That is a really tough question… And I’m not really sure since I’ve never tried it. My compost socks are super high density, but are basically container plants which are dwarfed. And I’m still figuring that out. They are spaced about every 3 ft. with 6 ft. between rows, but in ground that would be unmanageable because even after total dieback most varieties regrow to 8 ft.
Unpruned/minimally pruned trees with more branches generally end up more productive here, because they ripen more figs in a shorter window. And tend to be better quality and larger. But protecting unpruned trees is difficult, and they seem to split more. Growing figs has basically been a learn as I go experience.
The orchard I planted is spaced 8 ft. between trees and 16/14 ft. between rows. They are planted through ground cover, the section that has 16 ft. between rows has 6 ft. wide ground cover and the 14 ft. has 4ft. (the fields were already defined by drive rows) so there is 10 ft. of turf to mow between them, which is one pass with the tractor (which doesn’t fit between rows that survived winter) or 2 with the riding mower. 8ft. is plenty of space when they die back, but trees that have survived 2 or more years need thinning to keep them from getting crowded… But there is no guarantee of winter survival, even with protection, so planting at greater distances means there will not be hardly any harvest after a bad winter.
The Etna types have done the best overall, others just don’t set figs after dying back, or ripen too late, or have problems with splitting and bugs.
I have a question on training the stepover figs. I have one tree that I just started training this year. I currently have the main scaffolds pretty much set, but I’m having trouble getting fruiting branches everywhere I want them. I had previously notched the bark above every bud I wanted to grow, but only some did. I’ve just notched again to see if it will work this time. My question is, should I keep fussing over forcing the correct buds? Or should I just trust that this will all sort itself out over the next few years?
I believe you will have plenty of shoots form in the future.
This year mine have a over abundance of up right shoots ,
I meant to thin them out early , but life got in the way .
Too many I believe , still hopping to thin.
I think you will have enough.
Just having that low scaffold , to cover easily is the key.shoots will come…
once the rootsystem grows a little larger, you’ll have plenty of vigor, and the fig will start to grow shoots out of nowhere all over. If your branches are properly horizontally, you’ll get a decently even spread. If they are bent downwards in an arc, you’ll get most shoots on the top of the arc.
btw these are not truly “step over” since when they grow you can no longer step over them. (you can with for example an apple trained this way)
But it is really useful. Especially if your after breba crops. Makes renewing fruiting wood simple.
If also seen pictures of these low growing horizontal frameworks planted in ditches that where filled in with soil over winter. And dug up during spring. As frost protection.
Yes, you get new shoot growth popping out all over from the growth rings along the horizontal cordons-no special treatment needed. After a couple years you need to be vigilant about thinning shoots in spring and early summer or it gets too crowded
How’d they do this year? You know, I was just recently hacking at, bending and covering my messy, overgrown bushes, and I thought, “Man, I sure wish these things were easier to cover! I wonder how @Hillbillyhort’s stepover figs are doing?”
@JeremiahT
The overwintering part , covering the pruned low cordon with a double layer of 70 weight remay has been easy and effective.
No winter damage.
As I noted above , I should have thinned more.
I think the up rights are too many this year.
Very vigorous growth as well .most uprights went 8-12 feet tall !
From the cordon .
Too tall. Topped some at ~ 7 ft. Mid summer.
Many unripened figs left on the upper sections
Picked many gallons of figs , so a success.
Need to cut off uprights and cover in the next week or so…
Hope to do a better job of shoot thinning + pinching next year.
Excellent! Thanks for the update! Am definitely going to finally try this next year.
Yep, figs do tend to creep up on you with spring/summer growth. Some of mine got way out of hand this season! Looks like the Japanese growers in the photo in your first post had those bearing laterals/uprights thinned pretty severely. Lots of great air flow, sun penetration there—excellent for ripening and discouraging fungi and SWDs and AFFs!
My inground figs are trained step over aka low cordon cane/spur and they’re planted 8 feet apart. About 33% of them would overlap and that percentage will go up as I improve protection.
This NY Times article—a plug for Lee Reich’s new book Growing Figs in Cold Climates (which I need to pick up!)—has some neat pictures of some of Reich’s low cordon figs, including an ultra-low, one-armed specimen planted outside (as opposed to in a greenhouse):
EDIT: You only get so many views unless you’re a subscriber, so—for future reference—here’s Reich’s picture of the just-referenced fig:
Is it possible that we can have 4 or 6 cordons instead of two each plant? Then it is pretty much the same training method of grapevines. Double cordons do not use the land effectively.
This winter, I bend my young branches to the ground to cover them. I can allow them to grow up a little. But still keep the low profile. I think I’ll grow them either 4 or 6 cordons. This is like having 4 or 6 scaffolding branches. I can allow some spurs to grow some side branches. Pretty much the same way we train grapevines.
I really like the step over idea. My problem is ants. With one or two upright trunks I can use Tangefoot but with the step over technique I would need to find another was to deal with the ants.
Thanks for the update! Am definitely going to finally try this next year.
