earlier next year. I can't put them out any sooner but I can fert and water sooner.

http://s1079.photobucket.com/user/Adelmanto/library/

Andrew,
Thanks for the info, I will order some and some bone meal. My Fig leaves always turn brown in direct sun and the one under the front porch are nice and green.

I like 5 64 20. Something like that. I know the nitrogen is very low potassium 64. K is low too. This is liquid form. At first bud brake i buy citrus granules. Then from there liquid fish fertilizer.
Also. I start my copper spray for rust at first bud. Then after full leaf. Buy blue powder of copper

I heard it somewhere that when you fertilize, the result show up the following year and not the same season.
So if you skip or you don't do the right thing expect poor results the following year.
I started to use mainly Turkey compost this season in addition to Osmocote and will be amending the soil in my pots early in spring before the growing season starts. I will increase the ratio of Turkey compost to about 30%-50% in some pots and see what happens. If anyone tried this please feel free to comment.

if you are using an organic fert keep in mind these materials take time to break down. if you look on the back of your fert bag you can get an idea. it will say available or unavailable nutrients. I only use organic sources and prefer plant material over animal products. I don't focus on brands. I look for specific ingredients. now something like bone meal, fish or mammal takes months to break down. so if you use this in the fall it may be available for next season. I use this to my advantage instead of synthetic time release ferts. I also keep large batches of soil mixed with all my ingredients so when I transplant my plants have usable nutes. if your mixing your soil up right before transplant using organics your waiting a long time for these nutrients to be available. this maybe why some have success with bagged soils. these soils have been sitting with the fertilizer for a long time breaking down. when I mix up a batch of soil I add a large amount of organic inputs. this is more work upfront but less over the season as I have everything ready to go. depending on if your organic or not will determine more of the timing. I will fertilize half or quarter the amount more often instead of all at once. this creates less waste and decreases my chances of nutrient deficiencies. timing depends on what works for you. how much time do you have? my biggest goal is keeping the soil alive and living. always adding organic matter keeps the whole system and microbes happy. if you see a healthy living soil(tons of worms) your plants will reward you. hope this helps.


if you just wanted a 10-10-10 2x a year I would say, one at bud break around May. Then again at the end of July. I would think that would take you till the end of sept. If not maybe try a lower dose towards the end. let me know if you score any of those Guinea pig toe nail clippings. I bet they go for big bucks.

EB18702 Those Guinea Pig clippings work great but it's hard to chase those little buggers down. I use 40-50 lbs of fert already. If I do it twice per year I guess it's not the end of the world. Any one else use that much? I could use Osmocote or Dynamite. Any other brands?

I'm convinced that my fertilizer regiment needs to change. I'm going to apply a granular fertilizer once in early April when the pots come out of storage and again in July. I'm also convinced that my lack of fruit is because I've been using fertilizer with too much nitrogen. That all being said, what fertilizer should I use? I'm going to need 80-100 lbs and I'd rather not go broke buying it. I cannot use liquids or apply more often. Any ideas?

The Dynamite link brought me to a fert with 15-5-9. (Even more nitrogen than I'm using now)

http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/figs/fertilizing-fig-trees.htm

http://www.fig-baud.com/pageanglaise.html

http://www.lebanonturf.com/products/items/3756549/index.aspx

I don't think the fertilizer I'm looking for exists. I may have to custom make something. According to the links above I should be using 1-2-3 or 5-10-20.

The break down of bone meal depends on the fineness or grind of the material.
Powdered bone meal does help in the speed of it being usable by the fig.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_meal

First sentence.

Doug

I've been struggling with this one as well. In the past I've dumped on and mixed in to the soil bagged Home Depot sheep manure. I do this once to my whole garden before planting, along with a dose of Epsom salts. It's works wonders for making monster vegetables - I'm just not sure it's ideal for figs. I added a standard Miracle Grow last year and successfully grew lots of fig leaves. Figs not so much....This year I plan to make some changes.

The two most experienced fig gurus in my area have different approaches. I hear Adriano uses only rabbit manure. I don't know how much or how often. But I don't have access to that kind of poop so not really not an option. (Close to ginnea pig I think). Steven uses a balanced (I think 10-10-10). His credentials are impressive to say the least. I think I'm going in that direction. Maybe 5-10-10 if I can find it.

The problem I have is that I don't really know when to start, how much to use or how often.

The general wisdom is that you shouldn't use too much as it promotes leafy growth over fruit. Ok - how much of what type is too much?

Say I mix up some 10-10-10. In a 5 gallon pot - do I water with a gallon of the fertilizer solution? A cup? 5 gallons? Just soak it?

Then how often?

If I use granular do I use a cup or a bucket?

Do I start when I pull them out of the garage in the spring? Or wait for some leaves or shoots?

Some say they don't fertilize in ground figs - others say they do....

I don't expect solid, black and white answers here. I know what works for some doesn't work for others. Fertilizing is the single biggest factor that I'm trying to understand.

I was looking for rabbit fertilizer and Googled "Bunny Ranch". Now I'm in trouble with the wife. Thanks Joe

I think the reasons why some guys can use all different types of ratios is because in the short term the imbalances in the numbers isn't noticed. Let's say your using to much potassium, overtime this can lock out other nutrients. But watering in pots I think we may leech out these imbalances before they occur. By season end I bet our pots are pretty devoid of nutrients, which is probaly a good thing. Then next season we are adding another dose of fresh fertilizer. I know most nutrients are not as mobile as nitrogen but I still think we our loosing them. To much nitrogen in August maybe a problem. I bet we loose at least half our nitrogen to gas off and running out the bottom of the pot. In ground maybe a whole different ballgame. If a commercial farmer wasn't testing his soil he can run into a slew of problems by just blindly adding stuff. it doesn't make sense for us to test each pot. but it maybe a good idea to treat your figs the same and test one pot. a soil test maybe worth the investment. if you have a lot of figs you can dial in your fertilizer program and not waste money. I think we have more room with the fert ratios in pots because the above. What do you guys think of this theory?

I think the reasons why some guys can use all different types of ratios is because in the short term the imbalances in the numbers isn't noticed. Let's say your using to much potassium, overtime this can lock out other nutrients. But watering in pots I think we may leech out these imbalances before they occur. By season end I bet our pots are pretty devoid of nutrients, which is probaly a good thing. Then next season we are adding another dose of fresh fertilizer. I know most nutrients are not as mobile as nitrogen but I still think we our loosing them. To much nitrogen in August maybe a problem. I bet we loose at least half our nitrogen to gas off and running out the bottom of the pot. In ground maybe a whole different ballgame. If a commercial farmer wasn't testing his soil he can run into a slew of problems by just blindly adding stuff. it doesn't make sense for us to test each pot. but it maybe a good idea to treat your figs the same and test one pot. a soil test maybe worth the investment. if you have a lot of figs you can dial in your fertilizer program and not waste money. I think we have more room with the fert ratios in pots because the above. What do you guys think of this theory?

OK - One thing you wrote jumped out at me. "If a commercial farmer wasn't testing his soil". So I wonder....

If I wanted to test my soil - how might I go about that?

If I did and could determine the optimum levels of NPK in the soil then what would those values be?

Why are we all just going with our guts and not measuring and adjusting to what the soil needs? (Other than the fact that it's probably a pain in the rear)

I'm going to consult with Google now...

There's this:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0019AI7PU?tag=amatop-20

Without the guinea pig toenail clippings how do you intend to get that sought-after seed crunch? I personally give my figs bunny poop. They don't complain.

Ok so I figured out 1 possible way to get close to the 5-10-15 ratio I'm looking for.

10 parts Tomato & Veg food 5-10-10
1 part Muriate of Potash 0-0-60
Works out to 4.54-9.09-14.55

Not sure if it's the best plan, but it's a plan.

You're doing math now. I like it! Is that the tomato stuff from home depot? I don't see it on our side of the border. Although we're up to our ears in potash.