Tips for planting a fig tree

Figs are at their best when grown in a Mediterranean climate, with hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters  and where the temperatures do not go below 25 F.   Once in the ground, fig trees will grow quickly, and can reach heights of 15 feet within five years time, the canopy will spread equally as wide.   The trees should be planted into a fertile, well-drained soil that has plenty of organic matter.  When planting, dig a hole that is twice as wide and deep as the root ball of your new tree.  Into the loose soil at the bottom of this hole, mix two heaping handfuls of compost, 3 cups each of landscape mix and worm castings and one cup of azomite.  As you are filling in the rest of hole, and burying the root mass, add an additional two heaping handfuls of compost, 3 cups of landscape mix and worm casting and 1 cup of azomite.  Water figs deeply, once a month for the first year and then once established, only water during the period when fruit are forming.  Figs tolerate soils with pH ranging from 5.5 to 8.  Plants need at least eight hours of sun a day and require heat to properly ripen the fruit during the late summer.  Figs respond well when a 2-3 inch layer of  manure  is laid down as a mulch under the drip line of the tree.  Harvest the fruits just as their skins are beginning to crack.


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