Today we're doing something I have never done on this channel before.
What's up everyone? Kevin from Epic Gardening here,
I'm sitting underneath a massive old avocado tree just hanging out and I'm at my
friend Shane's house.
He is a local San Diego and he actually runs a YouTube channel as well.
It's called Dark Horse Rowing. If you're into rowing,
feel free to check that out,
but the reason I'm here and I'm not at my own house because I'm space challenged
at my own house. I do a lot of annual vegetable gardening,
but I'm sitting right here with the Chicago Hardy Fig.
This is a fig variety that I got from my friends over at plantingtree.com it's
a, it's a fig tree that can be tolerant all the way down to zone five so really
cool. In today's video,
what we're going to do is talk about planting a fig tree.
So there's a lot of things that we need to take into consideration,
although it is in the end, a pretty simple process.
So let's go ahead and get into it. Before
we get into the planting tips.
The first question to answer is where do you actually plant it?
So if it's early spring or late fall, both good times to plant a fig tree,
you're gonna want to put it in an area that gets full sun.
So I'm facing the camera right now, which is facing south. This is north,
and we're getting a little bit of shade here from this avocado tree as well as a
sapote tree that's actually right behind the camera, right over there.
So it's going to be a good spot because this area right here is going to be our
final resting place for this fig, it gets full sun.
We're going to have to work on the soil a little bit.
We're gonna have to talk about planting.
But I think overall it's going to be a good spot.
It's about 10 feet plus away from any other obstacle.
So there's going to be plenty of room for it to grow and spread out.
And it's going to have a really, really nice home right here.
So another thing that's making this a good spot is the fact that we already have
some protection on it,
which we can just move away for now and it's already been set up with drip,
which is a little hard to see. There was a plant that didn't quite make it here.
So the first thing to do is of course take a look at the depth of our fig tree,
which we'll take a look at it in a second,
but we just want to start digging it out.
So we're looking at the fig tree in its three gallon pot in the place.
It's eventually going to be planted.
And the first thing I noticed is I've got four stems.
What's interesting about a fig tree is that the new fruits produce off of new
green growth every year.
And so I'm actually gonna leave all four and have it be a little bit bushier
just so we can get potentially more production out of it.
But the first thing we have to do is dig this soil out.
As you can see it's a little bit clay-ey and so we're going to have to amend it
with some compost but we're going to dig it out and usually they say bury it a
couple inches deeper. So maybe up to about there or so. I'm not going to,
I'm going to match and mulch. That's going to be my process,
but the first thing we have to do of course is dig it out.
So we're at the depth that we want for the hole,
you can see that it was pretty flush,
but figs are going to want a ton of organic matter,
especially early on in their growth.
And I'm going to add just a little bit of compost into the planning hole not too
much because if you put too much in the roots have no incentive to spread 'cause
they're kind of getting everything they want right where you've planted them.
So we're going to make it a little bit in, not too much.
And it's just some compost from the local nursery, City Farmer's Nursery,
which is a great place.
So we're going to mix that in and then we're going to get to planting
[inaudible]. Anytime we're dealing with a container grown tree,
what we want to do is of course wet the soil before you take it out of the
container.
And we have to inspect the root ball because if it is a little circled,
you don't want the roots to be circled when you put it in the hole because then
they're just going to follow that same pattern and it's a quick way to ensure
that your plant won't do well upon transplanting.
So I've wet the soil so it stays all together and dump it upside down.
Kind of tease this pot out
and these roots actually look incredible. There is no circling at all.
Let's take a quick close up. So really nice healthy root system,
no large clumps of roots at the bottom,
which means that you don't need to do a whole lot to this before we put it into
the planting hole.
So what I'm going to do is form a small mound at the bottom so the roots have a
little bit of space to travel laterally and it's a really good spot to place
them.
And let's go ahead and again the bottom,
no root circling, nothing of that sort at all, which is fantastic.
So we're just gonna place it in,
make sure it's going to be flush and level to the surface of the soil.
It looks like we're right about on point and then it's time to backfill.
And so I'm going to backfill with some of the stuff that came out of the pot
with course we can put some of these shredded leaves in there.
Eventually those will start to break down as well.
Provide a nice bit of organic matter.
And then we're going to backfill with a bit of a native soil as well.
And probably a little bit of extra compost. Next
step is to put our drip spike back in.
So we'll put it right next to the base of the roots or the base of the trunk
right there. So we've got it planted in, we've amended it,
we've matched the height, everything's good. We put our drip back in.
The next thing that we're gonna do is kind of like a doughnut mulch around the
stem. But the important thing about donut mulching with wood chips,
which fantastic perennial plant mulch,
it's just one of the better ones out there. First of all, it's free.
Second of all, it's just one of the better ways that you can mulch.
Look at the Back to Eden gardening method if you're caring to take a little bit
of a deeper dive,
but what people do wrong when they're mulching around a tree is they mulch right
up to the stem. It's not a good idea if it ever gets wet.
You're introducing constant moisture around the stem,
which is just not a great idea.
So what I like to do to prevent that potential rot,
is come through and just organize it in a donut like structure around the plant,
but not touching it at all.
So there's going to be a bit of a donut hole in the middle.
That's just going to be a really good idea. And so this protects the soil.
This helps the feeder roots of establish themselves without getting torn to
shreds by the, the heat that can be quite rampant here.
And so that is our recipe for planting this Chicago Hardy Fig.
And like I said,
if you're really interested in a fig that can tolerate colder temperatures,
this goes down to a Zone 5 all the way up to a Zone 10 so we've donut mulched it
things are looking good for the beginning of the life of this little fig. Again,
it's the Chicago Hardy fig from plantingtree.com.
Super nice them to send this out and help build the future permaculture food
forest at my friend Shane's homestead, which is going to be awesome.
So stay tuned. There's many more videos coming from here as well.
But if you're interested, I highly recommend you check out Planting Tree.
This is a really cool fig variety and stay tuned.
If you'd like to see me plant more, do more food forest,
more permaculturist style stuff,
then definitely let me know because I'm more than excited to. It's just,
you know, for a long time I just didn't have the space.
Now I have a friend who does have the space and it's gonna be really fun to work
with him in improving his yard. So until next time,
good luck in the garden and keep on growing.