Thanks Vinnie,

Now that is what I call some very useful information for those
like me, we need all the good help we can get in our new found fig habit!

Regards
Cecil

Hi Vinnie, "oh i love that name"
anyways yes i agree with most you said except for taplas mix which simply put does not work for me in large pots to heavy. The miracle grow potting soil i have used about 6 out of 8 seasons with very good results as i have posted my tree pictures with fruit BUT each time i root prune i struggle with the soil as it get pretty hard inside the rootball when i try to remove as much as possible. You know me always "Curious about thing" So i hope this is not too long but it might be "soowy" im not trying to hijack your thread.
This year while at home depot l;ooking for some dolomatic lime an older gentlman that works there asked "may i help you" yes i said and told him what i was looking for he showed me then asked what i was growing and i told him and he said what a brown turkey and i said no and explained all the varieties i have . Trying to make a long story short this guy knows his stuff and we talked a good half an hour about plants and such, he steered me away from miracle grow and said try this stuff and see if you like it its inexpensive and he uses it also on some of his plants as he propagate different plants and sell them he also has some sort of patent and he showed me a potted plant that in the description had his name on it but i forgot that explanation he gave me but he is good real good ive ran into him on several occasions. Anyways ive tried this Scotts seed starter yup its soil for growing new grass . Its cost 5.97 for a 1 and a half cubic foot bag. He opened it at the store so i could feel it and explained some of the things in it from the coposted forest products and carried on for a bit about it but i have short memory lost it seems and wish the misses was with me she has the elephant memory. Anyways i felt this stuff it was dark color compared to the Miracle grow and not peaty like MG but how i explain um more granular it felt in my hands . Anyways i have it in 2 pots and plants seem happy so far time will tell.
7 thru 9 i dont do but the others i agree very much especially about the bare root plants. My freshly rooted cutting always seem to stall for a bit but once they pick up there is no stopping them . Potted plants when recieved seem to have past that point already. But my newly potted up freshly rooted plants always stall out like a bad car but once going like i said they go very well.
Martin

Thanks Cecil

Martin thanks for the comments. I had trouble with the mixture as well but I figured out that slow release fertilizer is essential. Previously, I used a soluble fertilizer with micro-nutrients that burned out my plants. I almost lost a few plants but repotted them in a mixture with little fertilizer and they sprang back to life.

As for the weight, Dr. Tapla's mixture is a little heavy but I have 20 & 15 year old sons to help out. In short I am a fan of the soilless mixture.

Please make any comments you want. I sincerely appreciate your perspective.

Very Respectfully
Vinnie

My recent stalled variant is Chater Green. All the Miracle Gro & bone meal had not helped one bit. Hoping for next year. I had my Battalagia Green behaving "stalled" & no leaves. I thought it would die. Took cuttings and tree started to leaf out in late July & its growing like a weed now. My biggest lesson learn in 2009 is in "TRADING". Be careful especially if they are not regulars on the fig forum. My suppose to be Sal's, Smith & Petite Negri all seems to have similar skinny leaf shape. They have tiny main crop figs which would not ripen this year but next year I will know for sure whether they are all PN etc.

Thank you so much Vinnie and Martin for your lesson learned. I am learning a lot from you including Cecil, Herman2, Bass, Loslunasfarms, and Lou. I can relate to the 1/2 MG 1/2 perlite. My cutting from this year did better in that mixture than others I tried. Also, I never used manure as a fertilizer until this year. I added composted cow manure to some of my established trees. Although they grew, they also suffered by growing outward towards the pot versus downward. What was happening in my pots were the manure clumped up at the root ball and the water ran outward versus down towards the roots. This forced the root to grow outward and I had to water more often. My Black Spanish grew large figs but it was stress because the roots had grown towards the side of the pot which was the hottest part of the soil. I repotted all my plants using Lou's soil mixture recipe. Within 24 hours I am seeing positive results. I like mixing the lime with the mini pine nuggets first before adding it to the rest of the soil mixture. I also learned using slow release fruit tree spikes produces the best fig crop. This year was the first time I did not use them and I only got about 10 figs. Plus the leaves on my trees were small. Two years ago, with 2 trees I got a bucket of figs that all ripen at the same time that were sweet! So, come February I will be using the fruit tree spikes again. Wally-World has them marked down now and I plan on buying at least 10 packs this year! On this site I heard great things about Ultimate Potting Mix. We don't have this soil in the Carolina at least not were I shop (HD, LOWes, Walmart). Yesterday I ordered some from Iowa. This winter I plan on using it with cutting I get from some local trees in the area and will see how well it works. I remember reading where someone used a liquid root hormone in their air layering technique. I want to try that method next year. Happy gardening Dennis

Paully and Snaglpus thanks for your valuable contributions. I do want to say I share your opinion of a trusted source. The best stock I have came from folks that contribute on this forum.

Good luck!
Vinnie

Vinnie, this is a very relevant thread started by you. Thanks. The more we share our experiences the better we get.

I recently started getting into figs. I have 3 cuttings and 2 young rooted cuttings. I have cacti and some dwarf citrus trees in dr. Taplas gritty mix that are absolutely flourishing. I am a big fan of it. I used all my perlite and potting mix planting some tomatoes last week, so I decided to put the 3 cuttings in the gritty mix. They had some root initials already so I just went for it hoping for the best. A few weeks later, strong roots are showing through the clear plastic, and they are all leafing out nicely. Next week I will move them to a gallon pot with additional gritty mix.

Judging by my previous Fig success (or the lack of)

About the only lesson that I might have learned is, do not try to keep young plants from going dormant (keeping in the house etc.) thru the winter) I did that last winter and lost some nice plants! I believe the above is the reason.

Happy Gardening

Cecil