I kind of went from a fig hobbyist to a figaholic last fall and went from about 15 varieties to around 100 with no real plans on what I was going to do with all of my new trees.  I eventually decided to disc up a portion of my alfalfa field and set out stakes for 138 trees on a 12' spacing within the rows and 16' between rows, making up 6/10 of an acre.  I have allocated 115 of my potted trees for this orchard made up of about 85 varieties with extras to be sold or traded or donated to some causes.  Of the 115, 76 are now planted with the rest waiting to size up a bit more before being planted (hopefully, in 6-8 weeks for most).  The empty spaces are being reserved for more trees of some of the varieties I already have or for a few more acquisitions.

Here are some photos my farmhand took with his phone while finishing up planting while my son and I were in Idaho helping out my in-laws put up their winter supply of firewood.





I have planted the trees on berms and this area can become pretty wet in the winter.  I will have a high tension wire attached to each T-post about 12" above the ground to suspend a drip line.  I am also considering installing some cross-arms next spring with two strands of wire for each row to trellis the trees somewhat similar to the photos Ken Love has shown at http://www.hawaiifruit.net/cf/images/fig5.jpg.  This area of my farm is exposed to quite a bit of wind so the support can be helpful to reduce limb breakage and I would also like to be able to train trees to harvest efficiently.

HOLY COW~~~
NICE~!

Very, very nice

Going to enjoy your photo's in near future !

Nice!

It will be a nice orchard in just a few years. Now I wish, I had that much "flat" land, in a fig- friendly climate such as yours. Excellent work Harvey.

Navid.

looks outstanding harvey,,,,, glad the wood cutting went well too.

Thanks, everyone!

No begging here: one variety I still need to acquire (buy/trade/etc.) is Col de Dame Gris.

Harvey,
Impressive and inspiring. Thanks for sharing. I have a couple of questions: How long are the rows? What are those posts made of and what are you using to create the tension?

Opportunity to have an annual fig harvest party/fig shop -- just like visiting fig germplasm. Great undertaking Harvey.

Great work!  You should have a terrific harvest soon.

Dude, Harvey that's awesome!! I think you might find this article interesting.

http://www.donbarioni.com/images/Page%20A8%20%28Dons%20Article%29.pdf

This guy basically did the same thing. He got fig, and olive fever. He devoted some of his families farm to develop an orchard.

Harvey,

Looking good. Wished I had a property and climate like yours.
Please keep us posted.

Right on, Harvey, that's awesome!  Sometimes you just gotta go large :)

Awesome !! Best of luck !

Hi Harvey,
Lovely to see your new project taking shape...........
Will be amazing soon once they all grow up.
Good luck for the future.

Harvey,

Nice orchard... good luck!

I know, you shall be using and taking max advantage of local environmental conditions  to make a model figfarm . Congratulations

Francisco

Future figtopia

Color me pea-green with envy! Do I see a Pick-UR-Own in your future? They have tons of those places here. Have people pay you to harvest your orchard for 8-10 bucks per gallon depending on what the fruit is.

Very very impressive. Great job and good luck.

Looks Great Harvey! I know it'll grow great in that climate

HarveyC,
Thanks for posting the pictures and commentary...
I've used fence posts in a similar application, but nowhere near this scale.
Please keep us updated.
Good Luck.

Hi Harvey. This is a great looking orchard! I also enjoyed watching your chestnut orchard on You-tube. Maybe you can post a you-tube video of your fig orchard also, as it progresses!

Holy Cow! Harvey, that is gonna be amazing! "If you build it..."

Wowie!

Very nice! Why do you keep the drip a foot above ground? Do animals chew it?

Definitely a FIVE STAR operation!

I can't wait to see it grow up.

You are living the dream for all of us.

Congratulations!

That orchard will be a great resource.  I imagine there are very few orchards in California that have such a diversity of varieties growing in the same location.  What are you planning to use as ground cover?

Very nice fig orchard Harvey! I'd love to see it when it grows, especially at harvest time ; )

Looks great Harvey! Congrats on a beautiful orchard!

JD, the three rows are each 540' long, 46 trees in each row (plus room to turn on ends with tractor).  The T-posts are made of steel and are what are typically used for cattle fencing and vineyard trellises (the ones I bought were unpainted and exactly what are used in hundreds of thousands of grape vineyards in the state).  I painted the T-posts to reduce the temperature of the posts on hot days (just needed for a couple of years and they'll be shaded by then).  The wire is also what is typically used in wine grape vineyards and wrapped around the end posts which are supported by braces to prevent leaning in, using special couplers that make the process easy (see http://www.gripple.com/products/catalogue/agricultural/products/gripplepluswirejoinerstensioners.html).

Paully & Sophie, I don't know if I'll ever open up the orchard to the public but will just have to wait to see how it goes with other efforts to market fresh figs.  Maybe I'd do something like offer tours for $20 with all the figs a guest could eat (plus sell more to take home).  There comes increased insurance needs with U-pick plus increased damage to trees and potential off-hours visitors and theft.  That's down the road.  I also grow pomegranates and chestnuts so a tour could get pretty involved.  It's just me and a farmhand but my wife might retire from her off-farm job before long.  I may do some mail order fresh figs (will experiment with some small shipments) and also maybe the farmers' market scene and maybe market to restaurants.

Henry, thanks, but I'm afraid of clicking on that link....don't want to get olive fever also! lol

Kevin, the reason for suspending the irrigation line is for a few reasons.  It won't stay on the ridge very well without some constant support.  I have had rodent damage to microsprinklers but not on drip which I'll use for this orchard.  I've also had coyote damage but this won't stop them.  With drip suspended it is easier to hoe weeds and weedeat, etc.  One other possible benefit I see is that suspending will give a slightly larger distribution of the water.  Sometimes I have drippers on the ground and the water seems to go straight down a crack.  Being suspend and in a windy area, the water will probably drip over a 6" or larger area.  The one drawback is increased difficulty in stepping over the line but I'll probably mostly be harvesting one side of a tree (and the adjacent tree row) at a time.  The expected training method of the trees will make it difficult to cross over anyways.

Pete, I've seen some photos of your fig training and it helped convince my that I'm not completely crazy for giving this method a shot! :)

Rewton, I'm not planning on any groundcover for now.  I use a mixed grass groundcover in my chestnut orchard but want to keep temperatures elevated in my fig orchard and a groundcover reduces temperatures.  If I put a groundcover in it will most likely be to remove excess moisture.  This orchard is planted at about 5' below sea level with drainage ditches needed to collect river seepage which is then pumped back into the rivers which are held back by levees.  There is a strong possibility that this orchard will not be irrigated once it is established except maybe to apply water soluble fertilizer.

Thanks, Vince!

Regarding the planned training of the trees on wires.  I wrote Ken Love to ask about the purposes and benefits of the methods used in Japan.  He indicated that these methods were originally used to help limit damage from strong winds during typhoons but that growers also saw stabilized good yields as a result of using a disciplined pruning method.  I also suspect that horizontal branches may fruit a little earlier in the season (they do in some other tree crops).

Harvey, if you are looking for another son I am up for adoption ; ) 

Thanks for sharing.

Brent, I'll let my 15 year old know he better get to work as he's got someone competing for his job! lol

SO SOOOOOOOOOOOooooo AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am way excited for you!

Jennifer

I always wanted a little brother ; )

very nice. very happy for you. keep up the nice work. and yes pictures later.

Look very good. 

In couple of years, your farm will be destination to Fig Lovers, after Visiting UCD Fig Farm, they will come to you.
I like that you have a Lot varieties to choose from, and good luck in finding the ones you do not have.
I like your Business Venture, and good Luck, Pleas keep us posted...
Mark

Harvey,

What a project!  I put in a fig hedge around my orchard with around 80 or so trees.  It's quite a bit of work as I'm sure you can attest but will be worth it.  Regarding your variety selection, will you be culling varieties if they don't do well or perform well in your climate?  If you plan to cull some varieties, how long do you expect you'll wait for a variety to prove itself before it gets the heave-ho?  I am thinking of getting rid of a few in-ground Brown Turkeys this year.  Not sure why I bought them in the first place and I'd rather have other varieties in their place!

Also, how are you labeling your varieties?  I'm utilizing impress-o-tags currently and hope they hold up well.

Again, very impressive.  I can't wait to see shots of this in a few years as growth really starts to take off.

Tim

Harvey,

Impressive.... 

Ann
Zone 6
Pepper Pike ,Ohio

Really wonderful and appreciated photos. thx

Harvey,

Great job, its going to look amazing in the future. Congrats on a job well done, best of luck with your future fig crops.

Tim, I won't cull out fig varieties unless I'm convinced they aren't worth growing and don't expect that to occur before 2016 or 2017.

I presently have trees tagged with tags purchased from gardenware.com, a tyvek type material printed on with my laser printer.  They last at least a couple of years and I'm able to print a lot of them quickly and easily and they are very legible because of being black on white (more so than the impress-o-tags) and I can include a lot of information.  Over time, I don't know if I'll keep tags on trees at all but I have a map with each tree variety and source.

Very nice post Harvey...you really jumped into the fig growing venture with both feet...I wish you the best of luck...would really enjoy some update photos from time to time. Thanks.

Wow great project ... Good luck !!! Should be a site to see when it's all grown up ....

Harvey, you should rent a spot for a tree. Charge an annual fee for growing and watering the tree, and reserve the right for cuttings and fruit. It would be a 5 years contract. What do you think?

Only approved tenants with references.  Do you have references? :)

Amazing!  And my congrats too.

This makes some of us fig-people look like little dwarfs ...

George, for special friends like you maybe I could put up a little cabana in the middle of the fig orchard for visits/retreats! :)

Finished installing the drip system today and planted five more trees that were ready.  We have 80 trees in the ground in this new orchard now with several dozen more still in pots until they get larger.