OMG! Why Cut "The Giving 'Fig' Tree" To A Stump? | Pruning | Grafting | Sealing & MORE

Hi, I'm Charles Malki, biologist and plant expert with Ivory Organics 3-in-1 Tree Guard Paint, and today we're going to be talking about figs. And behind me I've got a fig that we've installed from a cutting about three years ago, and I'm going to be showing you some of the issues that are actually plaguing us here in the garden on this first week of August. And before we begin, I want to give a little bit of background about the fig. This here is actually a green fig variety. I'm not sure what the name of it is. Kadota is one variety of green fig. Typically when I eat it, I like to peel the fig, as I'm doing here. And I usually use the peels for compost, just basically throw those around another fruit tree here in the garden. And let me show you what the inside of this fruit looks like. So here I usually peel it. Even this little bit, I'll just bite off as well, and you can take a look now on the inside. Take a look at all of those little baby seeds, which actually adds to the high fiber content. It's actually used as a laxative, and it helps with keeping your insides regular. But the flavor of this, it's unbelievable. It's, I'd say, a cross between some honey and some strawberries and some other delicious sweet fruits. I'm going to finish this real quick. So what I want to share with you about the background of the fig, and you can actually read this with me, if you take a look over here. So what we see here is the fruit and the leaves are used to make medicine. The fig fruit is used as a laxative to relieve constipation. The leaf is used for diabetes, high cholesterol, and skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis, and many other ailments. Some people apply the sap, also known as latex, which is also caustic, from the tree directly to the skin to treat skin tumors and wards. The fig leaf contains chemicals that might help with type 1 diabetes use and help use insulin more efficiently. But I wanted to add this note to be sure to consult with your physician before experimenting with any of these traditional, some of these go back thousands of years if you actually do your research on this, homeopathic and natural approaches to cures. So let's go and review what's happening here in the fig tree. So the first thing I want to share with you, and you may notice, is these branches have actually collapsed. It happened a few days ago and what happened was either a very large possum or a raccoon worked its way up into the tree to actually, you know, to access some of these delicious fruit. And as they went up these branches, their weight actually pulled and actually, as you can see, broke these branches. And we're now going to have to find a way to take care of this. And if you zoom in, if you can come in a little closer, I want to show you what's actually happening here. And if you take a look just at the anatomy of the tree, so the skin bark on the outside is the equivalent of your skin or your epidermis. That actually helps protect the plant from, you know, a lot of the things that can plague it, including viruses, bacteria, insects, so on and so forth. But the living tissue of the plant is right underneath the bark, which is the cambium tissues. And it's right underneath the bark. You can actually already see, and this only happened a few days ago, but it's already beginning to callus a little bit. And the goal is ultimately this will thicken and grow to the point that this exposed wood, which actually exposes the heart of the center of the tree to, again, wood-boring insects, viruses, bacteria. And if you come in a little closer, you can even see that there's fungus and mold actually starting to grow in here from the moisture, which is actually being given off by the plant. You can actually see that it's leaking in here. I don't know if you can actually capture those. I'll actually put it on my finger. You can see that it's actually damp and wet in there. And it's actually coming from the plant, and that's actually feeding and contributing to rot that's actually happening in the plant as well. So the first thing I would do if this has happened, or doesn't necessarily happen necessarily from an animal, it could also be from a bad pruning job. I've actually seen people that are actually pruning their branches, and instead of making a nice clean cut, it actually starts ripping down the side of the trunk. But I'm going to show you what we're going to do here. We're going to simply remove the branch and the other branch. Try to make a nice clean cut. The goal being you don't want to rip down the tree trunk any further. And now what we're going to do is take this product, and it's called Ivory Organic. It's a three-in-one tree guard paint. Just add water, a natural tree trunk, and branch barrier protection against damaging sunburn and insects and rodents. And it's for use on roses and fruit and nut trees, ornamental trees and shrubs. It's a non-toxic, environmentally safe, and organic product. And I actually already mixed this before the video. But before I stir it again, you can actually see that the oils that actually deter the insects and the rodents, as well as other benefits being mildew and mold. So those oils are actually floating on the top, and this is an organic. We use the color white, but it's also available in colors brown as well as green. So we're going to take this white paint, and the reason to go with a brown or a green is to do something that might match a little bit better with the plant. And then we're just going to seal these wounds, like so. And you can see that it goes on pretty watery. If you actually add only half the water content, it would be more like a paint, but it's intended to actually go on dilute. And then there we go. It could actually also be applied, aside from using a brush, you can also apply it using a spray bottle as well. But that will actually seal it and keep the insects out of it. Any pathogens, again, such as viruses and bacteria from entering the wood and actually damaging it. So here we go. So this is the end product. If you want to zoom in one more time to see what this looks like. The next thing I wanted to discuss is we've got this fig tree here, and you can zoom in and pick any branch you'd like, but it's covered with hundreds and hundreds of figs. More figs than our family can ever possibly enjoy this summer and maybe even early fall by the time this gets exhausted with fruit. What I want to recommend that if your tree is actually this large, is you actually remove the figs that you'll never be able to access. One thing that you could actually do to protect your plants from, it's primarily birds. Let me show you what the birds have actually done to this particular fig over here. Here we go. Here's one that the birds got. And this is just between yesterday and today. Take a look at how delicious this fig is on the inside. But the birds have already eaten this. And be careful also not to just throw this in your compost or introduce this into your soil as, and this here is something that we're dealing with every single year. If you take a look under the tree here, we've actually got a baby seedling fig that's actually growing, which I'm actually going to pull out. And the reason we're actually removing it is a seedling fig is one of these seeds inside the fruit. And every single seed has a potential of being something totally different, just like children. The parents can actually, you know, I don't want to say be good or bad, but the parents can be of certain characteristics, whether they're blonde haired or brown haired or black haired or whatever their features are. But in regards to flavor, we don't know if this little seedling fig is going to give baby figs, if it's going to give any figs at all, or if it's going to create maybe some giant fig, but it might be tasteless. Or the point being, there's a million seeds in this one fig alone, and there's a million chance seedlings that are going to create a million variations of fig. It'll be related to, it could be superior, it could also be inferior, but it's going to take anywhere from five to 10 years to find out what this is actually going to do for you, compared to actually propagating figs by cutting, which I'll give you a link down below to show you how that can actually be accomplished. But what we're going to do here today is prune the plant. And one of my recommendations to actually protect your plant from the birds is actually putting a net. But if you don't want to do just like I, I'm not interested in putting a net because of the cosmetics. I don't want to actually put all my plants in cages. So my goal is not to put all my plants in cages. I don't want them all to be, basically under these nets. Again, for cosmetic purposes, I actually host some garden events here on my property. I have a lot of friends and family that come over and I want things to look beautiful as well as manageable. So the goal here, and what I'm going to suggest is for your first year wood, and we've also discussed the importance of summer pruning, which I'll put a link down below. But the goal is ultimately to basically save 100, maybe 200 figs, which is all my family's going to want this year. And basically prune the excess height off of the tree, basically keep the plant within reach. And so you can actually manage the figs. And that way, you don't have so much excess, which is, you know, being enjoyed by all the wildlife. We're talking about the birds and the raccoons and the possums. And I don't want that many wild animals here in my backyard here in the Hollywood Hills. So let's take a look at what we can do here. So if we take a look at a branch such as this, most of these figs are actually within reach, but I can actually go towards the tip and actually just remove it. And I'm actually going and following the nodes. So this here's one node and here's the other node, but I'm going to cut about a quarter inch above, right above that node and cut it. And you can see what that looks like now. So I've left about a quarter inch off the end. And here comes that white milky stuff that's coming off and be careful with that. I should be wearing gloves as well, as a lot of people are actually allergic to that white sap, which is again caustic and very burning on your skin. So I'll have to be sure to wash my hands thoroughly afterward. So these figs are all again within reach. And here come the birds. They're ready to eat some more figs. I don't know if you saw this flying by. And again, when it comes to these highest branches, look how high these branches are growing. So I can reach eight feet. That branch is going up at least 16 to 20 feet. So I can actually go and say I'm going to keep a couple of these figs that I can still reach, but I'm going to remove the height and I'm going to cut like so. And it's basically start reducing the plant height accordingly. I'll still enjoy plenty of figs off of these ends that are within reach, but everything that's in excess will actually be within reach. So now we're going to do something very dramatic. I have a goal of actually having a fig tree behind me that has all of the flavors of figs. I want a green fig, I want a brown fig such as the turkey fig, and I want a black fig such as blackjack. And I want them all growing on one rootstock. You've seen on this backyard, I've only got less than 700 square feet of land. I do not have room necessarily for more than one or two possible figs here in the garden. So I want to basically have this beautiful large tree. Hopefully I'm going to control it under about 10 to 15 feet in the future. So take a look again at the height one more time. Go up there and take a look at how high those branches are. Because in the future, between now and next year, I'm hoping to share with you a fig that's going to have two, three, possibly four different varieties of fig all growing under 10 feet. It's going to grow in a compact structure that actually provide us still hundreds of fruit. And I'm hoping to accomplish all this by next year. And to do so, I got to get the plant to actually sprout some branches that are very low growing. Way back when, initially, the plant was actually 10 feet straight with no branches spreading. And if I can show you back here behind the plant. So if you take a look over here, you'll actually see that this here used to be the initial trunk that was growing about 10 feet straight with no branches. And I wanted to actually encourage two branches to basically be growing in a V-shape and that I've actually trained and positioned. And you can actually see right here in the center, the center of the tree, and I'm going to show you actually once we do this next pruning cut, is actually very soft. And it typically hollows out and is a wonderful entryway for ants, termites, beetles, and other wood-destroying pathogens to get in there. And so we're actually going to seal this with Ivory Organics 3-in-1 Tree Guard Paint after we make our next prune. So watch these next couple of steps here. So what we're going to do, and as I mentioned before, and let me get this branch out of the way so you can see better. So what we're going to do here is I'm going to reduce the height down to about one or two feet above the ground. The goal is I want each of these tree trunks to sprout one to two new branches that will then be grafted with the variety that we want to enjoy. So we can enjoy a multi-flavored fig tree all in one spot growing off of one rootstock. And so to accomplish this, what I want to share with you in regards to making the cut here is I want you to follow these rings. And these rings are very important for deciding where you want to make your cut. And this actually applies to almost every fruit tree that's out there. And you can take a look here. And here's one of those rings. And these rings are equivalent to these on the younger growth. So every ring, as you can see here, and here's another ring, also known more appropriately as a node. And here's another node and another node. But every node is where you're going to find the leaf. You're going to find the fruits, as you can see down here, and another fruit. Everything's happening at the node. And if you keep that in mind when actually making your pruning cuts, you'll actually be able to dictate and design where you want those branches to come. If you take a look one more time over here at this node, this is actually where I'm going to do actually one of my prunes. So I actually see right at this node level right here, there's actually a bud. And it's already ready to actually, you know, develop into growth. And what's preventing it from growing and establishing is all of the branches that are up above. All of the plant hormones that are coming from the leaves and the branches and the growth are inhibiting any growth from happening below. But it's actually the roots that actually have another hormone that is actually released and actually that encourages the growth that's happening up above. So there's this balance of hormones going on within the plant that once I remove the top. So there's a balance of hormones that are happening between the growing leaves up above that are inhibiting growth down below, and then the roots that are actually have its hormones that are controlling the root growth that's happening up above. By making this cut over here, we're going to be basically telling the root hormones which will then be dominating to actually encourage growth all along the tree trunk. But this here will be one bud that will definitely grow into its new branch. And right at the next ring below or the next node below will probably be a second branch. And we're going to control the number of branching. So be sure I'm going to actually do this pitch from now and not wait till the end of the video. But be sure to subscribe so you can actually watch what's going to happen within the next 30 to 60 days as we'll be doing another video update. And if it grows enough and keep in mind, we're now at the beginning of August, this is an unusual time to be pruning your plant. But my goal is if I can get enough growth this year, I might even be able to even do my graft while we're still in the fall and before winter, which is again the typical time for grafting. And we'll be showing you some techniques that I've been using for a couple of decades now that can hopefully help you and in your garden and accomplish the goals that you want to accomplish. So here we go. Now we're actually going to remove this branch. So I'm cutting just about a quarter inch right above the bud. If you want to come in a little closer and take a look at what I'm doing. And we're just going to go about a quarter inch above that node. And we're going to cut like so. We're being careful here. So if you come in a little closer, you can take a look that we carefully made the prune. We didn't strip or damage any of the bark. I was supporting the upper tree the whole time while I made the cut. And as we explained earlier, the center of the tree is usually very soft. And this will actually hollow out typically. Actually, if you can come in a little closer, take a look at this. You can actually see the milky white center, which is not typical of most fruit trees. This is actually very unique among figs. It's got this very white soft center that quickly hollows out. And what we're going to do is coat this with the ivory organics to basically keep the insects from drilling into this and actually damaging the heart of the tree trunk. What we're going to do next is do the same now for this branch over here. So we just pruned this side. We're now going to prune this branch over here. If you want to come in and take a look at the technique on this one, what I want to show you is that for every node, again, this here is the node. Luckily, this branch is only about a year or two old. And I can still see where the branch is actually going Come and zoom in over here. Do you see this bud over here? You can see that there's one bud right there. So if I were to prune in this direction, then I would be encouraging a branch to actually grow and overlap into this growing zone. So we want to actually have these buds and these branches growing to my right. And I want buds and branches, ultimately branches, that will be growing to my left and filling in this space. So I do not necessarily want this bud to actually be the dominant bud in this area. So we're going to go to the next node. And if I come down here, if you can, if you can come a little closer, you can actually see over here, I'll actually show you this one over here. So once upon a time at this node over here, there was a branch. So we can actually hope and anticipate that we're actually going to push a bud that's going to be coming out of this location. And then the second one that's going to be coming out over here. And if you come a little closer, I'll actually show you. So if we take a look right over here, that'll be the next growing spot right there. So here's the node that goes all the way around. And then this here was once upon a time a leaf. And this here will be where the new branch is going to come out. So I'm going to make sure that I get a growth that comes out at this point. And then another one, then another growing point over here. So these are going to be like my two branches that will be growing in this area. So I'm already anticipating that in advance. So I want this plus that. And we're going to cut right here. So this is actually not going to be part of the growth we're expecting. And we'll get that out of the way. And so if you take a look again at the center of this tree as well. And again, this is unique to fig trees. The center has got this milky white sap that's very soft and a very easy entryway for insects, as well as bacteria and viruses to get into the heart of the wood. So what we're going to do here today, and we talked about this zone over here, which was the original tree about two years ago with that hole that's still in there, which was originally that white spot. And what I'm gonna do is just take a little bit of this Ivory Organics paint, which is an organic paint with those oils, and we're going to seal that. Let's see, it's opening. So we're going to try to pour some paint down in there. And a little bit more. And that's done. And then we can do the same for these zones as well. And we're just going to paint these tops up. And that'll help seal it and make sure that it's not exposed to any potential diseases. As the plant now goes into sprout. Within the next two, three weeks, we should get a lot of new growth that's starting. I'm going to do again a follow up video to this so you can see the growth. And again, if I get enough growth and early enough before the plant actually goes into dormancy as figs are going to dormancy every winter. But if I have enough time this year, I'm actually going to graft it so we can actually start enjoying fruit sooner than later going into next year. So we just finished pruning the fig tree here in our backyard. And you can see this is a very quite dramatic pruning. And I'm sure a lot of you viewers think that's it, you've killed the tree. And again, I'm hoping you subscribe down below so you can actually see how beautiful this tree is going to turn out. And the benefits of it is you can actually have some lower multi trunk branches. So that'll actually support figs at a lower area than if you actually had what we had before a tree that was 1520 feet tall and figs are out of reach and the birds in the wildlife were taking advantage. But after we actually I thought I was wrapped up I noticed the sun got a little bit higher in the sky and now the tree is in the sun and this is actually a really big deal. A lot of pruners and a lot of landscapers come out pruning the plants and all of a sudden there's too much light now in on the tree trunks and branches. And this is another place that Ivy Organics comes in and actually offers protection. The goal is actually to keep the tree trunk cool. Right now this branch was actually in full shade for the last six months and all of a sudden here we are now in the, you know, at the beginning of August and we've got some really hot summer days coming between now and September and we need to offer protection just as we would for our skin. If we went from being indoors our entire lives and or at least let's say six months as this was in the shade for the last six months and all of a sudden you're out in the sun you know 12-14 hours a day every single day your bark is going to crack just as your skin would crack and it's going to cause first, second, third degree burns. And I'll put a video link down below of what can actually happen as we saw a neighbor's citrus tree that was actually affected with third degree burn. What we're going to do here today is actually take the Ivy Organics paint, I like using the color white because it offers the most sunblock protection, but the brown and the green offer a more natural look and we're just going to now coat the tree like so. And we're going to do that to both branches. The other benefit of this product unlike the latex paints and other paint products you can get from the department stores is you can go right over the buds of the plant too and the buds will actually grow right through it without any problem. So we're going to just coat that along, seal any openings and cracks that are already existing within the bark and here we go we're going to cover all the way down to the base of the tree as low as we can go and cover all of the exposed areas. And again the plant will actually grow right through the nodes that were already still there and I'm actually going to demonstrate that when the plant starts growing within the upcoming weeks. And that's pretty much it I'm going to work on the details as we wrap things up but if you found this video informative be sure to like it and most importantly subscribe down below. This is going to be a great video by subscribing you're going to get to see what this tree is going to look like in the upcoming weeks and months and years as some of you may enjoy just having a multi-trunk lower growing fig tree in your garden and you'll see what that can actually look like but I'm actually going to turn this into a two, three, possibly a four-in-one, four-in-one variety fig growing right here in this garden. Anyways, thanks again for watching and happy gardening!