My Figs in Spring 2026

It's a rainy Friday, we've had thunderstorms coming through and No Sun, no really warm weather just kind of a lazy day wasn't able to get much done So I thought I'd come out here and share What I call the lazy garden, which is a lazy fig garden now but if you've been at my fig channel, you'll know that I had a makeshift Greenhouse right here that kept all these figs alive And yeah, you can just a quick glance you can see they're all alive The Greenhouse was very very effective and And everything is growing very nicely. I'll walk up and down the rows here just to show you but I've got on the back side of the property on the other side of the pond over there a carport that bent in high winds That I was going to reuse and for a greenhouse and that was probably six or Eight years ago, and it's just been sitting back there. So I'm gonna move that over here and I really like the way this is looking With the way things are growing in here and I have a lot of premium varieties that I want to protect and the only way I know for sure to do that is to Bring them inside of a greenhouse And so it was pretty cramped in here. If you look at those videos on my fig channel It was very very cramped and they were also five gallon pods Well this year I've moved most into these 25 gallon containers here and I show that I can't remember if it was on my regular channel here Or if it was on the fig channel, I think it was on the regular channel. But yeah, most of them are in 25 gallon Containers right now. You can see growing there and the rest are in the ting 10 gallon grow bags And I didn't have enough to do them all in 25 gallons this year because Buying this many containers. This is like a hundred and eighty I think total figs on in the lazy garden part of it somewhere between 180 and 200 but Yeah, so I didn't have the money or I couldn't find on me actually The containers so I'm gonna change These 10 gallon figs and Get the more keep the more premium varieties here and Transfer them to 25 gallons. And so The newer greenhouse or the repurposed greenhouse over there. I was talking about I'm gonna move over here And it'll it's twice as long. It'll cover two of these Cattle panels because it's 36 inches 36 feet long rather It's all I'll have to do is just pull half of the lazy garden this way and I should be able to accommodate All of the things that I grow in the lazy garden Even if they're in 25 gallon containers, which takes up a lot more space So that's the plan And so I'll share that build Later in the year, you know, it'll be fall before I start pulling it over. I Paid a group of guys to come out here and dismantle it. So it's sitting over there waiting to be moved So why not put it to use right? I've got a great purpose for it in my mind and that's these figs here and they are Absolutely going crazy with growth. This one's got looks like Shoot maybe two feet of growth already Not all of them are quite that robust, but most of them are starting to put it on small figs now Which is really cool because I get to taste these figs, which I love I'm not a berry guy or a honey guy or sugar fig guy or sugar berry fig guy I'm just an all figs guy. I like them all Some more than others, but I do enjoy almost every single one of them I think I've run into maybe three to five that I just didn't care for so Yeah, I Think this is gonna work out great. I've got a lot of premium varieties. I mean All almost all the new hot take Varieties like Shiro's favorite Puro meet sue Kuroama Margarita You know Sicilian 33, I've got all those now and a whole lot of others That nobody even knows about yet, I've got probably 50 5-0 that They're going to come over here at some point I'm not sure if I had the camera pointed up or not. Sorry if I did But the ones that go into the lazy garden here are going to be the premium varieties the ones I know I can protect from the cold and won't die And maintain and the ones here that those newer premium ones Depend on how I assess them if they come into this area they're going to go into the Orchard over there and let me go show you that Before I do that. I'm just gonna walk down the middle Shut my trap and just let you kind of take it in When I do these videos here I am talking to you when I do these videos I don't just do them for the public and people that may watch the video, but I also do it Because I can look back on it So when I do the taste testing and all that it gives me an idea when that that particular variety or that fig variety Ripens its fruit, so I also get data So this is a man It's just a great hobby to have or I look at it as a hobby gardening is a hobby to me, too To experiment and have fun with and enjoy the fruits of my labor Umbrellas hitting the top doing some trials hair layering trials to Those you didn't been watching my channel this was the lazy garden vegetable growing area and now I've got it all over there behind the shed and raised beds So let's go over here to the orchard This is the actual orchard the one I I built this for last year And then having to pull them all out because they were first year rooted barely rooted figs and they've struggled Immensely struggled and I did a direct comparison between these that were growing And the ones I kept here in the lazy garden and these were either dying Or not taking off or having some kind of issue So I said well, I'm gonna pull them and I'm going to grow them in five-gallon containers And until they're more established and this is that now I didn't get all 100 put back in here, but I got about half and These varieties are going to be part of a trial that I'm going to attempt to keep them alive And I'll show you how I'm going to do that later in the fall No point in trying to explain it when I can just show you in a video But right now they are doing the equivalent of the lazy garden figs right here in the field So yeah, I'm being more adamant about the water and fertilization and They're doing really good So if my my thoughts are and what I've seen is that If I can the more established I can get them this year The better survival chance they have during the winter if we get down into the single digits again for days So that's what I want to do. And plus I'm going to do some severe pruning like I've seen successful people do already this year I've seen several channels. Let me dip underneath this real quick That have had Devastating losses because of the severe cold all along the eastern coast and the south and you would think in zone 8a and even 8b that you're kind of safe with figs and You are not the people that are telling you that Don't know what they're talking about or their area is Just they have some kind of microclimate or method That they're doing that is not Common planting like just planting out in the field They're going or they're going to some kind of extreme type of protective measures but ideally What I've seen in some examples here in Arkansas is that if you can get the tree Say four or five six years old where they have a heavy trunk and extensive branching and a great root system They can survive These really cold spells that we're getting and so that's what I'm going to try to do. I'm going to try to establish some more and You know, it's it's just going to be what it is whatever happens happens, so I'll just have to flow with it but these Plants these trees these fig trees that are here Most of them. Well, some of them there are duplicate really good figs, but most of them are ones I'm pulled out of the lazy garden because they're We call them less Premier So, let me show you let me tell you about Kind of explain what I'm talking about. See this one's called little red buffalo. I have a duplicate in the lazy garden So this one is just to see if the little red buffalo do good in the orchard But if it doesn't I've got it in the lazy garden Unless you purple It's not a super premier fig in my opinion and But it's a good fig and it's one that's grown here in the south quite a bit. So it deserves a spot in the orchard I do not have a duplicate of that one, but even these I will take cuttings of in case of loss So when the winter comes early winter comes and all the leaves are gone. I will take cuttings just to save it This is LSU st. Gabriel's black This is one of those hot hot Highly desired figs kind of even still and they're really they're just hyped figs, you know Eight ten years from now. The st. Gabriel's black won't be nowhere near The cost of a black Madera or I 258 or those others because it's just not as good. It's just a hyped variety for now a lot of my Like this one a lot of my Mount Etna types similar to Chicago Hardy Azores dark and all that There's a lot of them just like there are a lot of Adriatic types and they're both phenomenal types of figs They have similar taste profiles But most of them are not the same they have subtle differences like some will have more of a great tone Or a great taste to them some of more of a Dark berry some of them close to blackberry so Things like that one like Macadamia dark. That is a Mount Etna Malta black is a Mount Etna and These are known to be more car cold tolerant so a lot of those I Don't have copies of but they're out here Marseille black is another one. Let's see what I got. Maverick is another one Negra negra de Agde is not one of them, but it's a cold tolerant Really good tasting fig and I have a duplicate of that one in the lazy garden behind me Pastelier I've got Three different varieties, I guess not varieties so-called strains of it From different people different locations, and I had extra so I planted one out here What we got here? Portuguese purple is another similar raspberry latte is an Etna We got raven decals man. That's a really good fig and that's a duplicate. That's why it's here rubato, but anyway Like I said, I've got duplicates But a lot of these are not the so-called premier and can handle the cold Better potentially now. I don't have the experience of that. This is my third year with figs, so I'm still learning but what I do know is that if you're going to invest a ton of time Into the fig collecting or fig growing The hobby or business whatever you want to call it Do not think or do not take protective measures thinking that figs Can do well in a specific zone because that is bull bull protect your butt bring the premium varieties inside a garage or Some other form of protective measures and You may have to grow some until you get like zone 9 or 10 Maybe you may have to grow some and actual containers always like I can't imagine ever growing black Madeira or I 258 or about 15 to 50 other varieties that are premium that I have I don't think I'll ever grow them in this orchard here but I'll always have them because Migrating season is quite long. I can get all the way up into November Anyway, this is kind of what's going on. I've planted all the orchard figs here I potted up all the ones that that Overwintered in that makeshift greenhouse there and everything is running Spectacularly well right now. Let's see how the high high heat works and upcoming winter This is the bridge you guys will see you in the next one