Darn sugar ants found my figs yesterday, ate one completely. I put them in a little wagon and moved them. Hope I can out maneuver the little devils
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i finally outwitted mice, rats, rabbits n ground squirrels by putting cats on the payroll.
now, locusts have found my figs.
there are millions of them.i have to pick figs early because they love ripe ones best.
What about netting your tree.
i thot netting was for birds.
locusts are grasshopperish things
will it stop bugs?
There are different materials. One of them is tulle. A forum member, @galinas uses another material that looks really good. I bet it would work with your purpose.
I only have potted figs so I use organza bags.
thanks, mam. iāll look into it.
i miss over ripe figs. i like them wrinkly.
not sure how one fastens the bottom so locusts canāt get in tho.
i suppose i could bury it, but the figs ripen one or two/day so i gotta
get at them.
i heard about those bags you use, but it turns out that figs in their forth year inground have hundreds of figs, for the first timeā¦
If you only have a few main trunks, one being best, Tanglefoot will keep them from climbing up to the figs.
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You can use the net like this: https://www.amazon.com/Mosquito-Barrier-Hunting-Netting-Protect/dp/B01G79PNCW/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1535846577&sr=8-9&keywords=Gardeningwill++Bug+Net+Insect+Bird+Netting
This is how I use it. Measure the area you want to cover. Let say it is 10X10 feet. Cut the 10X10 square form material you got. If you take 10 feet wide netting, you just cut 10 feet piece . Now unroll about40+ feet from the roll, but do not cut it off yet. Take stapler and start attaching long piece you unrolled to perimeter of 10X10 square . Start with the corner of the square. Hold two edges together, fold it 2 times on the length like 4 inches, use stapler to connect them, continue like that to the corner of the square, When you reach the corner, just continue staple, until you get through all 4 sides back to the corner you started with. Now unroll about a foot more and cut from the roll. You should get a cube, opened on one side completely and one rib is not closed. If you do not need access to your plant, you can staple this rib as well. If you do, staple just top portion of it, leave as much as you need to get in. Now you have to options - framed or not framed. You can build light frame form PVC pipes or just put it on the tree. Close the opening with that extra foot we left , fold couple times and use large binder clips to secure the entrance. now you can bury the bottom. To get in, you remove the clips, open up, get in, get out, close, fold, secure. I hope this helps 
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They are in pots , I should just tangle foot the sides
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Or set them on bricks in a saucer full of water.
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hanks galin.
that looks kinda hard, but i bet i can do that next year.
;ocusts are supposed to be only every 7 years but they are now yearly.
Iām growing a Chicago hardy which is about 2 ft tall now. Rooted this spring. It still has a green trunk. Doesnāt seem to be hardening off for winter. We are about 6 weeks away from frost. What can I do to encourage it to harden off?
i stop irrigation, they harden fast with no water.
others just withhold fertilizer, but limiting water works better.
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Thank you. I havenāt watered in a while. But we have been getting a lot of rain lately. Hopefully it will harden off on its own soon.
i;m not looking forward to frost. covering trees is hard, once they get big.
please be patient with your HC, my firt 3 years i only got a handful before frost. this year it had over 100 figs,
more important, they started ripening on august first, so iāll get to eat them all.
before, they didn;t ripen til september, which is no good in z7.
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Do you still cover your fig trees? If they are older than 3 years, canāt they (hardy variety like HC) take winters in zone 7a without protection?
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well, iām afraid they would die to the ground.
in 2016 it dropped to -1 for 2 days.
mine are planted deep so the roots would live, but top growth would be gone.
iām hoping to get 500-600 figs/tree in a few years so iām protecting them.
i only have 7 trees inground so i gotta take care of them.
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I cover mine with a tarp every winter even though they are planted next to the South wall of my house on the border of 6b/7a in Southeastern PA. They always experience some tip dieback once temps dip below 0 degrees with this minimal protection. my 2 inground Hardy Chicagos look like theyāll ripen 300 this year. Last year was much better with around 700 figs. The yields really depend on how much winter damage they suffer from what Iāve seen the past 8 years.
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if winter damage is key, i have problems.
how much damage does it take to hurt yeild?
i prune off 10-15% just to make them into columns.
then, i wrap in fiberglass insulation n black plastic.
but, at zero, i still suffer 10=15% dieback.
how much damage did it take to reduce yield from 700 to 300?
Hi there. I grow my inground figs as large bushes. They are trimmed to about 5 1/2 feet tall for easy protection each year. Last year, I lost none of the 1 year old branches, and even managed a breba crop. This past winter killed all new branches that formed the previous year and even killed back some of the large main branches that are over 5" in circumference. Itās those numerous little branches that help to form a lot of the crop.
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