I am new to figs, but so far I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how hearty they are
Very minimal cold damage in our fig area, although it was a warmer winter than usual.
I find it amazing how fast they grow but one of my figs is a total slow poke. I swear it’s had green leaves peeking out for a week while others are making fruit and growing exponentially.
This particular fig is col de dame rimada And when I bought it last year, it arrived with lemon yellow leaves and a whole bunch of straight scratches all over the trunk as if the nursery kept checking for signs of life.
It spent the entire season just turning those leaves green and had no new growth.
During this time, the figs that we rooted and all the other figs that we had purchased, made a lot of progress in growth.
This season, all of our other figs are alive and well and growing super fast with some setting fruit and here is the col de dame rimada with little tiny green leaf tops peeking out of its trunk, growing at a snails pace.
Sometimes certain fig plants are just slow. It can be plant specific, not a variety issue. It could also be something like root knot nematodes. Figs are very susceptible to them. When you get in any new fig check the roots for RKN galls. Same is really true for any plant. RKN is something you don’t want on your property. Treat it like nuclear waste.
It’s very likely something else. It may not be curable or might start growing well at some point.
It is in a pot, I believe I was using happy frog or ocean forest potting soil at the time.
I was pleased that at least the leaves coming in look green instead of yellow so that’s progress at least.
I am interested in using something like osmocote on our figs, so that they are fertilized as we water; what do you recommend, something balanced?
We have had fabulous results with fig health, other than this one plant, and it arrived with lemon yellow leaves, as if it was severely deficient in nitrogen.
Could it be that it will take a little bit longer to catch up from poor care?
Oh no, I don’t know what to look for with RKN but don’t remember seeing any issue on roots except maybe not a ton of roots compared to others I have gotten.
To me, the large collection of vertical straight scratches on the main stem show that this problem was present before the plant was sold to me, being slow to wake up and grow, they were probably checking for signs of life.
I can tell the leaf color is much better coming in than when I got it so I’m hoping that it’s just playing catch up.
That’s extreme. Most fig growers will say extortionary. My one in ground fig can go months of hot dry weather with no rain and no wilting. That’s what they do in their native range.
People do water potted figs twice a day in certain situations. Like when the top has outgrown the size of the pot. In Phoenix and the like I’ve even heard of continuous drip all day long but that’s extreme heat and low humidity.
If what you say is true your soil must be pure sand for 20 feet deep. Or something else is wrong. In ground figs shouldn’t need water every day.
We are on the Indian Highway, A vast sandy ridge which is basically the first major elevation to Piedmont conversion. Ages ago Native Americans pathways led them to Central Georgia and the Carolinas from North Florida.
Drainage is quite fast until the Florida Aquifer fills. Then it can get very wet. That only happens during some hurricane seasons though.
At a depth of 6-10 meters down it is titanium dioxide grade deposits with zircon. The lot behind us is for sale for many millions due to proven reserves. There is some carbon content higher; but that is why we bring in biochar and manures. And weathered wood mulch on top.
How tall is it and what size of pot? From the sounds of it, your weather may just be cool yet.
But sometimes nursery fig trees can be quite tall and it’s almost like they need a pruning to get going again because the top growth is at its limit with the roots or something. Just mentioning it in case it persists even after warmup. Some key micronutrients can also cause stunting if there happens to be deficiency, such as zinc, but there should be other symptoms as well if that’s it.
RKN are mostly found in sandy soils. But we have them here in Alpine in clay loam borderline clay soils. Our soils do drain well. My buddy, a vegetable grower, nearly lost his business of growing for the local farmer’s market. It took him years to learn to live with them.
I only have two figs as there are so many gigantic fig trees here for fresh picking. I have Rond de Bordeaux and Longue d’Aout. The latter has two long trunks? It is fast growing but slow on making figs. It has one gigantic Breba on and other tiny figs starting in the nodes. But so slow compared to the RDB.
