The trees they came a one by one

Pomegranate “Myagkosemyannyi Rosovyi” (DPUN 0139) transplanted from 25 gallon pot in February 2015.

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For realz!!! Patty’s right, if you have a tree with a 15" diameter trunk that doesn’t branch below five feet, cutting it off at 3 feet is going to have a different effect! No argument there!

I have pruned many a fig tree in Patty’s climate with 15" to 25" diameter trunks with a chainsaw in January to 32" high and had fruit that fall. These were for clients from Bonita (CA) all the way up the coastal-influenced parts of the county to Oceanside/Vista/Bonsall and my own home in Rancho Penasquitos. All of these trees had sufficient water and nutrients the year prior – and hence a good store of resources in the roots. In particular they received net 1 lb of Nitrogen, net 1/2 lb of phosphate, net 1.5 lbs of potash, plus an array of minor- and micro-nutrients. Three of the trees were fed organically and the others with water-solubles. There are many ways to achieve those totals with a variety of nutrient sources – I believe Patty knows how. If she was not reaching these quantities then that may have been the cause for her lack of fruit in the fall.

So what should you feed figs in general? What’s your feeding regiment? I have 5 new figs to take care of in pots, How would that differ from in ground? I plan to put one in ground next year or two.
What soil mix would you suggest for containers? I heard they like a more basic soil is that true?
Did you see this article?

I’m 16 miles from Ontario.

@Drew51, I’ve updated the feeding section of my fruit tree guide for you. Please let me know if it is good, bad, ugly, etc. :wink:

http://www.plantsthatproduce.com/guide-fruit-tree-care-feeding.html#Feeding

Male and Female Kei Apple (Dovyalis caffra) training cross-lateral on espalier. For scale, the horizontal and vertical lattice pieces are about 10" on center.

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Oh all right Richard. It’s your thread, you da boss! Seriously, nobody here doubts your level of experience!

like jujubes, this is another drought-tolerant fruit tree which approximates-- if not exceeds, the ‘water-efficiency’ of cacti. Really curious about how it tastes.

It’s awesome! An explosion of flavors in your mouth. When made into jam it puts apricot jam to shame, and as a bbq sauce totally unbeatable.

thanks for the tip, i guess am gonna get me a pair of those!

The thorns are hellacious. Plan on espallier so you can leave your skin intact when harvesting fruit!

Kei Apple might be drought tolerant in your area. It would not survive on rainfall alone in my area. The perennial native plants here are mainly Artemisias, Ceanothus’, and Sumacs.

Here is a Bababerry Raspberry hybrid in a planter I carved into a slope backed by a retaining wall. The shadow you see along the left side of the image is from a 5’ high fence about 3’ away. The planter wall blocks are 4"W x 8"H x 16" long. There is vertical rebar about every 10" and the blocks are center-filled with cement. There is no mortar between the blocks so some drainage is permitted. The blocks extend at least one level underground on all three sides.

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Cherry Of The Rio Grande shrub (Eugenia involucrata) planted from 15 gallon pot in summer 2014. This is a fruiting species of the Myrtle family from south America. “Rio Grande” refers a river in Venezuela. It fruited for the first time in spring 2015 yielding a couple dozen fruits. The interior dimensions of the planter bed are 25" by 36", with 2 subterranean levels of masonry block to focus irrigation water and roots downward.

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really appreciate the tips, and the warning re: thorns.

re: drought and heat tolerance, i garden in las vegas, nv , where only a few fruit trees do well-- or live long. So hopefully the following links guarantee its ‘water-wise’ label, being one of only two fruit trees(that isn’t a cactus), which is at par with or even exceed cacti. The other being jujube, which i have witnessed first-hand for several years now to be the most drought and heat tolerant.

http://crfgsandiego.org/Presentations/Drought%20Tolerant%20Fruiting%20Trees,%20Shrubs%20and%20Vines.pdf

http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/every-thorn-has-its-rose-kei-apple-is-both-food-and-fence-africa-agriculture-indigenous-vegetables-sandy-soil-drought-resistant-salt-resistant-antioxidant-vitamin-c-desertification-nourishing-the-plan/

I think you mean “water frugal” instead of “drought tolerant”.

The horticultural term “drought tolerant” refers to local conditions. It is widely misused by sellers of plants and advertising-oriented lifestyle magazines.

Kei Apple is drought tolerant in its native environment of eastern Africa where annual rainfalls exceed 40" and in drought years can drop to the low 20’s.

Kei Apple is dead in my environment without irrigation, where the annual rainfall is about 8" and is around 5" in drought years.

i guess i meant frugal, and adding heat-tolerance as well, since each of them is in that wicked local combination here in vegas.
20" is at least 4 times the norm in the mojave basin, sadly…

so i guess will have to think it over whether or not to try raising kei

even jujubes will not thrive here if not partly irrigated, since it supposedly needs at least 7"

at least it survives and fruits(with ample irrigation) being situated against the northeast corner of the yard in summer, which had fried all other supposedly heat-tolerant fruit trees i have tried growing(despite irrigation)

I believe it would thrive in your location with irrigation.

thanks Richard

Four fresh-eating Banana hybrids: Namwa, Pome, Brazilian, and Pisang Ceylon.

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