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ThaiFig

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Posted Reply with quote  #1 
Since joining this site and also connecting with many new FB fig growers in SE Asia, I've come across many interesting photos from those Asian FB friends.  I thought members here might find these pictures equally interesting, so I thought I'd highlight a few that I found especially unique.  As these posts were originally in languages other than English, it's quite possible that members here may not have seen them before, so I hope these pics will prove enjoyable.

I will include the names and occasionally links in these posts for anyone who wants to follow up and make contact with the original posters.  I am not claiming ownership of the content, and will remove any posts if someone objects to them being shared on this site.  Since these were all public posts, I seriously doubt the growers will mind the additional publicity of having their pics shared here.

So without further ado, here is the first FB member and the pics I found most interesting.
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ThaiFig

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Posted Reply with quote  #2 
These pics are from Linso Set, in Taiwan.  He seems to have mastered the art of rooting cuttings.  You can see the results in this video 



He was also the first one I saw using root control pots to grow his figs.

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ThaiFig

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Posted Reply with quote  #3 
These photos are from Robin Lim at Fig Direct in Malaysia.  Interesting to see the scale of their farm, and how they have two different systems for raising the fig plant above the terrain, one using drainage pipe sections, the other only bricks or blocks.  I think this is a fairly new farm.  His FB link is 


https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009219399650

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ThaiFig

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Posted Reply with quote  #4 
My last post for today is a few photos of a Malaysian farm that uses drip fertigation to grow their figs.  These pictures come from Marzuki Safiee whose facebook link is 


https://www.facebook.com/marzuki.safiee?fref=ts

Interestingly their idea of a root control pot is a commonly available plastic crate similar in construction to a milk crate, which farmers here often use to transport produce to market.  Then they use polybags to intercrop other produce like chives in between the fig plants.  His FB page is full of photos of all the crops they grow at this farm, and well worth looking at if you are interested in growing figs hydroponically.

Please let me know with your comments if this topic on SE Asian fig growers is interesting to you, and I should continue to expand it or not.

Thanks,
Thai Fig

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HarveyC

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Posted Reply with quote  #5 
Thanks for sharing.  Can you explain why everybody in Asia seems to avoid planting fig trees directly in the ground?  As I understand it, Dato in Malaysia first planted in concrete pipes because his fig trees were located in a former rock quarry and there was no real soil to speak of.
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ThaiFig

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Posted Reply with quote  #6 
bangkok-climate-graph.gif

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ThaiFig

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Posted Reply with quote  #7 
The attached rainfall chart shows what happens when figs are planted in the ground.

During May - August, the ground gets saturated.  Then the heavy rains come for two months, and flood everything.  Standing water is only half the problem, as it has no where to drain, the ground remains completely saturated for days, weeks or in some locations, months.  Figs don't do well under those conditions.

Secondly, a lot of the soil near here is heavy in silt and clay.  It drains poorly then becomes hard as a rock when dry.  Planting in a pot allows us to use media that drains easily.  An alternative, only workable for locations that are located well above the water table, is to plow the ground into berms, using the channels to drain the water and planting the figs on top of the berms to promote drainage.  I'll try to find some examples of growers who do that and post here also.
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ThaiFig

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Posted Reply with quote  #8 
These two pictures are from a recent planting in Thailand.  The owner hasn't made them globally public so I'll have to get her permission before providing links.  But I don't think she'll mind my sharing her pics...

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greenfig

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Posted Reply with quote  #9 
Wow!
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HarveyC

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Posted Reply with quote  #10 
Okay, thanks.  Your conditions are worse than mine.  My soil will often become saturated during the winter if we have heavy rains (even during this drought, we had 9" of rain in December and fields were flooded for a few weeks).  But plants can tolerate this better when dormant.  During the spring we can have saturated soils in some years so I have my trees planted on berms in my new orchard area where water table is higher. Right now my the water table is about 18-24" from soil surface.  See photo below from last week when I dug trench for irrigation line for my orchard expansion.  (Note: even with high water table, watering of young trees is necessary and additional irrigation is needed in summer for all trees as water table drops.)

[IMAG3049] 

[IMAG3053] 
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paully22

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Posted Reply with quote  #11 
Great to know more folks from different nations are growing figs.

Post#2 regarding root control is excellent. I suppose in Taiwan the trees do go dormant. Over here in
PNW Canada, I find root pruning for my in-ground trees are significantly important. Otherwise the trees
can grow very tall. I find root pruning helps to keep the nodes interval closer. Balancing root pruning with
pinching have given me lots of figs + the tree are within easy reach to pick ripe figs. I know for a fact I
would never grow a tree directly in-ground. The winter here helps in pruning the trees -- via killing off the
green tips.

Deducing from the weather profile, it looks like SE Asia is not an ideal place for large scale fig orchard
in an open field. I know some friends tells me bugs and birds are their nightmares, sometimes rodents
too. Certainly molds is an issue because of frequent rain & drying out time.

What varieties works best for SE Asia ?

ThaiFig

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Posted Reply with quote  #12 
Harvey - I know my small 3' high plants are using about 5 liters of water each week, one of the advantages of potting in SIPs is you can measure how much water you are using to top up the reservoir each time. So my 100 plant garden will need at leadt 500 liters a week, maybe double that when they reach full size. Presently I only have 6000 liters of underground water storage on that site, clearly not enough to last me a full dry season, and I don't have a well so I'm waiting a municipal water hookup so I can top off the tanks monthly. If for some reason I cant get township water there, I'll have to dig out a storage pond or pay for a borehole well. The land is only a few meters above bedrock, no shallow wells possible there. So another benefit of using cement rings is we can relocate the entire garden to another site in the future if dry season water supply becomes an issue...

The other land I have access to is currently used as rice land, so has standing water on it for several months each year. This is natural runnoff not irrigation water. It would take both berms and cement rings or other planters to raise the plant roots above the water table there.
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ThaiFig

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Posted Reply with quote  #13 
Paully- I know from previous plantings of hydroponic lettuce here that plastic breaks down in 3 years of tropical sun to a very brittle state. So root control with expensive plastic pots seems doomed to fail. But I am trying some methods to see what works and what doesn't.

Taiwan is mountainous more than here, so at higher elevations figs there may go dormant, I dont really know. Here they don't, nor do we get the annual die off of insect pests that winter time provides in temperate climes.

Mold and fungus and constant insect pest pressure plus root nematodes, birds, rodents and heavy winds with tropical downpours will undoubtedly all take their toll this coming year. I have assembled about 30 varieties. This time next year I'll have a better idea what survived, what had good production, and what had the best flavor. Brown Turkey has done well here so far. I expect LSU varieties to do well because they were bred for hot and humid climates. Other than that, I have no clue yet.
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pino

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Posted Reply with quote  #14 
I am really impressed with the efforts that are being put in to grow figs in SE Asia!
Are there any older fig plantings to see how fig trees do in this weather in the long term?

Looks like you grow many fig trees in containers for fig producton.  Have you developed techniques to deal with regular up-potting and root pruning.
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ThaiFig

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Posted Reply with quote  #15 
The oldest plantings in Thailand that I'm aware of I believe were a royal sponsored project in the north of Thailand, at a high altitide where figs were grown Japanese style in greenhouses. Root pruning involved digging a trench on each side of the fig tree line and refilling the trench with fresh media (I expect organic mulch and sand, but I'm not certain). I think they are still in production today, but I dont know how old they are. 20 or 30 years, perhaps?

It's only been the last few years that growers in the center and south of Thailand have been growing figs. Many of them are also under rain covers or in greenhouses and utilize cement rings as containers. However I recently came across these pics which I saved, that show someone is thinking ahead. Unfortunately I don't remember whose FB page I saw this on, but I'll try to find it again.

This grower starts with cheap but thick plastic baskets, which act as root control pots. You can set them in plastic bowls to subirrigate them until they get too big, then you can take the whole basket and set it on a cement ring planter. Roots coming out of the basket will be easy to cut when root pruning time comes around. I don't know how long the baskets will last but they're the most inexpensive option I've seen for a dependable root control solution.

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Posted Reply with quote  #16 
That's some very creative solutions to your environment challenges!  Thanks for the great ideas on growing container figs!

Here in Niagara Canada we get +35C in summer and -30C or colder sometimes in winter, regular rain throughout the year except too much rain in spring and fall. 

At this time I have 10 fig trees in ground (20+ years old) and 20 or so fig trees in large containers (7-20 gallon).  To me the container figs are more work than the in-ground figs.
 
My challenge now is to deal with another 25 fig trees that need up potting or transfer to in-ground.   The late ripening figs I need to keep in containers the cold hardy figs will go in ground.

For in-ground rather than your berm approach I am looking at a 2' below ground level 3' wide channel with fig trained to a low cordon arm that should be at ground level.  I have deep sandy soil and tile drainage so they won't be sitting in water and I am hoping they will be easier to cover for winter.   I may have to short people kids to pick the figs at that level...LOL
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Posted Reply with quote  #17 
@Thai fig, Good luck in your trials. Looks like you have more issues growing figs in your zone.
BTW, LSU Hollier is prone to rupture pretty easy with rain here. Varieties that does poorly here
with rain are BT's, Brunswick, Dalmatie/Stella. That said, Brunswick is an awesome tasting fig if
it ripens under ideal weather.
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Posted Reply with quote  #18 
@Paully thanks for the insight on rain sensitivity of those varieties. Of course, a complicating factor is when will the figs mature, since I know many growers get mature ripe figs before the rainy season even starts!

BTW since I am new to this, I wasn't seeing the benefit of short internodes (except that it made reaching the figs easier). It was only today that I made the obvious connection that short leaf nodes equals more fig nodes per linear foot of fig stem, LoLz.

@Pino When I said the royal project was growing Japanese style, I meant step-over cordons. But their cordons are a foot above ground level. In your case, I am guessing you don't have rabbits or rats who will steal your fruit?

Of all the methods I've seen used, I like the last one I posted best. The pots of water will act as ant moats and reduce aphid pressure. But I'll have to let the moats run dry weekly, or I'll be breeding mosquitos. They take about 2 weeks from egg laying to maturity, so breaking the cycle weekly will prevent them from becoming an even bigger annoyance than they are already.
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ThaiFig

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Posted Reply with quote  #19 
This picture from lungporn nakhons'si FB page shows why using containers and cement drainpipe rings is more popular in Thailand than growing on raised berms. When you consider how deep fig roots can go, you realize how tall the berms would have to be to avoid drowning the trees when rains like this happen.

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ThaiFig

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Posted Reply with quote  #20 
It's been almost a year since I started growing figs here in Thailand. There have been many failures along with the successes. But each one was a learning experience, and I now have around 100 fig plants growing in pots, and around 50 different varieties. This year I will finish establishing a real fig orchard, we finally have a connection to a new municipal well on our future garden site.

I posted a video of what a successfully nurtured 11 month old air layer growing outdoors in Thailand can look like on my FB page. Please have a look if you're at all curious, or just need a fix of a fig growing video to help you through some cold winter days...

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1549476978696627&id=100009030195236
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