If you have great or poor fig producers, are you thinking about adding more of the same or getting rid of certain potted figs in your collection?
1 Like
If I feed them well and trim back to main trunk every winter so that I get a lot of new growth, I can get around 10 figs per gallon of pot per year. It is a nice treat, but not enough to live on for us 2. I have also noticed that when the pots go above 10 gallons the number per gallon decreases. I have has my best luck with 5 gallon buckets.
It depends heavily on the size of the size of the pot. While it may be possible to get 10 per gallon in a single year if you water and fertilize heavily, the result is an overgrown top and a cluttered rootball. It’s not sustainable.
I’m happy with 3-5 per gallon, sustainably. While I started with 10 g pots, now my trees are entirely in 15 / 20 / 25s. I’ve got ~60 trees. 3-5 x 20 x 60 = 3600 - 6000 figs per season, in theory. Some of the trees are not fully mature so in actuality I’ve picked 3000 - 4000.
I know this yield is sustainable, and I find it necessary to root prune only every 3 to 5 years. As the trees mature, I’ve been reducing the numbers. By the time I’m 80 (6 years), there might be only 30 trees, all in 20-25 g pots, producing a minimum of 3 x 20 x 30 = 1800 figs per year. Spread over a 60-day harvesting season, that’s only 30 per day – very manageable.
4 Likes
Do you bring your trees in for the winter to protect against killing temps. This winter I have been bellow 5F nearly 10 times with at least 4 bellow 0-F. I do have to trim my fig roots at least every other year. Fertilizer is free. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCOtDw_Dx_0
Yes. Normal winter lows here range from -5 F to 10 F. Anything in that range could be lethal. So I prune in November, move the trees to a detached garage in early December. Temps there tend to bottom at ~20 F.
1 Like