Hey Aaron. Check this out

http://www.pennington.com/all-products/lawn-garden/fertilizer/plant-fertilizer/pennington/pennington-all-purpose-5-10-15

Definitely less math involved...

Yes, my head hurts from the math. I've also got 3 emails in to local rabbit farms. Seems easy enough to fert and top dress so why not.

Adriano's website is down but here is some of his fig-wisdom:

"For feeding, Ferreira uses rabbit manure tea and fruit or tomato fer­tilizer"

http://edibletoronto.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=204:fig-fetishists-&catid=75

Hi,
In ground, I just use 10/10/10 in bullets, a hand full every 2 weeks to every month.
In pots, the problem is elsewhere :
1. The trees get root-bound fast.
2. The dirt in the pot gets depleted but also its structure gets sandy with year. One must replace at least half of it every two or 3 years.
3. In the heat, in the pots, the roots get cooked and that's bad.
4. In the heat, the dirt dries out, the dirt gets dry and the tree gets a shock. That will stop the tree. The tree will loose time and then grow again if watered properly of course, if not, the tree may shed leaves or even die-back. In pot, in the heat, IMO, one must use a plate to keep some water available to the tree.
5. use straight pots, and not pots that are thinner at the base

If you don't fertilize, do not expect to get the best out of your trees ...

Not that my advice be taken, but I fertilize when I see growth in the spring.
I fertilize again when fruit sets.
I taper off giving fertilizer after summer is over.
No more till next spring.

Doug

I appreciate all advice. Thanks Doug
What do you use?

I don't know why but many people sware by rabbit manure. So I googled "rabbit farm" and came up with plenty of leads around me. So that's part of my plan this year. I have over 200 pots. Mostly 15 gallon size. I over head water just about every day. I know for a fact my fert is leeching out. You can see it in the color of the leaves. When you check the links above they recommend a 5-10-15 fert. You may have to mix a couple products to get the numbers right. I will also be using pelletized lime. In a 15 gallon pot it's about a cup of fert and a cup of lime. I will then top dress with the rabbit manure to completely cover the pot maybe 1" thick. (It's mixed with shavings i'm sure so it's not going to be straight manure). I'll start the fert regiment when I take them out of storage which is at bud break anyway. I'll re-fertilize in June but no later than mid July. And then we'll see what happens.

Last year I was lazy about the watering. The figs dropped all of their fruit and I and killed about 25 varieties by the end of June. I'm not going to repeat that next year.

I raise meat rabbits.
Free fertilizer.


Doug

200 pots. That's a lot of poop! Don't know what it is about the bunnies though....supposed to be the best. Do you plan to drop the manure just once at the beginning of the season?

A wake up tonic of bunny manure tea in the spring, then I
scatter around base of tree but not up to the trunk of the tree.
I leave room around the base to not encourage rot and the
roots are spread out from the tree.
I would suggest using only a tea mix for potted trees.

Doug

I like that plan ADelmanto.

Don't know what the big deal with rabbit manure is. What separates a fertilizer is it's npk numbers and secondary metabolites. In organics fertilizer marketing there are some crazy claims. These secondary metabolites get to much attention at times. Though there are some good effects from them but at a high price tag. I do know rabbit manure isn't to " hot " and can be used right away. Maybe that's the big appeal?

If your interested in getting your soil tested there are online companies. Some schools will test them. You'll need to search your area. There are already ideal npk numbers established if you search. If you can get close to these numbers I'm sure your plants will do well. I've seen prices from 30 and up depending on tests performed. It maybe worth the investment even for shits and giggles.

Save your toenail clippings to sell. Toenails can add chitin to your soil. The toenail market is going to explode lol.

Never in my life would I have believed I would be typing the following words. "Here is a great article on manure". I must be getting old.....

includes an interesting chart outlining the NPK of all the common manure types, as well as the importance of other things.

Thanks for the scoop on the poop.

Scott osmocote  NPK: 11/11/18   8/9 months in warm countries or 5/6 months in cool countires.
Once a year when you take your pots out, after this,  you just have to water.

Early fertilizing will stimulate early growth which is a good or bad thing depending on your location. Late January in San Diego after heavy pruning. I'd recommend much later for colder locations.

For in ground trees and plants, Never!

After occasionally adding some ferts to under performing plants and never seeing a positive response I had my soil tested in 2004 and it came back saying I had above optimum levels of all (P,K,Ca,Mg) except fleeting N. So to that soil I will sometimes use a bit of high N lawn fertilizer if a plant seems sluggish but seldom makes a noticeable improvement.

Potted plants are a different matter.

I stopped by Griffin Greenhouse Supply the other day. They have a wide selection of many nursery items but the salesman might as well be selling used cars. He knew nothing about the products he was selling. My questions about fertilizers still remain unanswered.

So I've decided that my fertilizer program this year will be more in line with what I have researched about Baud Nursery. They use a 5-10-15 fertilizer. To achieve this I purchased Muriate of Potash 0-0-52 and Super Phosphate 0-45-0. The Nitrogen and minor elements will come from Bunny Poop. I'll also add some lime. The P and K are not slow release so we'll see how it goes.

I also picked up ProMix HP for my cuttings and ProMix HP-CC to mix into my potting mix for my 15 gallon buckets. I've never used it before, but it seemed interesting with the chunks of coir mixed in.

I've been meaning to post this up. This is not mine but posted elsewhere by another fig grower. Really good data on quantities, types and frequency.

 
 
    

 
 
   
 
 
 
 
 

Also I should say 5 10 15 fertilizer sounds way out of wack. Perhaps that would be okay for in ground or specific conditions. I have read that 312 is always the most logical ratio.

Osmocote Plus is 15-9-12. That's not even close to the ratio I'm looking for. I was not happy with the fruit I got from 10-10-10 so I'm certainly not going to give them more nitrogen. I've got 250+ pots. Fertigation sounds good on a small scale but is not practical for me. I water about every day in the summer on an overhead system. I may go to a micro spray system this year. We'll see. I have no doubt Bunny Poop would break down under these conditions. My potting mix in the pots already is a mix of good organic soil, pine bark fines, perlite, and peat moss.

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

Joe. That's a lot of great info. If I had 10 trees I guess I'd give that a shot. Fertilizing 7x per year is not going to work for me. I'm prob close to $150 per application.

I hear you. I'm nowhere near your scale. I was looking at it and thinking there might be a way to achieve similar composition with fewer applications and lower cost components...  

If I understand correctly one grower in Florida has integrated feeding into his irrigation. The idea being....you have to water anyhow.... (At least I think that's what it means)