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This one is the LSU gold

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This one is the Celeste

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This one is the Turkey

I can't help you on your question.

But I can comment on the Beautiful place ya have there.(pretty plants too.)Nice pic also.

Happy Gardening
Cecil

Thanks alot. Slow but shure Im making my backyard into what I want.

The most obvious thing I can see that should be done is....

Remove the grass from the base of the trees and mulch with composted leaves and composted manure.

You start to talk about removing the grass and I flat get gun shy.......If you try to control the grass with Roundup, Ya better have some kind of shield to protect the Fig Plants

I KNOW....
Good luck.
Cecil

My only option on that would be to weed wack extreamly short. Once the dry season comes around, all the grass around it will die and Ill mulch it.

Thanks.

Bill if they were mine I would mulch with pine bark small nuggets (About 4/5" deep) That will really make a difference in keeping the soil damp and cooling the ground off.

I see, I was trying to do the oppisite as we get so much rain right now. I mowed the lawn today, it grows so fast im mowing 2-3 times a week, so the grass around the trees is short. About 2 inches.

I have woods next to me and can get tons of pine needles, would this help if I added them to the soil too?

-Bill

Bill,
pine needles might im not absolute sure but might over time make the soil acidic. Maybe others know more about that.

I planted 2 brown turkey plants this spring. They are in a sand that has no clay content (Citrus County). I use pine bark mulch. They get fertilized once per month. One was quick to take off, the other was slow but has now doubled in size in the last several weeks. Both are developing fruit. My experience has been that plants in Florida seem to like frequent feeding. At some point they will take off, but it is hard waiting for water to come to a boil!

Floridadon, Thanks, when you feed do you use granuals or spikes? I put a spike at each tree about two months ago.

I would rip out the grass around the tree, roots and all, and then mulch, but NOT with pine needles.

Joe

Hi Bill,
I would remove all grass in a 2' circle and mulch with crushed limestone. That would give you an alkaline condition eventually which is much more encouraging for fig growth than anything like pine bark and/or pine needles or leaf mulch which causes an acidic condition, not good for figs.
I 'm growing figs in Freeport, Grand Bahama Island in coral based soil ( calcium carbonate ) with some Promix mixed in, soil appears to be excellent for figs.
The figs came from air layered cuttings I imported from NJ, in Oct. 08.
They are all producing figs the size of a quarter or larger and exceed 24" in height. I mulched with crushed coral.
The ground here is very porous and rain disappears 10 minutes after a downpour.
Felipo

I'm in your general area and I've got three figs in pots. I think they are Celeste or Brown turkey. I've had them for three years and this year I had the best production ever. I put one in one of those small plastic wheelbarrows that don't work well (I drilled holes in the bottom first) They were outside for a while and I noticed a fig would almost be ripe and then disappear. I believe it was birds so I moved them into my pool cage and I've had quite a few figs ripen. ANother problem is too much rain so they are slightly under the roof so they don't get the tropical rains we get. I'll take pictures and show you my set up and maybe that will help. They are not mulched but planted in Miracle grow soil. Another problem may be that you are not fertilizing enough. As you know there is nothing in our soil/sand. YOu have to add everything..

I think Ill agree with you barbcoleus. The tree that is doing the worst is in the least fertile soil, so its most likly fertilizer. I guess its time to warm up my mirical grow sprayer and get some tree spikes. Once the two in the ground get big enough for me to get cuttings, Ill take some and keep some plants in pots.

capumastru, thanks for the feed back, but since the trees are in my yard and my soil is about nutural I dont think Ill use rocks. One reason is I spent about a month leveling my yard and getting rid of the rocks. So it would freak me out to put them back. lol.

I looked at the celeste (planted on the slop) and its shooting out tons of fruit buds and looks extreamly healthy right now. It has not rained for 4 days or so and that plant has a tree spike up hill from it.

Again, thanks.

I use a granular fertilizer. What ever goes on the lawn. My pH is neutral on this property.

Floridadon do you have any trouble with nematodes. I was told they would kill your figs abd to avoid this I read that it was recommended to plant your figs next to the foundation of your house and the roots would go under it. I'm pretty sure my husband would not be happy to see the foundation of our house cracking. THis is another reason I have them planted in pots.

I bought granual fert for citrus, 12-8-8 or something close to that. I also got spikes, if you use spikes, how often, once or twice a year?