Surprising Benefits of Growing Figs in Pots

and this thing has grown really really well in this pot you can see got a few figs already forming there what's up Lazy Dog fam hope all youall having an awesome day it is Wednesday May 29th here in South Georgia today we're going to do a little figing around and I'm going to give you some pretty compelling evidence as to why a feig tree like this might actually be better off in a pot like this as opposed just sticking it in the ground but first let me share a few updates of some things going on in the orchard I have been out here just about every day diligently searching for some rip figs because I know we're getting really really close to that time so I've been keeping a real close eye on these LSU Tiger figs that are forming and a real close eye on this brown turkey tree which looks like it's going to show out for us this year after pruning it back real hard this winter and two real close size on this LSU gold tree here because some of these figs are actually starting to size up a little bit those aren't as big as they're going to get but they're getting there so my records over the years tell me that those varieties are the ones that should be giving us our first figs and the ones we'll be showing you all as they rrap and now I do have quite a few trees I planted last year that might give me some production this year and we might find a few early producers in that batch so I'm having to keep a close eye on all of them but particularly those three and then the last time we were out here figging around me and the boys planted about 20 new trees in the spot where we've expanded our Orchard and they're doing pretty well this is an LSU tipido tree here the leaves will sag a little bit during the heat of the day but we've been keeping the irrigation running on these the irrigation is running right now they haven't taken off growth-wise yet but they're hanging in there doing pretty well considering how hot it is now this is also the time of year when people especially down here in the Deep South start getting worried about fig rust and as I've told you before don't worry about it fig rust is inevitable it will come and go your trees will be just fine so this kadria tree here which is loaded up with figs is also starting to load up with Rusty leaves and you can see down there a lot of the leaves have fallen off already we're not going to worry about it the figs that are on here we'll ring just fine we'll enjoy the heck out of those these leaves will probably all fall off the ones that are on here now and then it'll put on new leaves and put on a new crop of figs later this year so don't sweat the rust just keep Watering your trees and once it drops all those Rusty leaves in the middle of summer it should then put on a new crop of leaves and most varieties will give you a second even sometimes a third crop of figs now one more thing before we talk about the advantages of growing figs and pots had a lot of people ask for an update on this log that we Tred to root cut this off that big brown turkey tree back earlier this year I think it was in January and this thing had some little leaves on it some green growth for a while there and then it kind of just petered out and I'm beginning to wonder if this isn't going to work here I don't see any signs of new growth on it now so I figured I'd take it out of here and see if we got any Roots growing I didn't want to do that initially but I don't think it's going to hurt anything at this point so let me get it out of here we can see yeah I don't see any roots for well actually do got a little something going on right there so that little piece may actually make it I was just going to chunk this in the burn pile but I may stick it back in this pot see if that right there will take new life so now let's talk about growing fig trees and pots and I'm going to show you a pretty Stark comparison of the same variety planted at the same time in a pot versus in the ground and I think this is very useful information because although there are a lot of people that grow figs successfully in pots it seems like the majority of people think that they got to go in the ground as soon as possible so when we ship our fig trees in these pots right here they could be this tall or twice this tall but we get a lot of messages from people saying I got my fig tree or got my fig trees in the mail they look great and I went out there the next day and I planted them in the ground and I get why people do that they get something in the mail they get all excited and they just can't wait to get it in the ground but you have to remember this is not like a tomato plant so we're not worried about this thing getting root Bound in here and just stopping growing or starting to look real pitiful like a tomato plant whe if you just left it in a small pot for a long time as we mentioned in this little brochure here that we include with all our Pig trees you can just leave it in this pot right here and it'll be just fine or you can put it in a slightly larger pot and it would be just fine and you may find as I'm about to show you that there are great advantages to doing that you may get better growth out of this tree in the first year or two putting it in a pot as opposed to in the ground so here's about a 1 and a2y Old Salem dark tree that we have in a pot I think that's a seven or eight gallon pot not real sure but we actually showed putting it in the pot on a video last year and this thing has grown really really well in this PO lot you can see got a few figs already forming there lot of good new growth on this thing just being in this pot now let's compare that potted Salem dark tree to this inground Salem dark tree so this tree right here was planted at the same time as that potted tree it was the same size plant and you can see the difference here is amazing so much more growth out of the Potted version compared to the inground version and that makes a lot of good sense when we think about what we've seen with this older inground Salem dark tree behind me so this 5 to sixy Old Salem dark tree is a solid producer for us now but it was slow to get going too much like that other inground Salem dark tree has been so it took this one a few years to really take off and start giving us some solid production now it would be absolutely wonderful if I had a list of all the Fig varieties that seem to do better in pots initially as opposed to in the ground but I don't have potted versions of all of my inground trees cuz that would be a lot of pots I can tell you that most of the LSU varieties seem to take off just fine in the ground no worries but there are some other varieties that seem like they're better off in a pot at least for the first few years really baby them before you put them in the ground so even if you live in a warmer climate where your fig trees are not going to experience a significant amount of winter die back you make it consider as opposed to just rushing to get that fig tree in the ground putting it in a larger pot for a year or maybe two I think you'll find you get a lot more growth out of it plant it in this pot right here and then when you do get ready to go in the ground with it you can plant a larger more cold hearty faster growing tree that's not going to require as much babying as a smaller tree would and if you live in a cooler climate than we do or maybe kind of right on the line of whether or not you can get away with growing fig trees in the ground this pot here is going to help you preserve some of that growth from one year to the next if you plant a fig tree and it just dies back every single year it's going to be tough to get some solid production year after year but if you can preserve some of that growth from one year to the next you'll get exponentially more new growth and more figs as a side note to that we've gotten several messages from people lately saying they've had a fig tree for five or six or more years and just never gives them any rip figs well in some of those cases what was happening was the tree was dying back to the ground every winter they weren't preserving any of that growth and there wasn't really enough time in their season for that fig tree to Bud out and allow those fig trees to ripen so what I told them was if you're beholden to that particular tree or variety take some cuting propagate that tree plant it in a pot protect it during the winter preserve some of that new growth and you should finally get some rip figs in other cases if it's not dying back over the winter and still not giving any rip figs you probably need to do some serious heavy pruning once you do some heavy pruning I promise you it will stimulate a lot more new growth and you should get fig and before we go I did want to mention we are having a sale on our website for a couple of our varieties some of these trees have grown so well so fast they're almost too big to fit in my boxes and so you can find brown turkey which which is a nice sugar fig variety and Mary Lane which is a nice honey fig variety both 20% off on our website while supplies last so I hope you enjoyed the video today and don't be scared to plant your fig tree in a bigger pot yeah you're going to have to dig a bigger hole when you eventually put it in the ground but I think what you'll find is you'll get much faster initial growth babying it in a pot as opposed to rushing to get it in the ground and if you want to learn even more about potted fig trees watch this video right here when we planted that Salem D Tree I showed you earlier in that pot it's in now so check that out and we'll see you next time right here at Lazy Dog Farm

Channel: Lazy Dog Farm

Views: 2,981

Keywords: backyard gardening, organic gardening, sustainable living, vegetable gardening, vegetable garden, homestead, homesteading, homestead garden, organic food, small farm, sustainable agriculture, home garden, sustainable farming, sustainable food, organic garden, backyard garden, home gardening, garden advice, garden tips, garden techniques, gardening tips, garden seeds, garden varieties, gardening, garden, how to garden, grow your own food, kitchen garden, clean food

Id: _ZAVacnrYK8

Length: 9min 36sec (576 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 11 2024