Growing fig trees in compost socks

[hoosierbanana]

Took some pictures of how I had been transplanting young plants. With a pine bark mix it always went well, but with the biochar bare rooting put them into some pretty bad shock. I think the fine roots must have penetrated the biochar and been ripped off… This is basically the same method used to plant strawberries through plastic.

The roots on the biochar grown plants are more fibrous/finer.

I use this Fiskars trowel tool that has a notch on the tip to get a hold of the end of the roots, if they are longer than the blade I trim them.

Then send them home.

That’s all there is to it, here’s a picture of the roots of one of last year’s plants that was in a pine bark mix for comparison, lots of long roots that needed trimming. It had pretty much no shock… but no top growth yet from the graft I put on either.

They are almost recovered after a week, but I worked out a different way to do it anyhow that didn’t shock them much at all and is a little quicker. Instead of bare rooting I tickle the bottom to loosen up the roots and shorten the height to fit, then cut an x in the fabric and take a plug of compost out by forcing in an empty plant band and then just drop them in and pack in a little bit of the compost back in. I can take some pictures if anyone wants, have more to do this week.

Here’s a video from Nourse showing the bare root method on strawberries.

[hoosierbanana]

So I moved a double planted tree that has been in a 6" diameter sock for a full 2 years today, it was pretty obvious they had begun to suffer from being root bound and hardly grew or set any fruit. But I wanted to see how long they could go, the ones planted one per sock in 6" and 8" still grew reasonably well.

Here it is with the old sock cut off. Interesting to see there were weeds and bugs in there, life finds a way

Then I laid out 2-3" of compost biochar mixture on a 39"x36" section of geotextile, centered it and then pushed it over, then cut slits for the trunks and grabbed the far side of the fabric and rolled it upright.

Then pulled the near side up and secured it with hog rings I had had crimped down on one side and bent into a fish hook shape on the other, seen here with a bee that had been hanging out in the biochar for some reason.

I then stuffed opened up the middle and stuffed in pure biochar on top to see if that helps with water infiltration.

Then I closed it all up, stuffed in some more compost/biochar into the ends and sealed them like a wrapped gift with more hog rings. Viola, painless. Thanks @DCinFLX for the suggestion.

I like the idea of being able to open it up, both to add more compost as it settles, and to be able to run drip tape inside the fabric without having to pull the entire line trough. After a few months the roots should pull all the new mix together (I’m going to head back branches with no figs to get some growth started) and then I can pick it up by the trunks without it all coming apart. But if I wanted it more secure I could also crimp down the hog rings and it would be pretty solid.

[DCinFLX]

You’re welcome, glad it worked out. I have my compost socks cut up, just need to get them to the tailor (my sewing machine broke). He’s Turkish so I might be able to bribe him with a little fig tree. The compost sock volunteers will be pretty evenly divided between figs, pomegranates, and crape myrtles.

[hoosierbanana]

Really interested in how the poms end up doing for you.

[DCinFLX]

How’d the compost socks work out for the rest of the season? Maybe I missed it but–When you go to lie them down for frost protection do you reorganize or keep them in place and just roll over?

[hoosierbanana]

They did fine, watering was a little tricky, when the compost shrinks away from the fabric water can end up running down the sides and not wetting the roots. When I get them all upsized and can run the drip tape inside the fabric that shouldn’t be a problem.

I shift them 90 degrees and combine rows, they end up looking like this, only one layer for larger trees.

Show your photo of how you over winter your figs and trees

Here’s what I’m trying with my first year trees in compost socks. Will probably put the 2nd and 3rd year trees in a similar configuration. Laid down, socks on top of trunks to keep the wood at the bottom, 2 layers thick, only broke one [IMG_20181110_122037] Boards across the top to keep cover from touching the roots. [IMG_20181110_123129] Covered with 6ft. ground cover, held down with compost socks that had annuals or failed cuttings in them. Will probably add a 2nd layer with more…

I settled on empty 10/20 flats to create an airspace between layers of groundcover fabric, have plenty of them to use.

[RichardRoundTree]

That seems like a excellent way to winterize and keep airflow through them also, Do you keep them in your high/low tunnel over winter? or just a out of the wind/sun place and cover them with the ground cover? And what zone are you?

[hoosierbanana]

I’m in zone 7a. They spend the winter outside in the growing space (the ones from the greenhouse were put outside in December as well), the three rows shown above will be condensed into one (one is about 30 ft. longer than the other 2 so there should be enough room). So one layer of ground cover stays down to keep them clean, one layer will be touching them directly on top, then I will put empty seed flats on top of that and add the last layer and keep it in place with weights and or sod staples.

For younger trees that grow late into the year and are extra cold sensitive I had been putting a layer of seed flats on top of the socks also, under the first layer of groundcover, but I think that is not as important as between the layers. I had unripe figs survive without damage last year using that method so it could not have gotten much below freezing under the cover. The air gap insulates them from cold as well as warming up in the sun.

[DCinFLX]

I have double this amount now. Mine are 3’x3’, probably somewhere around 9 gallons after my double fold seam and zip tie ends. Definitely pays to use a good quality non-woven fabric. The stuff I just finished off is pretty flimsy, though only one tore while settling the compost so far. These probably cost something like $2.50 to make (not counting the labor of sewing and filling), if you’re buying the compost by the yard.

[DCinFLX]

The socks go marching one by one hoorah hoorah. Half pomegranates, half figs.

[Chills]

How heavy are they?

Scott

[DCinFLX]

Google says my 9 gallon bags should be around 65-70 pounds, that’s heavier than I would have guessed so I’ll have to find a scale. I did make mine along 3 feet wide because I figured they’d be easier to handle arm span wise that way (but I still use a garden cart to move them around).

[DCinFLX]

I weighed two after a light watering and got 45, 47.5 pounds. The compost mix I bought was mostly aged horse and cow manure so it may be a little heavier than most.

[DCinFLX]

The fig and pomegranate compost socks were relocated to their semi-permanent home amongst the vines yesterday. There was still a chance of frost this morning so last night I tipped them over and tucked them in with row cover. Easy and quick, going to be a really nice feature of these bags. I just got more landscape fabric in today so the next round of socks will be starting shortly–those will be for the cuttings that are ready to be uppotted.

[hoosierbanana]

I made a contraption to help with moving them up a size, the soft taco method works fine but you really need 3 hands.

Already thought of one way to improve it by putting the legs outside so it can pivot further, will probably think of other stuff too…

[DCinFLX]

That’s some strange and effective farming. If you used a cross section of a plastic barrel set lower and center in a non folding table, do you think the distribution of the filling material would get messed up? Certainly your design makes it easier to slide the upsock out from the table.

[hoosierbanana]

I might have a half barrel around to mess with…

[hoosierbanana]

Well I could not find the half barrel, I think it would work as long as you add the compost half before and half after. Closing the ends would be a little more awkward… I don’t think getting it out would be a problem though, just drag it to the side and the barrel will roll.

The other thing I was thinking about trying is making a jumbo sized sushi mat. Probably a foot or so shorter than the material is wide and attaching some bungee cords to hold the sides up.

[DCinFLX]

I started the next round of socks (or fig sausages) today. Some tree pots could have stayed in a couple more weeks but most of this batch of 10 were just ready. This batch has a higher quality non-woven landscape fabric and a lighter compost mix–so we’ll see how it does with watering. We’re close to seeing water stress on perennials up here, 0.50 inch in June so far after 2.50 inches in May. Thankfully I have the drip irrigation setup though I’m usually only there to turn it on five days a week. Bonus points if you spot what I planted between the rows of socks to keep them company.

[DCinFLX]

Brief update. Here’s another reason to use quality non-woven landscape fabric–the cheap stuff actually lets enough light through to allow weeds to grow under the fabric… Maybe another reason to vet your sources of compost too… The watermelon planted between the layers of ground cover, and hemmed in by the socks, is thriving.