A ch elated sugar based systemic would help you raise brix levels and maintain a healthy phloem and xylem during early growing and stress.

Plain english please...

Young and tender plants rely heavily on carbohydrates or sugars as the don't have a full canopy of leaves to produce photosynthesis which is a plants way to convert sunlight into sap sugar. The term "brix" is a measurement of a plants sap sugars. The higher the brix levels the healthier the plant. In fruit propagation this is a critical component for re production of leaves, roots, and blooms. A chelated sugar is sprayed on the leaves and continues in to the plants vascular system. Phloem and Xylem are the highways that carry moisture, nutrition and sugars back and forth from roots to leaves.

Are these items that can be put together at home or do they need to be purchased?

http://www.plantfoodco.com/lib/pdfs/PFC-Secondary-Nutrients/PFC-Secondary-Nutrients-Sugar-Cal.pdf

! tablespoon table sugar to one gallon of water works well for me and the plant roots. I use urine on my fig trees roots with fantastic results. my seed grown citrust trees I gave the sugar water formula after each of it's 4 transplants.

sprouted 1-7-2013. 6+ feet tall. 26.5 month old. Looks great.

30% larger, same age, bad camera angle Doing even better. I have no idea whether the atomic grow works or not. If it does then it will take off in sales. If it doesn't your out a small amount of money. I will be out nothing because I like what I have anyway. If it does very well for you I still won't use it unless it is sold in normal stores. I don't buy on line. As clint east wood said " DO YOU FEEL LUCKY----GARDENER---".

The fig is rooted.

The next batch.

Steve

The latest

Hardy chicago fig

The fig tree to the left owns the fig above.

This tree has figs not visible. I have a total of 6 breba figs this year. A record.

The rooted fig is taking off

My hardy chicago fig cuttings have rooted. I am rooting with a success rate of 1/3 times. figs are the only hardwood spieces cutting that has ever rooted for me

The clear cup can be placed in opaque containers to protect the roots from sunlight and lifted out to visually check progress.

Heres mine taken last night... about 10 weeks...

There looking really nice. What I have found is that planting them out side before June is very hard on them because the soil is still to cold. Don't get impatient.

No worries. They will remain in pots and probably won't be out till June or July. They are under a CFL at night. These are the ones I transferred from the cups once it showed sufficient roots.

Steve, whats the soil or medium in the cups you showed in the video?

Toby I missed your question or I would have answered much sooner.

I am using the equivalent of 2/3 Used Miracle grow potting soil mixed with 1/3 top soil dug from my back yard. At the end of the year I get about 0.5 yards of used potting soil from my customers when I put their garden beds to sleep.

This is the fig pictured at the very top of this thread after winter has passed.

It is one of the small one.

Another one.

One of the larger ones.

The Hardy Chicago fig is the most resistant to wet and cold root problems and therefore I can get away with my soil formula.

I have 2 four year old Chicago figs. They are very hardy. but i put them in pots after 2 years. that's where I got some of my cuttings.

that's funny. nothing special on the soil. maybe I will go back to miracle grow instead of concocting fancy mixes. it can get expensive.

My goal with these figs is to get them started in fall and push for about 1 foot or more growth. They go dormant by the end of December. By early February I'll bring them out of dormancy so they are growing well by February 21 We will have now gained 50% of the lost light since equinox and this is enough for the fig tree to bolt. By May the trees will start setting fig and they may ripen by early July. As winter approaches I plan to put them in a 15 + gallon container and repeat the above, The following year into spring I will transplant the trees to a 30 gallon container at spring set out date. The figs will live the remainder of their lives there because the 30 gallon containers are too heavy to move. In Cincinnati, that will be there last year. They will die. I will have 16 trees in circulation.

You would

have to be careful with my soil mix. Be prepared to put a water deflection cone over the pot if you get 5 cold rainy days in a row.

2 inches of water or sand in the bottom keeps the cups in place in high wind

Since I am bordering in Zone 5/6 in Southwest Michigan I can't leave the figs outdoors. Although hardy, the 4 year old Chicago figs will most likely die to the ground. I go not think the other varieties I just rooted will survive the winter (Brown Turkey, Desert King, LSU, Black, Panachee, Celeste) so they will need to stay in pots.

I like your plan to get them out of dormancy early to give them an early start. My problem with that is space and where to put them.

I am curious to what night temperatures should be before I put mine out. Still three weeks to go before frost date, so obviously not yet, but how much longer should I wait?

I guess depends on how old the plant is. but imo I would.not risk anything less than 50F. and that may even be low.

I have put all mine out. I brought mine in last night with a predicted low of 31F but Mine have seen low 40's often with no problem. They are also adjusting to sunlight. You will be fine if you don't get frost. Here is my latest on my best fig tree seen in the first picture on this thread.

Check the logo on the bucket to the same bucket in the firs picture. This tree is 7 months old from a 3 inch cutting.

Steve

My 13 month old from cutting Hardy chicago figs in 30 gallon half drums have many figs

My best has 52 figs from 1/8 inch to 2/3 inch in size

The tree on the left has 40 figs, the tree on the right has 23 figs

she has 40 figs

all four of my 13 month old trees have a total of 141 figs

I have 5 fig trees in 5 gallon buckets that started from cuttings end of september

total of 13 figs here

Steve

Thanks Toby for the like. How are your figs doing now since posting your picture above April 11.

Steve

here are the ones I was growing over the winter and new batch... I had about a 50% success rate. ...

these are my 5 year old chicagos. almost full. they get wheeled - in in the winter.

Very nice trees. I like the wheeling idea. My yard rises 20 feet in the first 60 feet from the road. Wheeling is not an option for me. I have to recruit help and ropes for mine.

I just did that recently bc I was also pulling them in and out of the garage... which was ok but I know sooner or later it will grind down the bottom. I found someone in craigslist who had 6 of these for $5 ea so I got them all. I was going to build it but the casters alone would run me more than $5 :)

I don't think I'm going to use those oak barrels for the future trees. I think they are a bit too big to handle. Not sure. I like your 5 gal buckets. Someone local sells them for $1 ea. I'm guessing you have holes at the bottom?

You have way more trees than me. lol! What soil do you use in the buckets?

hahaha... I just noticed the cut-up blue drums. I have the same thing. Those trees in the barrel were transferred from blue drums. So maybe I will reuse the drums later on.

Typical 5 gallon bucket prepared for figs and citrus.

perfect soil for figs and citrus. contents 1 part crushed soft brick, 1 part gravel under 1/4 in diameter 3 parts sand from 1/16 to 3/16 inch, 1 part potting soil. Just don't try to move it.

The soil I use is 1 part back yard dirt with 2 parts rotted compost. works fine but you need the extra drainage hole for safety and a free breathing tree.

As for the 5 gallon bucket, you just pick it up by the handle with your finger and loop your thumb around your belt in back so that the plant rests on your rear and she is effortless to carry and you chiropractor will approve.

Interesting potting mix. Was this a recipe from somewhere or did you just come up with it?

Both. I looked up what people are using here on this forum and citrus forum and decided that granite sand was expensive and sand swept out of the street gutter was free. I also had porous used brigs that formed all different size shards. I removed the dust and fine grinds and chunks over 3/4 inches. This got rid of my trash brick and saved my plants. I inherit about 1/3 yard of used miracle grow potting soil a year. I haul it away for free and I get it free. The end result I saved about 200 in materials for soil with quality equal to theirs.

the brick and sand concerns me as it seems to.make the soil heavy. I don't mean weight but that's part of it. I thought the idea is to make it a lighter mix. presently, I am using an organic soil mix like happy frog or black gold.

The coarse texture of my mix drains very well and does not become hydrophobic when it gets to dry. It is equivalent to a 5-1-1 mix but is much heavier to blow over in storms. It is good for trees that have to stay out all year but must be in a container.

The trick to growing a large productive tree in a small pot is to have a porous mix that holds the roots in place in a spread out fashion and is feed a hydroponic solution for all its needs. My mix fits that criteria. 5-1-1 holds water and is the next step up from hydroponics but is still very far from in ground planting. In this manor a hydroponic tree will stand from its own roots.

Thanks Steve. What is the benefit of the broken-up bricks? Is it mainly for maintaining the porousness of the soil along with the sand? Also, do you get the bricks whole or in chinks and break it up?

Here's another take on soil, A bit similar to yours:

As an alternative to commercial potting mix, University of Florida Extension recommends a mix of 1 part sand, 1 part peat moss and 1 part perlite or ground bark. "Organic Gardening" magazine online recommends topping the mix with a 1-inch layer of finished compost once the fig is in the pot. The finished level of the soil surface should be from 1 to 4 inches below the rim of the pot.

The bricks serve the same purpose as the perlite. It holds small amounts of water. It provides surface area for the roots to spread. It will last at least 10 time that of perlite. It provides space for the finer grained coarse sand. It is free of charge. It is extremely angular and make an excellent support for roots. It does not harbor unwanted pathogens. The sand also mimics perlite with out the water holding capacity. It will fill the voids of the brick shards with out blocking water. The used potting soil is free

So do you break up the bricks yourself?

Yes. I use a hammer and a large 100 pound rock and I swing away. I takes about 1 hour to produce about 5 gallons of shards. The sand i get out of my street gutter.

4 out of 5 of the fig trees in the first picture have outgrown their 5 gallon bucks and will be up potted to a 30 gallon container. I gave one of the 6 trees to a friend. They are 8 months old from a 3 inch rooted cutting.

Steve

Don't count your ripe figs until you and not the squirrels harvest them.

My first fig potential.

Steve

My in-ground hardy Chicago fig is now coming in. It appears to have over 300 figs on the tree. I have found that I get about 10 figs per gallon of pot size per year. I have 5 fig trees in 5 gallon bucket,5 figs in 30 gallon containers and on in ground tree. I have taken 21 cutting to root and grow in 5 gallon bucket. the figs in 5's will graduate up to 10 gallon pots. the 30 gallon potted figs will get a minor root prune and stray in their 30's

Over head view but it is not currant.

first HC fig for the season... they just starting to ripen. Fruits are bigger this year and more per tree.

Steve, didn't realize you have some in the ground. So do they always die back to the ground? How old are the ones in the ground and the ones in the pots?

I believe this is the 4 th summer for the in ground fig and one fig in a 30 is 3 years, the other 4 in 30's are 2 years old and all the 5 gallon figs are in their 1st year. The first 2 winters the fig trees survived the winter of 10F and 9F. The 3rd winter I got 3 nights of -6F, one -5F and several just below zero. They were killed to the ground. The 4th winter I spread the larger limbs to the ground and covered the figs up with 2 feet of shredded leaves. This left a wagon wheel spokes of limbs the tree grew from in spring. Our low was -12F and the fig tree survived. My figs are just barely larger than a quarter. You must be doing something they really like. Last year I lost most of my fig to squirrels but doing better this year with a loss of 0 figs,

this mornings harvest . had it for breakfast. ..

I think I'll keep mine in pots. the two HC are 5 years old. the next oldest batch are brown turkey, brunswick and VDB that are 9 mos old. some of them actually have fruits already. I plan to grow some indoors this winter and see how they will do.

Your fig look very taste. I get from 1 to 5 figs a day usually closer to 1.

8 fig cutting rooting on lower window sill

12 fig cuttings rooting on upper north windowsill.

I found that if I cut the section to be rooted off and then use a very hot fork, I can slide the leaf stem in the groove between the tongs to cauterize and remove the leaves not wanted. This prevents the loss of energy from excessive bleeding at the cut mark. We will see over time.

I did fertilize regularly this year which might account for the larger fruits.

How regularly and at what rate Toby?