Up Potting Fig Trees | My Process

All right everybody this is Ross the Fig Boss. In today's video you guys are attached to my chest because what we're going to be doing here is taking some fig trees and putting them into larger containers and I've already done one here really quickly just to give you a rundown is these are a number of them that I had actually these up over here we did yesterday or the day before and then this one we just did on camera although I had to restart the camera but very quickly we're just going to put this tree into a larger pot we're going to give it some osmocote or florican these beads here that are slow release fertilizer just a little bit of nutrients and then I come in here and give it some compost tea this is uh compost tea that I've been brewing now for two days you can see it over here it's kind of going and you know it's not a finished process I think we need to get a little bit better at this I need a better pump this pump I thought was going to do a lot more than it did and obviously it's not so I ordered the super duper heavy duty one which should be here tomorrow but so far from what I can tell it's not going anaerobic it looks really healthy actually I don't know how strong and how good this compost tea is going to end up being in terms of this batch but I can guarantee you that it's certainly helping with all the additional microbes now there's a whole lot to that and we should probably do a whole separate video on that but for right now I'm not going to worry about it but anyway we're going to take you guys through in this video the different varieties here that I'm up potting just to show you kind of in a way how much work this this is how much work is involved I like using this GoPro I haven't really had enough time to go around the yard as I was working really hard this year to film with this GoPro because that was the whole purpose of it was to get this GoPro and show you guys all the different things that I'm doing whether that's grafting you can kind of see my hands right in front of me all the grafting that I did maybe even setting up the garden planting the garden planting seeds transplanting and transplants you know all the things but I maybe even constructing this arbor that I just put in but the problem is I had so many things to do and when I work I like to work quick I don't like to mess around and it's really difficult to stop and start and I don't know I probably I think I regret it a little bit but going forward that's kind of what we're going to do now I hope to definitely film a lot more in terms of showing you guys hands-on and a lot of the work that's involved so very simply just up potting here guys is just we turn the pot upside down and slip the pot off you don't want to pull up here on top of the the plant that'll damage the roots potentially if it's not really really well rooted the most important thing about up potting is avoiding transplant shock so if we can avoid transplant shock that's absolutely key the next important thing is using the right soil and I'm using here a new soil that I don't think I've talked to you guys about just yet honestly I don't have too many good or negative things to say about it just yet but so far I've been trying different soils the Master Nursery which is from the same company that creates this other one here I believe this is the lobster compost from Coast of Maine this stuff's really expensive it is organic it does do a great job but I find that it's really heavy and so for a you know a container tree or a container plant we don't really want a very heavy soil this that would be great for a garden spreading that out probably gives you the best garden soil you could ask for other than just making your own compost there's some really good stuff in that but this other stuff here is from Master Nursery or at least it's the same company I believe Coast of Maine it is organic as well it's really important to me now it has ecto and endo mycorrhizae but probably not a ton of it let's be honest but there is a whole different amount of things in here they say but a lot of this really is sphagnum peat moss bark you know and that's that's mostly it let's be honest all this other crap it's it's just peat moss really it's peat moss and bark and it has a nice texture to it but what I find with at least the Just Natural potting soil or the soil conditioner that I was using is that it was really great stuff but it wasn't listed as OMRI as organic number one and to me I would like to really avoid glyphosate whenever possible and then two it wasn't always broken down enough and it was a compost it was not a sphagnum peat moss like this which is already a broken down material and so a lot of the trees actually these younger trees that I would then up pot with that Just Natural potting soil they would struggle because they were then competing for nitrogen when you have those unbroken down pieces in there in the Just Natural soil conditioner and so it's a shame in that sense because it's just not a finished enough product and therefore the plants kind of they don't get as established quickly as they should and for me that's that's a big deal now so yeah where's the tag here here we go this variety is called by the way Paradiso Bronze from VS and again I'm just going to put all the completed trees over here once I've got them in their place and by the way it's a good idea to kind of just tap these down because that will get a lot of the air pockets out and tamp down the soil once I get them all in their containers I'll feed them as I said I'm going to feed them then I'm going to give them the compost tea we're going to use this this floric in here and then we're going to water them all in with with the hose really well it is going to rain a lot tonight but still want to water them in these these plants look a bit sad and then maybe actually because they just came in the mail I should put them in the shade but I'll keep an eye on them throughout the day and see what the deal is here in the remaining hours of the day all right the other thing I want to mention the other varieties we have here this one's called Grosse Grise de Lipari it's a French fig that I grew in the past and it recently died I had it as a rootstock because I didn't want to throw it out I'd rather just keep it as a rootstock but the in actuality it doesn't really do that well in a container here so that's why I've used it as rootstock it's a very tasty fig but the problem with it again is that it just doesn't do well it splits too often and by planting this in the ground is actually my plan I'm going to put this one in the ground I totally forgot about that when I plant this in the ground I will of course it will get a bit it will get more established more energy and the shape of the figs will actually change to a more elongated shape and the splitting will happen a lot less and for me that's the only real way I can actually grow this fig otherwise it's a total waste of my time but I figured I would try it out to see if in the ground it would actually succeed here we have another one here this is new it's called bacchio this is a fig that is very interesting to me believe it or not and the leaves actually are single lobe that's very interesting heart-shaped leaves because the fig them the figs themselves really do remind me of celeste and they have a really good shape I'm sure they can split but for the most part this is a fig that is not talked about I think it's very underrated and should do very well here in this in this climate in a humid place the other fig here is ponte tresa I just want to quickly go over this because ponte tresa I already am growing this well Ross why did you buy another ponte tresa and some people think well Ross you know you could just copy another tree well you know Bill is selling these trees for very cheap prices I think the prices of figs are coming way down actually I think the first ponte tresa I ever bought was from fruit nut on fig bin that's the tree right here very sad looking tree now isn't it it's not his fault but this one I think I actually originally got it for 22 put that into a 10 gallon size pot and then I put that in the ground and it just has not done well since I've planted it in the ground it's actually gone backwards in a way in health so we're really really trying this year to establish this plant and the reason why it's kind of gone backwards is because this area here is not very good for the figs I planted them incorrectly it's a bit shady here and this is all peat moss that the the trees are planted in so this peat moss gets dry throughout the summer and these trees have been kind of living in a bone dry situation for a while of me not watering them as much as they should once the peat moss gets dry it's hydrophobic that's the one thing I really hate about peat moss and I don't like using peat moss for that reason but now that we have I've kind of figured this out and realized that in actuality the trees were not planted all that well either and that I really need to get deep down so that the trees make contact with the native soil plant them down there about as far as they can go and then cover them with peat moss and as I cover them with the peat moss I need to pack this down really really hard that's the only real way that you can plant a tree like this in peat moss you know with clay when you plant a tree in clay you could very easily just you know dig a hole slip it in there and cover it right up you don't have to really worry about it in other materials and maybe even loams and sand and and you know this peat moss it's a totally different story so it's a bit of a shame in a sense just having to change up my style of planting because it's been really not something that's been necessary to go to such great lengths to plant a tree here with the clay soil that I have but since again you know I've learned my lesson I had to come in there this year and I tamped down the soil really really well around the the roots of these trees around the root balls so again I'll show it to you kind of it's the same principle with this up potting here is when I put this in the container you really want to press down around the root ball so by pressing down like that that's getting really good contact here with the roots then I'm going to come in here and fill this in we're going to give it a little bit of a tug a tamp whatever you want to call it this will remove a lot of the air pockets we put the tag in maybe throw a little bit more here on top and then we put it over here now why did I choose Ponte another Ponte Tresa the other one's not doing well it needs to get established it will get established by the end of this year and of course I could have could have air layered it at some point during the season as I really do expect these trees to turn around quite nicely or I could have rooted them could have rooted some cuttings which is very likely going to be the case this this season but that would have way it took me a whole year and I think a year's time for me is worth it getting to then evaluate Ponte Tresa a bit more I do believe it's going to be one of the better figs that you can have and grow in a colder place or in a humid place excuse me the shape is oval and it should not and does not split nearly as often as you might imagine especially when planted in the ground these container trees are certainly inferior in terms of the split resistance as far as that is concerned because the shape dramatically changes when you plant these trees in the ground the shape of the fruits is much more conducive for that splitting so that's the four trees here that I wanted to do for you guys in terms of uphotting that's kind of the thought process let me water these in feed them as well a little bit of osmocote there we go here's the compost tea give them a shot of this really don't even know how much to give them of this but there is an endless supply of it so I'm not like I'm stingy or anything but I wonder if I'm sure there is such a thing as too much but for now that's what I'm going to do and then of course we got to turn on the irrigation really quickly water these guys in with those here's my irrigation very simply I put manual the second station for five minutes this will kick on this is the second station right here it's on just heard it click and then I have to come back over here actually and this connector I need to switch this over weird setup probably a better setup but it is what it is that is hot water and that's good hot water is good because we want the soil temperatures to be warm I'll water these trees in really really well the nice thing about these fabric pots is you could see the water hit the sides and kind of drench down and it kind of gives you a good idea of when the water is really throughout the entire pot you guys can even see what I'm doing right now you know I read that actually the water in here of course is chlorinated has chloramines in it and believe it or not the chlorine in the water is going to kill the microbes in the soil so not all of them obviously but it does kill them and the unfortunate reality is I'm giving them these microbes and now I'm killing them in a way with the water I just gave them but who knows we'll see see what the changes are here I'm sure it'll be a positive anyway this was this little video here guys of up potting the figs I hope you guys enjoyed this we actually have one more tree over here to plant as I mentioned what is this one again the gross monstrous thank you guys for watching this one we'll see you soon catch you guys for the next video and hit that subscribe button check out our blog figboss.com take care everybody