I would use dolomite lime only until you've reached your desired magnesium levels then use gypsum (which is nice with the extra sulfur) or a calcium carbonate like oyster shell to get the rest of your calcium, otherwise the magnesium will likely be too high in ratio to calcium. Personally I would use rock dusts for micronutrients, cut out the synthetics completely as they're killing off soil organisms needed to break down your organics, and go with a mix like Dr. Earth, Down To Earth, Jobe's, or some other organic slow release granular that contains all the stuff you're buying separately like blood, bone, and kelp meal, plus they include beneficial bacteria & mycorrhizal fungi. Saves $ and time to buy a bigger bag of that rather than multiple smaller and separate ingredients. Also if you have clay out there in Oz I might experiment mixing some of that in for the extra silica, or otherwise experiment with adding a powdered or liquid silica (always mix it in liquid first before other nutrients, then liquid calcium as they're both very reactive).
Love the information my friend! That's what makes this fun. Yes, I am an advocate for organic growing. I've only grown mostly organic this year and I agree with you it is better for the soil life and activation of nutrients and soil networks. Thank you for watching!
Great video - nice and down to earth! Thanks! Do you also have a video on training/pruning young potted fig trees for the best production? If so, I'd love to see!
Thank you so much :)! I plan on releasing one very soon. In brief, young fig plants either started by cutting or bought at a nursery are left alone the first growing season to put on as much growth. When cold kicks in or dormant season, make pruning cuts with a saw and pair of secateurs to establish the trunk height along with scaffolding height. This is all based on growing in pots though. If you are growing in the ground, you don't have to prune at all unless you want a desired shape or height. Thank you for watching!
I'd certainly watch a video you make on pruning/training to establish trunk height/scaffolding height. Thanks for the advice and responding so quickly! Greatly appreciate it!
Hello again. Maybe you can help me. I have a question. I have had a 3 fig tree for a few years. We moved and here are dears. They ate all the leaves and also bit the tree trunk. It is possible to save the trees?
Hi there! Yes it should be easy to save as fig trees can recover very easily. Depending what zone you are in, and also what variety of fig will determine a lot. The following winter in your zone, prune below the severity of the chewed or eaten trunk. Then the following spring it should create new scaffolding or budding below the cut. It's hard to properly assess without photos. You can send me some and I can better understand your situation or alternatively there are some great fig experts on Ourfigs website that would help you out also. All the best with restoring your fig trees!
Hi, I wonder if it's good to fertilize using osmocote plus for my one month old and two month old fig plants?. Their heights are 15" and 25" respectively. Or i just follow the instruction on the label apply to both which is 3-4.5g per of media/soil? I'm really craving for a fast answer to this, thank you😋☺️
Osmocote Plus is a very easy and effective fertilizer to use for fig trees because it is controlled release and I used a similar product last year with great results. I would recommend following the instructions on the label indeed. All the best!
I have a question, I cant find blood and bone meal as 1 product here in BC Canada. I have a container of pure blood meal and a bag of pure organic bone meal. Would you simply mix 50 grams of each? The Gaia blood meal is 14-0-0 and the bone meal is 2-14-0 +27% calcium. Just wondering what ratio of each to mix into the whole recipe. Thankyou
Great Video, I will be looking for those nutrients..... I have a simple question...on watering you soaked it all very well. Do you do that often, because I am concerned that you may lose a tree to rot... I water about 4 inches away from the trunk to avoid rot. Thanks !!!
Hi Armando, thank you for watching! I have been doing this to all my trees for 2 years now and no rot. I even water more in summer heat as it was only Spring in the time of this video. If the pot has sufficient drainage holes, and the roots have filled out out the entire pot, then its difficult to overwater as the roots will take up mostly all the water and store it. If you transplant a tree with a small root system into in a large pot, you must be careful not to overwater. Also if your soil is very rich in peat moss, then overwatering can be dangerous. In winter I don't water nearly as much. The other day I just soaked new fig varieties in even smaller pots with the fish fertilizer and their doing very good. All the best with your figs Armando.
Hi, Thank you so much for the quick response. I took the pictures and I would like to send them to you if that would be ok with you. Can you let me know where I can send it? We are zone 8b
what brand is the blood/bone meal you use here, I was hoping to see a link to that one, trying to figure out what ratio to mix my blood and bone meals as they are not pre mixed together. ..unsure if I should do 50/50. looks like it would be NPK 16-14-0 and 27% calcium in the bone meal ...and because theres 27% calcium in the bone meal, do you think I still need the dolomite lime? . Thankyou
Hi Thank you for watching and your comment! Unfortunately the product I used in this video is not available through Amazon. It's only available here in Australia, regardless it's called Plantneeds 'Fish N Bone'. I'll add some products in the video description shortly. In America, Blood Meal and Bone Meal are sold as separate entities. So you do indeed have to mix them together to form a proper Nitrogen and Phosphorus blend like how I have in the video. 16-14-0 Is a generous NP level (you'd need another product for K as the video shows). 27% Calcium is a great level. I personally think you could skip out on the Dolomite indeed. The main uses for Dolomite are the Magnesium levels, and PH buffing as figs prefer a Mediterranean rocky soil (limestone based). It's not something you always have to use like the fertilizers but I've included it once or twice just to get the pH in the pot set.
@@QualityGardener I think I arrived at a fair amount in grams for my products..took me hrs to conclude and convert from 10kg to 100m2! or cups per meter squared...all of those measurements seem crazy to me..I hate that, plus we have to figure out how many square feet of soil in the pot. Diameter, depth etc. Just about broke my brain. I wonder why they dont they put how many grams per gallon of container soil, sure would make it easier. So, looks like I need 1/4 cup each of Gaia green Blood meal , Organic M.M Basics Bone meal, and Acti-Sol Chicken manure pellets (all sold on Amazon) and one cup of Nurturing Nature Organic Worm castings for a 12 gallon pot. I will also water in the 1 tbsp of Alaska Fish emulsion per gallon of water and 1 tsp Gaia green soluble seaweed extract per gallon of water and the extract will give me a 0-0-17 NPK, so that takes care of the K. Yeh! In total , the NPK will be 16-14-17. Pretty good. Thanks for the recipe, I wish I knew about this years ago. Just makes sense.Ive used the fish and seaweed and bone meal here and there but didnt actually combine them at the same time for a 3 month feed...also used to use blood meal here and there but havnt in a few years. Seriously awesome . First feed early spring and then one more at the start of summer for the dry ingreds and then water in the fish and seaweed every 2 weeks...looks like a wow food for our plants. Cheers
@@mssavedin92Wow that is incredible! 16-14-17 will massive growth on figs, i think you will be shocked! That's a lot of work to do , but it will be worth it, and you'll know everything is organic. I really think you've got the best ingredients here for organic use, it doesn't get better than that. I should mention during the time I made this video I didn't have nowhere the collection I have now (Near 100 Potted Trees with a large majority being figs). I think the method in this video works great for around 10-20 trees potted trees but anything more than that I would consider some different fertilizing methods. I'm now using a lighter version of the aforementioned method in the video which consists of Blood Meal, Bone Meal (A Blended product that I buy here) with the Chicken pellets as a one time hit at the start of the season, which I combine with the use a CRF product (Control Release Fertilizer) which isn't organic but lasts for 5-6 months. Just food for thought. CRF is not organic. Thanks for sharing your plans its been a pleasure reading your work. I wish you all the best!
Mary Divittorio, thank you! Yes correct. The Metabolism of the fig tree wakes up late August to early September in Victoria, Australia, and ends May. 8 Months of growing season. When the warm Mediterranean weather arrives in January, and February, the growth hormone really kicks in and you can get a full grown size tree by the end of May. I currently have a Desert King Tree in a 28 litre pot that is about 7 feet tall. Started from a tiny cutting last winter.
Hi Mary @marydivittorio7455 Desert King will ripen its main fruit if the wasp lives in your zone / area. For breba crop its not required to be pollinated. In theory yes by having a caprifig, you'll be able to house the wasp in fig ripening season, and that would pollinate the main crop of the Desert King. However, it really all comes down to your zone. The fig wasp from my research usually thrives in warmer places and you may not be guaranteed it if you're in a place like Zone 6a. I live in Zone 10a and the wasp really thrives here. I can confirm this because my main crop ripened last year and I don't have any mature caprifigs that can house the wasp in my backyard. Which means someone in the area has a caprifig and the wasp is settled in. I've seen the wasp in some colder locations than me, around zone 8 here but unfortunately I cant follow up on that as I saw it a while ago on the forum. Thanks Mary for watching and hope this helps.
Hi, great question to ask! When a fig tree is more than 3 years old it is quite mature and capable for excellent fruiting potential, so a 10 year old tree would benefit greatly from a fruiting formula ratio that is high in potassium. This is what they use on fig orchards I believe. For my inground fig trees, I start off with cow manure, and also chicken manure every spring. I also use chicken manure pellets once a month. This is because Nitrogen is important for early season and overall growth. For in ground fig trees you don't need to use heavy water soluble fertilizers because the inground soil already has the minerals. Once you get fruit forming, you want to use a fertilizer with potassium because potassium will greatly help in fruit production, quality, and flavor! Thanks for watching!
It's actually horrible. I did what he said and over-fertilized 2 of my trees, they look horrible now. Guy makes no mention of how much blood/bone meal to use separately (not everyone buys theirs combined like that, is it 50g each, 75/25, what? no mention of it), or what type of bone or blood meal that is being used. I suspect there's too much phosphorus in my trees now combined with all of the compost material and the roots are torched. Just use fish fertilizer once a week instead of doing this nonsense that will only kill your plants.
I absolutely agree with you. I have since bought one and it makes a huge difference. Thank you for feed back :)! I appreciate comments like this as it helps me make better videos in the future. Thank you.
It absolutely is, but the same can be said for other produce especially vegetables. If you can plant a fig in ground it is a much better return on investment (ROI), and It's much easier to fertilize too. For me though I love my potted figs because of the many varieties I have. Thanks for watching !
Thanks for commenting! Wow that is very unfortunate. How do you know it killed your figs? I've given this advice to my friend and he has great figs similar to mine. This is also very similar to forum recommendation for fertilizing figs. I'm thinking something else potentially killed your figs?
I would use dolomite lime only until you've reached your desired magnesium levels then use gypsum (which is nice with the extra sulfur) or a calcium carbonate like oyster shell to get the rest of your calcium, otherwise the magnesium will likely be too high in ratio to calcium. Personally I would use rock dusts for micronutrients, cut out the synthetics completely as they're killing off soil organisms needed to break down your organics, and go with a mix like Dr. Earth, Down To Earth, Jobe's, or some other organic slow release granular that contains all the stuff you're buying separately like blood, bone, and kelp meal, plus they include beneficial bacteria & mycorrhizal fungi. Saves $ and time to buy a bigger bag of that rather than multiple smaller and separate ingredients. Also if you have clay out there in Oz I might experiment mixing some of that in for the extra silica, or otherwise experiment with adding a powdered or liquid silica (always mix it in liquid first before other nutrients, then liquid calcium as they're both very reactive).
Love the information my friend! That's what makes this fun. Yes, I am an advocate for organic growing. I've only grown mostly organic this year and I agree with you it is better for the soil life and activation of nutrients and soil networks. Thank you for watching!
Fish fertilizers are best...
It was the BEST video about fertilizers for fig trees❤👏☝
Thank you soo much for watching! :) and I enjoyed making it. Appreciate your kind words :)
Thank you so much for your information.👍😊
Thank you for watching!
Great video - nice and down to earth! Thanks! Do you also have a video on training/pruning young potted fig trees for the best production? If so, I'd love to see!
Thank you so much :)! I plan on releasing one very soon. In brief, young fig plants either started by cutting or bought at a nursery are left alone the first growing season to put on as much growth. When cold kicks in or dormant season, make pruning cuts with a saw and pair of secateurs to establish the trunk height along with scaffolding height. This is all based on growing in pots though. If you are growing in the ground, you don't have to prune at all unless you want a desired shape or height. Thank you for watching!
I'd certainly watch a video you make on pruning/training to establish trunk height/scaffolding height. Thanks for the advice and responding so quickly! Greatly appreciate it!
Thank you, I am finally in pension and can take care of gardening more.❤
Ok.thanks.
Nice video💚
Thank you
Hello again. Maybe you can help me. I have a question. I have had a 3 fig tree for a few years. We moved and here are dears. They ate all the leaves and also bit the tree trunk. It is possible to save the trees?
Hi there! Yes it should be easy to save as fig trees can recover very easily. Depending what zone you are in, and also what variety of fig will determine a lot. The following winter in your zone, prune below the severity of the chewed or eaten trunk. Then the following spring it should create new scaffolding or budding below the cut. It's hard to properly assess without photos. You can send me some and I can better understand your situation or alternatively there are some great fig experts on Ourfigs website that would help you out also. All the best with restoring your fig trees!
Nice video.
Thank you! I am a fan of your channel :) Great videos on figs.
@@QualityGardenerThanks, wish you a lot of success!
Hi, I wonder if it's good to fertilize using osmocote plus for my one month old and two month old fig plants?. Their heights are 15" and 25" respectively. Or i just follow the instruction on the label apply to both which is 3-4.5g per of media/soil? I'm really craving for a fast answer to this, thank you😋☺️
Osmocote Plus is a very easy and effective fertilizer to use for fig trees because it is controlled release and I used a similar product last year with great results. I would recommend following the instructions on the label indeed. All the best!
@@QualityGardener thank you, indeed i followed the instruction and I'm happy that you recommended the same :)
I have a question, I cant find blood and bone meal as 1 product here in BC Canada. I have a container of pure blood meal and a bag of pure organic bone meal.
Would you simply mix 50 grams of each? The Gaia blood meal is 14-0-0 and the bone meal is 2-14-0 +27% calcium. Just wondering what ratio of each to mix into the whole recipe. Thankyou
Great Video, I will be looking for those nutrients..... I have a simple question...on watering you soaked it all very well. Do you do that often, because I am concerned that you may lose a tree to rot... I water about 4 inches away from the trunk to avoid rot. Thanks !!!
Hi Armando, thank you for watching! I have been doing this to all my trees for 2 years now and no rot. I even water more in summer heat as it was only Spring in the time of this video. If the pot has sufficient drainage holes, and the roots have filled out out the entire pot, then its difficult to overwater as the roots will take up mostly all the water and store it. If you transplant a tree with a small root system into in a large pot, you must be careful not to overwater. Also if your soil is very rich in peat moss, then overwatering can be dangerous. In winter I don't water nearly as much. The other day I just soaked new fig varieties in even smaller pots with the fish fertilizer and their doing very good. All the best with your figs Armando.
@@QualityGardener Thanks for the Reply and Information !!!
Homie, figs are really easy. No need to over complicate things. Good job taking care of your plants though.
Theyre brain dead easy in the ground. But when growing in a pot it can have some challenges and his growth looks good for 1 year.
Hi,
Thank you so much for the quick response. I took the pictures and I would like to send them to you if that would be ok with you. Can you let me know where I can send it? We are zone 8b
You can send them to my email at Dimitrioszaros@gmail.com
If know the variety of the tree it will be good too. All the best.
what brand is the blood/bone meal you use here, I was hoping to see a link to that one, trying to figure out what ratio to mix my blood and bone meals as they are not pre mixed together. ..unsure if I should do 50/50. looks like it would be NPK 16-14-0 and 27% calcium in the bone meal ...and because theres 27% calcium in the bone meal, do you think I still need the dolomite lime? .
Thankyou
Hi Thank you for watching and your comment! Unfortunately the product I used in this video is not available through Amazon. It's only available here in Australia, regardless it's called Plantneeds 'Fish N Bone'. I'll add some products in the video description shortly.
In America, Blood Meal and Bone Meal are sold as separate entities. So you do indeed have to mix them together to form a proper Nitrogen and Phosphorus blend like how I have in the video.
16-14-0 Is a generous NP level (you'd need another product for K as the video shows). 27% Calcium is a great level. I personally think you could skip out on the Dolomite indeed.
The main uses for Dolomite are the Magnesium levels, and PH buffing as figs prefer a Mediterranean rocky soil (limestone based). It's not something you always have to use like the fertilizers but I've included it once or twice just to get the pH in the pot set.
@@QualityGardener I think I arrived at a fair amount in grams for my products..took me hrs to conclude and convert from 10kg to 100m2! or cups per meter squared...all of those measurements seem crazy to me..I hate that, plus we have to figure out how many square feet of soil in the pot. Diameter, depth etc. Just about broke my brain. I wonder why they dont they put how many grams per gallon of container soil, sure would make it easier. So, looks like I need 1/4 cup each of Gaia green Blood meal , Organic M.M Basics Bone meal, and Acti-Sol Chicken manure pellets (all sold on Amazon) and one cup of Nurturing Nature Organic Worm castings for a 12 gallon pot. I will also water in the 1 tbsp of Alaska Fish emulsion per gallon of water and 1 tsp Gaia green soluble seaweed extract per gallon of water and the extract will give me a 0-0-17 NPK, so that takes care of the K. Yeh! In total , the NPK will be 16-14-17. Pretty good. Thanks for the recipe, I wish I knew about this years ago. Just makes sense.Ive used the fish and seaweed and bone meal here and there but didnt actually combine them at the same time for a 3 month feed...also used to use blood meal here and there but havnt in a few years. Seriously awesome . First feed early spring and then one more at the start of summer for the dry ingreds and then water in the fish and seaweed every 2 weeks...looks like a wow food for our plants. Cheers
@@mssavedin92Wow that is incredible! 16-14-17 will massive growth on figs, i think you will be shocked!
That's a lot of work to do , but it will be worth it, and you'll know everything is organic. I really think you've got the best ingredients here for organic use, it doesn't get better than that.
I should mention during the time I made this video I didn't have nowhere the collection I have now (Near 100 Potted Trees with a large majority being figs). I think the method in this video works great for around 10-20 trees potted trees but anything more than that I would consider some different fertilizing methods. I'm now using a lighter version of the aforementioned method in the video which consists of Blood Meal, Bone Meal (A Blended product that I buy here) with the Chicken pellets as a one time hit at the start of the season, which I combine with the use a CRF product (Control Release Fertilizer) which isn't organic but lasts for 5-6 months. Just food for thought. CRF is not organic.
Thanks for sharing your plans its been a pleasure reading your work. I wish you all the best!
Great video!!!
I presume this fertilising schedule is done from September to May in Australia??
Mary Divittorio, thank you!
Yes correct. The Metabolism of the fig tree wakes up late August to early September in Victoria, Australia, and ends May. 8 Months of growing season. When the warm Mediterranean weather arrives in January, and February, the growth hormone really kicks in and you can get a full grown size tree by the end of May. I currently have a Desert King Tree in a 28 litre pot that is about 7 feet tall. Started from a tiny cutting last winter.
@@QualityGardener thank you.
You’re a wealth of knowledge 🌱 ⭐️
@@QualityGardener I just purchased a Desert King cutting. Do I need a capri fig for pollination?
Hi Mary @marydivittorio7455 Desert King will ripen its main fruit if the wasp lives in your zone / area. For breba crop its not required to be pollinated. In theory yes by having a caprifig, you'll be able to house the wasp in fig ripening season, and that would pollinate the main crop of the Desert King. However, it really all comes down to your zone. The fig wasp from my research usually thrives in warmer places and you may not be guaranteed it if you're in a place like Zone 6a. I live in Zone 10a and the wasp really thrives here. I can confirm this because my main crop ripened last year and I don't have any mature caprifigs that can house the wasp in my backyard. Which means someone in the area has a caprifig and the wasp is settled in. I've seen the wasp in some colder locations than me, around zone 8 here but unfortunately I cant follow up on that as I saw it a while ago on the forum. Thanks Mary for watching and hope this helps.
@@QualityGardener thank you 😊
I’m actually adding wood ash instead of lime
I wonder if fertilizers can be applied to a fig in the ground and 10 years old
Hi, great question to ask! When a fig tree is more than 3 years old it is quite mature and capable for excellent fruiting potential, so a 10 year old tree would benefit greatly from a fruiting formula ratio that is high in potassium. This is what they use on fig orchards I believe. For my inground fig trees, I start off with cow manure, and also chicken manure every spring. I also use chicken manure pellets once a month. This is because Nitrogen is important for early season and overall growth. For in ground fig trees you don't need to use heavy water soluble fertilizers because the inground soil already has the minerals. Once you get fruit forming, you want to use a fertilizer with potassium because potassium will greatly help in fruit production, quality, and flavor!
Thanks for watching!
So guys. Whaddya think of his vidya?
It's actually horrible. I did what he said and over-fertilized 2 of my trees, they look horrible now. Guy makes no mention of how much blood/bone meal to use separately (not everyone buys theirs combined like that, is it 50g each, 75/25, what? no mention of it), or what type of bone or blood meal that is being used. I suspect there's too much phosphorus in my trees now combined with all of the compost material and the roots are torched. Just use fish fertilizer once a week instead of doing this nonsense that will only kill your plants.
Figs won’t need anything, they just need daily watering
So guys,..... I've got Tourettes. So guys ok. So guys have a good one. So guys see you next time. So guys, bye....
Sound is important. You could do with a clip on microphone! Please - I do WANT to hear what you have to say! You seem to be speaking quietly.
I absolutely agree with you. I have since bought one and it makes a huge difference. Thank you for feed back :)! I appreciate comments like this as it helps me make better videos in the future. Thank you.
It is cheaper to buy figs from farmers market!
It absolutely is, but the same can be said for other produce especially vegetables. If you can plant a fig in ground it is a much better return on investment (ROI), and It's much easier to fertilize too. For me though I love my potted figs because of the many varieties I have. Thanks for watching !
Il just use some rabbit caca
Didn't work and just killed my plants. Thanks I guess.
Thanks for commenting! Wow that is very unfortunate. How do you know it killed your figs? I've given this advice to my friend and he has great figs similar to mine. This is also very similar to forum recommendation for fertilizing figs. I'm thinking something else potentially killed your figs?