BucksCountyFigs
Well-known member
I have a small tree on order for this spring. I can connect you to my person, if you want.
Portuguese Unknowns
- Thread starter LadyGT
- Start date
BucksCountyFigs
Well-known member
Man, I can’t wait for the warmer weather!Organized Chaos gardening is happening around May…Moving pots outside, up potting, fertilizing, grafting,air layering, acclimating rooted cuttings, planting etc. That is just figs but not for regular gardening.
BucksCountyFigs
Well-known member
Here is an update on Portuguese unk #5, which interestingly, was NOT the strongest grower of the five unknowns (#4 was), but it’s great now!
This was fig popped on 12/19.
Here is what it looks like today (2/10).
A common question I get is “my roots are growing up out of the soil. What should I do? Is that bad?”
You mean like this?
As you can tell, it totally doesn’t matter if your roots are growing out of the soil. Heck, they even push their determined little way up through tightly tied rubber bands holding the fig pop closed. I can understand how they can be destructive to house foundations, break pots, etc.
Note: these roots pushing up out of the soil are very different than roots that might be growing above the soil higher up on the cutting. Those are because the conditions are too humid. They are not desirable, but not bad and you can make Leon’s out of lemonade.
So, to answer the most common question, is this ready to up pot?
Yes, a bit over ready. I was in the hospital, so it went probably a week over, but I up potted it today. If you have roots growing up out of the soil like this, just be sure to cover them with a good amount of soil as you can.
Can you up pot before it gets to this point? Absolutely you can, and people do it all the time, with differing success rates. People also use different media, light conditions, heat mat or no heat mats, etc. and lucky for us, figs are one of the easiest fruits to root.
But I just wait because I’m a lazy gardener, and what could be easier than just leaving them in a fig pop?
Plus, we have some time before it’s warm enough here in PA for them to go outside, and fig pops take up way less space than tree pots or larger pots, so I’m in no rush to up pot until I really have to. And once those leaves start growing, they grow fast and big, and you run out of canopy space and appropriate lighting very quickly.
Hope this was helpful.
Happy fig popping, everyone!
This was fig popped on 12/19.
Here is what it looks like today (2/10).
A common question I get is “my roots are growing up out of the soil. What should I do? Is that bad?”
You mean like this?
As you can tell, it totally doesn’t matter if your roots are growing out of the soil. Heck, they even push their determined little way up through tightly tied rubber bands holding the fig pop closed. I can understand how they can be destructive to house foundations, break pots, etc.
Note: these roots pushing up out of the soil are very different than roots that might be growing above the soil higher up on the cutting. Those are because the conditions are too humid. They are not desirable, but not bad and you can make Leon’s out of lemonade.
So, to answer the most common question, is this ready to up pot?
Yes, a bit over ready. I was in the hospital, so it went probably a week over, but I up potted it today. If you have roots growing up out of the soil like this, just be sure to cover them with a good amount of soil as you can.
Can you up pot before it gets to this point? Absolutely you can, and people do it all the time, with differing success rates. People also use different media, light conditions, heat mat or no heat mats, etc. and lucky for us, figs are one of the easiest fruits to root.
But I just wait because I’m a lazy gardener, and what could be easier than just leaving them in a fig pop?
Plus, we have some time before it’s warm enough here in PA for them to go outside, and fig pops take up way less space than tree pots or larger pots, so I’m in no rush to up pot until I really have to. And once those leaves start growing, they grow fast and big, and you run out of canopy space and appropriate lighting very quickly.
Hope this was helpful.
Happy fig popping, everyone!
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BucksCountyFigs
Well-known member
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snarfing
Well-known member
They continue to encroach.....
ClayFig
Well-known member
My #5 is doing great with root growth, it’s finally breaking buds. I will take a picture when I get home
BucksCountyFigs
Well-known member
It looks great!
Are you sure you don’t want to give it some more time to make more of a root mass before up potting?
ClayFig
Well-known member
Sure I will give it more timeIt looks great!
Are you sure you don’t want to give it some more time to make more of a root mass before up potting?
Figjake
Well-known member
My #5 is the only doing a whole lot of nothing. I’m gonna pull it and put some more rooting hormone and see what it does. It’s extremely lignified grey wood and no brown, so I’m assuming older than 1 year. I have a couple of other cuttings that are grey from other sources and they are a big nothing burger at this point.
ClayFig
Well-known member
The only ones that rooted for me was #4 and #5
Figjake
Well-known member
Do you got an extra of 5? At the present I have multiples of the others rooted.
ClayFig
Well-known member
No unfortunately I only received one # 5
Opiem10
Well-known member
When Rocco and I harvested the UNK Portuguese cuttings, I packaged as follows:
3 @ #1
2 @ #2
3 @ #3
4 @ #4
1 @ #1
Approximately 40 members received packages and there were just not many cuttings of variety #5 to go around. Even the one cutting of #1 that I included may not have been an ideal stick, but I was hoping that many would still root.
With the healthy pruning all trees received this year, we can only hope that all will grow vigorously in 2026 and offer a chance at many more cuttings in the future.
3 @ #1
2 @ #2
3 @ #3
4 @ #4
1 @ #1
Approximately 40 members received packages and there were just not many cuttings of variety #5 to go around. Even the one cutting of #1 that I included may not have been an ideal stick, but I was hoping that many would still root.
With the healthy pruning all trees received this year, we can only hope that all will grow vigorously in 2026 and offer a chance at many more cuttings in the future.