Thread: Fruit, Nut, and Vine Grafting, Tree Propagation, Tree Care

That’s awesome! Very good growth and roots. Mine are coming along nicely too but not quite ready for potting up yet. I need to make sure to harden them off slowly when time.

Originally Posted by SuperDave336

That’s awesome! Very good growth and roots. Mine are coming along nicely too but not quite ready for potting up yet.

They need roots running around the plastic like those in the picture for a quick start after potting. It is so much warmer inside that new cover and they get plenty of indirect sunlight. The boat was in the way so I made use of it. Lol.

From my failures with the persimmon and pear tree cuttings I’m a little concerned about potting them up and hardening them off. I’m going to go slow for sure this time. I haven’t had issues with garden veggies before but I sure did with the cuttings. I might just start hardening them all some now.

Potted up 16 more fig trees today. Puts me at 76 successful Fig Pop Method of rooting. I wanted to let anyone know who tries this not to punch holes in the bags, the ones I did it to are drying out too quickly. When adding water to the rooting medium I can not squeeze water out of the medium, it will clump, feel wet, but no water drips. With the medium that dry to start with I'm not having any rot problems and enough moisture is present to grow the cutting till time to pot.

Since I have to move all the Citrus trees every winter I have to remove all the drip irrigation lines, sprinklers, emitters, etc leaving them on the ground till next spring. It is a task to re-set the trees, position the newly added plants, take into consideration the in-ground trees so I don't block the sunlight.



I spread the Citrus trees out a bit more than last year due to the increase in size of the trees. I usually leave the irrigation lines laying on the ground but it gets to be a pain due to the grass growing up covering the lines to the point I hit them with the lawnmower. So I decided to drill holes in the planters and secure the main line up in the air so I could mow around everything. There is a row of potted Fig trees that was not part of the group last year. I pulled them up when the threat of a heavy freeze was upon us potting them till spring. Now since I have the greenhouse cover I plan on keeping them in pots.



This is the kind of mess in irrigation lines I usually have to straighten up, remove, or reconfigure.



If you look along the fence I have already run a main line but this year am adding drops for each Fig tree emerging from dormancy.



I made the aluminum mount to make it easy to attach the heavy Bogie Blue water filter. These are good for 44,000 gallons of water. I back flush mine frequently which add quite a bit of life to it.



This controller is super easy to program, allows you to turn the water on & off manually or automatically and is battery powered. The first thing you do is set the time of day.



Next is to set the amount of time you want the water turned on.



Then what days you want it to water the trees.



4 waterings a day can be programmed, here I only have it turn on at 7pm.



The red Emitters are pressure compensating, 1/2 gallon of water per hour each. As the summer heats up and depending on fruit set I may replace with larger Emitters so the trees have enough moisture to properly grow out the fruit.



All done for now.

I’ve never used a timer for watering. I currently find it therapeutic and relaxing. Might have to check into one though if that changes or mosquitos get too bad.

Originally Posted by SuperDave336

I’ve never used a timer for watering. I currently find it therapeutic and relaxing. Might have to check into one though if that changes or mosquitos get too bad.

I'm not a Meteorologist but the dry to drought weather pattern of last year feels like the same is starting to this year. Fruit trees need water everyday or you run into a problem when you get a big rain, your fruit - especially citrus, splits. Once it splits it is ruined. We lost 30-35% of our citrus crop last year because I let the trees run dry for too long before adding automatic watering. Smaller pots are still watered by hand but if you want perfect fruit perfect watering is a must. Our trees are loaded (except Apricots) and will need thinning. I would rather grow larger, sweet, great tasting fruit if I can. The automatic watering system allows Crappie fishing trips to Ross Barnett too, not having to water by hand daily.

Don’t blame you one bit. I’d rather fish than water if given the choice.