How We Got Our Fig Trees to Grow Faster Than Ever.

And we've got the proof here because we've still got some of these old stump stubs in place So you see that stump there that dead stump? What's up, Lazy Dog Fam? Hope all y'all are having an awesome day. It is Monday, August 31st here in South Georgia And on today's video we're going to do a little figging around and i'm going to tell you how we got our fig trees to grow Faster than ever this year, but first a little context. Why does this matter? Why do we want our fig trees to grow so fast? Well, it has a lot to do with cold hardiness. So as i've told you many many times I think cold hardiness is more a function of trunk size than it is Variety, so the larger the trunk we can get on that fig tree the more cold hardy it should be Now we usually don't have a ton of issues down here in zone 9a with fig trees dying due to extreme cold or dying back To the ground due to extreme cold, but you can certainly have issues in 8b, 8a Zone 7b. So this is something very important for those a little north of us growing fig trees You know, you want to get that nice trunk size there Because that's going to make that tree a lot tougher during the winter So a tree with a trunk that looks like that right there is going to be a lot more cold hardy Than a tree with a trunk that looks like this one So the faster we can achieve that critical trunk size there the better off we'll be in the winter months Now one way to do this obviously is to grow out your fig tree in a pot for several years that way you can protect it During the winter get that larger trunk size then put it in the ground But what if your fig tree's already in the ground and maybe it keeps dying back every single year Because you can never get to that critical trunk size. That's what we're going to be talking about today Ways you can get that trunk larger in the growing season to make it more cold hardy in the winter So there's two things we've been doing in our orchard with the fig trees that died back this past winter and i'm going to show you some really good examples of how just in One season we've achieved as much growth as we had gotten in the past three years And we've got the proof here because we've still got some of these old stump stubs in place So you see that stump there that dead stump you see how big it is now look how big that current trunk size Is there so this tree had been in the ground for about three years before it died back To the ground got some southwest injury when died back to the ground and you can see Just this year with this new growth here. We have been able to achieve a trunk size Equal or larger to that we had here's another really good example We can easily see with this Ronde de Bordeaux tree right here So you can see the old trunk that represents about three years of growth and then we can see What we've grown just this year about the same size there Pretty impressive trunk size for just one year growth and we still got a couple more months of growth to go So, how do we get them to grow that much in one year well one thing that's really helped us out is this active Pruning that we've been doing you'll notice a lot of those trees. I just showed you were a single trunk So a tree fig tree dies back to the ground when it comes back. It's going to come back as a big bush It's going to look a lot like this right here and none of those trunks or none of those branches Are over an inch in diameter because The root system here is having to devote energy to all of those Not just one of those But if we force the fig tree to devote all its energy to one trunk like we have here with this cherry cordial tree You can see we can get some pretty impressive trunk size there Now we have removed the suckers on this particular tree right here at least Three or four times and it looks like i'm gonna have to do it a fifth time for these final Two or three months of growing that we have left but doing that Like I said helps the tree devote more energy to this main trunk here helps it get to that critical size We want now I should warn you this is a lot of work It's not just like you can do it one time and be done with it. Those suckers will keep trying to grow back We probably removed the suckers on this atlanta tree here at least two or three times and we'll have to at least one more time But if you stay with it at some point that suckering will get Not as bad and they won't be quite as persistent. It will get like this little brown turkey tree right here We really haven't had to fight a whole lot of suckers on this one this year Now if you don't want your fig tree to just have a single trunk and you'd prefer two or three trunks You could still do this the concept is still the same there just pick which two or three trunks you want remove Everything else that way that tree can devote all its energy into those two or three trunks and they'll get as large as possible And hopefully not get damaged during the winter So this active pruning or pruning during the growing season is something that a lot of people don't recommend But I can tell you and as I just showed you there my results speak for themselves We've gotten a lot bigger trunk than we would have gotten if we would have waited until fall Or winter to remove all those suckers removing them as they appear Is going to help give more energy to that main trunk make it a lot bigger Now the second thing we've been doing that I think also has really helped our trees grow faster than ever is spoon feeding Now we did a video a month or two ago talking about these different schools of thought as far as fertilizing fig trees How some people say they don't need to eat fertilized at all Some people say fertilize them once or twice a year and then there's the spoon feeding argument where you're giving them fertilizer quite often just in low dosages And I showed you I've got this new fertilizer injector for my fig orchard because we're going the spoon feeding route This right here allows me to fertilize every single time I water And so i've been running some of this through there and i've been running some of this through there now This stuff here isn't labeled. This is some experimental stuff that agri-thrive sent me I think the analysis on this is 10-2-2-10-3-3 something like that It looks very similar to the standard agri-thrive. It's just not quite as viscous And it's been running through my injector pretty well So i've been alternating the 20-20-20 and the agri-thrive and feeding these fig trees every single time Water, which is usually two to three times a week depending on how much rain we're getting So it's a very high frequency, but it's really not a lot of fertilizer each tree is not getting a whole lot at one time So for instance with the agri-thrive, I have to cut it a little bit with water just because it's so thick It's so viscous I'll take this half gallon pitcher right here And i'll fill it up about three quarters of the way with agri-thrive and a quarter of the way with water Mix it up pour that in my half gallon injector and then let it run So you're talking about 48 ounces of agri-thrive For over 200 fig trees each tree's not getting a whole lot For doing the 20-20-20 I can dissolve about this much 20-20-20 in that half gallon Injector I have to pour it in here mix it around with water stir it around and then I can pour through my funnel Into that injector I use more than this right here. I really can't get it all dissolved So about this much 20-20-20 for an orchard with over 200 trees each tree's not getting a whole lot But they are getting nutrients every single time we water and our trees seem to be responding really well to it Now important to note you don't have to have a large orchard or a fertilizer injector to spoon feed your fig trees You could easily do this by hand Take you a little pitcher like this right here mix you up some fertilizer and a couple times a week Maybe just once a week go out there and pour it around the base of your tree You've just got a few trees really easy to do once or twice a week the concept here low concentration High frequency now as we talked about on that fertilizer video a while back Some people claim that fertilizing fig trees too much will hurt your production now. I'm not here to argue with that I'll just show you what we're working with. Does this Atlanta fig tree look like it's hurting on production? Does this other Atlanta fig tree look like it's hurting on production? Does this dark Portuguese fig tree look like it's hurting on production? Does this Marseille black tree right here look like it's hurting On production does this LSU white honey tree right here look like it's hurting On production does this LSU strawberry tree right here look like it's hurting On production, so I'll let you be the judge of that now Obviously every fig orchard or every soil situation is a little different So what works for me may not work for you, but it's something worth testing. It's something worth trying You're not gonna hurt your fig trees by trying some spoon feeding here and there try it out See how your trees respond to it and I bet they would like it as much as mine So those are the two things we've done this year to get just as much growth in one year as we had gotten in the past three years Active pruning and spoon feeding now what I can't tell you is if you're able to get to that three inch trunk size in one year like we have with a Lot of our trees here if you able to get to that size How far north that's going to be cold hardy I can't tell you that because there's too many variables at play but what I can tell you though is your chances are going to be a lot higher if you go into winter with one large Trunk as opposed to ten little trunks your odds are gonna greatly Increase and that one trunk would be a lot easier to cover and protect should you need to do so So just some food for thought there showing you what we've been doing around here showing you what's been working for us Is it gonna work for everybody? Probably not but those were some really good examples I wanted to show you of just how much growth we've gotten in one year with a few months to go So I hope you enjoyed the video today And if you missed that fertilizer video a while back you can watch that right here We'll go into those different schools of thought as far as fertilizing figs and give you a little bit more detail on the specific Fertilizer injector we're using in our orchards check that out and we'll see you next time right here at Lazy Dog Farm.