Fig plants vary in there dormancy due to ones climate but if they are dormant now and you are comfortable in doing so weather wise yes you can put in them in 5g containers now.

As to potting mix fig plants will do fine in any decent potting mix long as you also fertilize them during growing season because unlike growing inground where nutrients are available in containers there is none available other than some time limited fertilizer added into some potting mixes .

As for fertilizer to use there are many options like cereal in a grocery aisle.

Here in our yard for many years with the figs i always kept it simple with water soluble miracle grow and they do very well near Chicago in our yard in 30g containers.

Martin

Sammers,

I recommend 5 gal. black plastic nursery pot for this year. Pot them up right now, before new growth commences. Good, well draining potting mix with 1-2 oz. Calcite lime per gallon of soil. Figs like sweet soil. Fertilize as for vegetables, not citrus. Keep nitrogen lowish. You don't want to encourage rampant green, wasted growth.

You yearly up-size pots as the fig tree dictates, for pot cultured figs, until you reach the maximum pot size you can handle, not what Arnold Schwarzenegger can! Some fig folks go up to 30+ gallon pots! My max pots are 10 gal., that's my limit.

I keep my fig trees pruned small, no taller than 4-5' by seasons end through serious pruning every late winter. Right now my tallest pruned fig tree is 30" tall. It will add about 2' growth by season's end. I also train to multiple leaders, up to six per tree. There is no main, dominant trunk. Keeps tree canopy low.

I don't like fabric pots. Hard to move about. Hard to take fig out for root pruning.

Grow figs that do best in Portland. Short season, and humid tolerant ones: Ronde de Bordeaux, Olympian, Black Marsailles, Madeleine des Doux Saisons are some good ones for short growing seasons. You do a lot of trial and error in growing figs. Fortunately, figs are relatively easy to grow. They like to grow.

Do you know how to prune/water during the growing season to maximize fruit production, flavor, and quality? Let me know.

My method works for me, but perhaps not for everyone.

I wish you success.

Moses

Moses, I would love to hear how you prune/water/fertilize your figs. As this is my first growing season with them I want to learn as much as I can about what works for others so I can trial and figure out what works best for me.

Hi Moses Thanks for your time and effort to write all that down.

I have been fertilizing for a few years now just with water solable All purpose Miracle Gro 24 8 16 half strength once a week, I just copied Martins protocol.

I am quite happy with my trees.

HoweveI came a cross these post and I want to try your protocol on some of my fig trees and compare it.

So Thanks agein I will keep you postep .

Yes Thank you Moses! I will certainly apply your tips to my growing this year. I have heard about pinching and I am happy you detaioled how/when to do it. Do you grow in ground or in pots?

Spammers,

I grow my figs only in pots, none in ground. I'm taking advantage of my no longer used 20'x25' concrete enclosed car pad, sunken garden style (walled in on N., E., and W. side, with the south exposed to full sun),...a perfect heat trap in which the figs thrive. In my cool, short season zone, figs can take all the light and heat they can get in order to get the earliest, ripest, best tasting figs.

During the winter they are stored in my fruit cellar, where they are right now, still very dormant. We have had a very cold late winter this year. I hope to shift the figs outside come the end of the month.

Frosts, hopefully light, will surely continue well through April once the figs are outside. I cannot shuffle them in and out, so I will put a huge black plastic bag over each tree, during every frost scare, usually over night, to protect them. The bags will come off just as soon as the temps climb up above freezing in the morning.

Moses

Again Thanks Moses.

Can you explain multiple leader pruning Please.

Thanks

Bluemoonlight,

It's easiest when starting with a rooted cutting or a tissue cultured young fig as so many are sold online. The tissue cultured figs almost always have several wire thin trunks already. I like this. I just let them grow as they are, three or four nicely spaced out trunks coming from one rootstalk.

The rooted cutting is just encouraged to branch down low by pinching out the terminal bud.

I find having the canopy of the fig tree down low makes the tree easier to manage for me. It also helps prevent blowing over in high winds. This is just my preference. It works for me under my pot culture. I like a wide tree, no higher than 4-5' tall by fall. It starts spring about 2-3' tall with lots of branches.

When you have a long trunk sometimes it will snap off in a wind.

You have to start training the tree when it is young.

Moses.

Thanks Moses, I hope these is not considered stilling of a post, or is it ? If it is I apologize and I can start new post, What do all of you thing ?

Bluemoonlight,

It seems Fig Forum folks are pretty laid back, so have no worry. You asked a good question. How can that be offensive to anyone, in any way?

Moses

Appreciate your help Moses

Okay then after reading about wot works for you Moses I have decided to try it on some of my fig trees.

My question is about Miracid.

"If, when I see Chlorosis foliage I give a couple feelings of Miracid. Works Great" What can I use instead of MIRACID I got all kinds of fertilizes just of my head, Alaska Fish Fertilizer / Wood ash / Alominium Sulfate / Epsom salt / All purpose water soluble 24 8 16 / I am pretty sure I have some more .

Is there anything that I can use insted of Miracid ( if I can I want to use the fertilizers that I all readyouhave)

Bluemoonlight,

I really can't recommended any of your listed fertilizers, because I don't use any of them.

You may never have a fig that get chlorotic leaves. I've had a couple that have, and a liquid feed with Miracid, followed up with a second one, 10 days to 2_weeks later did the trick. A small box of Miracid will last a long time. It doesn't go stale.

Moses

That is fine Moses, Thanks anyway

Well it just so hapend that I have Black Madeira that is starting her second season.

It's about 18 inches tall the picture was taken yesterday

How toll the stalk should be there are nodes that have potential to open close to the new grows.

Maby I will take a better picture.

Here is a better picture.

Bluemoonlight,

That's a nice looking fig tree, one of the nicest, straightest trunks I've seen. Fig trees generally do not get awards for elegantly formed trunks and limbs, but yours would! It will branch out down low very nicely.

If you want to encourage multiple branching down low just pinch out the growing tip. Leave those three big leaves, and snip the stem off just below the little leaf. It should send out new shoots up and down the trunk at old leaf scars. There will be a concentration of new shoots closest to the trunk's top, but you can thin them to just a couple.

Pick the shoots that are spaced apart nicely and point out in all directions, maybe 4-6 shoots total. Remove the others you don't want, if any, where they come out of the trunk. You will be left with a good, basic branching structure.

I would replant your fig tree into a 2-3 gallon pot now, which should be roomy enough for the rest of the growing season.

Any growth that you want to branch out, pinch the tip. The more husky, twiggy growth the more figs will form. Just don't have it too jammed and packed with too many closely spaced twigs. Air circulation and light penetration need to be maintained.

That little knob on the trunk, pointing left in the middle of the second picture looks like a breba fig forming to me. If it is, just let it be. It may grow into a fully formed fig, but often on a young, immature tree they fall off at one point, before maturity. A breba fig is not your main, late crop fig. Main, late crop figs form on new, green shoots at the base of every green, this year's leaf. Breba figs form much early on last year's growth, at old, fallen off leaf scars on a stem, at the place where a last year's leaf fell off naturally last fall. They are often not very good tasting figs, nothing like the main, later crop. They also are scarce in number, too. I remove them as soon as they form. I don't like them. I prefer the main crop figs. You may prefer otherwise. To each their own.

Fig trees generally do not produce quality or abundant figs until they get some size/age on them. Patience is needed, believe me, it's needed!

You will get a feel for how to do things as you do it, and be an old pro at it in no time.

Fig trees are very versatile and forgiving...tough old birds! They like to grow.

BTW, what growing zone are you?

Moses

Just wanted to Thank you Moses, I am in zone 6 I live in Penticton British Columbia Canada.

My day is busy but I will get back to you, I know I need more help .

Moses so then that means that you prun your figs for main crop and any breba that on the tree then you pinch it of right ?

So if you don't keep the breba does the main crop grow and ripen earlier ?

Moses all my fig trees are strait trunk trained, except Negronne.

Negronne is trained like a pear tree.

I really like the tree like shape fig tree the only problem with that is ! You know what, the wind.

Here is a few of my fig trees.

Thanks Sammers for starting such a great thread! And for the questions and answers blue moonlight and Moses! I'm also new to figs and starting with my first 3 figs that are also dormant. These tips will help so much for the coming season! That's if my figs even survived the winter

Bluemoonlight,

Does removing the breba crop hasten ripening of the main crop?

1. I cannot tell from my own experience since I have never left brebas ripen. I have never done a test, like taking two identical trees and seeing If letting brebas develop on one and not the other makes a difference in the early ripening of the breba less free. Since brebas are considered inferior, and they are few in number, "Why bother with them?, " is my idea.

If common sense bears any weight in the question, I would judge that eliminating a breba crop would allow that energy, which would have been expended on them, to now be diverted to the tree for other purposes....like assisting the main crop.

Moses

Bluemoonlight types-Well it just so hapend that I have Black Madeira that is starting her second season.

It's about 18 inches tall the picture was taken yesterday

it is in half gallon container, should I just cut the top off?

What i do personally may differ from others but i let the plant grow to the height i desire then i cut. Often one as yours i stake as well as we are near whats called the windy city.

Breba's here in our area tend to be on plant and growing just as the plant is in the vegetative state and are removed as it is taken some energy from plant to develop and grow them where as once removed that energy can add to vegetative state and then production of main crop pruning at 5th leaf helps in colder zones. If one lives in very long season climate then it can be afforded to have breba and main crop.

Martin

Martin, I somehow missed your comment about removing breba so that the tree can use the energy for growth and main crop development.

I am always trying to somehow protect the breba from frizing in spring, you know it's not that easy and I am lucky some season to taste a few breba figs almost never toasty enough but a fresh fig and happy to be starting growing and playing with my fig trees about month earlier and then when breba crop shows up I can't bring my self to remove it.

Sorry I really feel bad about not responding.

Thank you Martin for your input, all way appreciate your comments.

Anna