I fit 5 15-gallon squat pots, 76 8-gallon square pots, and 96 3-gallon round pots in my 2-car garage while leaving room to walk among pots to take cuttings or water them. Eventually when my collection is up-potted, 160 8-gallon pots need to fit in my garage (which will be challenging). This post captures what I’ve learned along the way in hopes that it helps someone else and I can improve the process next year.
As background, I decided NOT to prune my trees before storage because (1) I can share fresh cuttings all winter rather than dealing with cutting storage and (2) I simply didn’t have the time or energy to deal with cuttings AND get my collection stored before the cold snap. (It took my hubby and me five days [3-4 hours a day] to get everything in the garage.) Because I fertilize and water generously, I had many trees taller than the 12-ft ceiling of the garage—these extra tall trees (and low scaffolds) were pruned to get them in the garage. I may re-visit this decision not-to-prune everything in future years as the smaller trees would be easier fit in.
First off, I grew most of my trees in the ever-popular 8-gallon square Gro-Pro pots that were chosen because their square shape and consistent size makes it easier to stack pots. In general, two layers of pots can be accommodated easily if the
square pots are layered like bricks in a running bond pattern with the main trunk of the bottom layer sticking up in the space between the 2nd layer of pots.
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A 3rd layer of round 3-gallon pots can easily be tossed on top of two layers of 8-gallon pots.
When stacking trees, may sure that you can still see the variety name. Remember your labelled pot may be covered by another pot. If you use wrap-around labels, move them to eye-level before stacking the pot. Be aware that wrap-around labels easily fall down when 1st season whips lose all their leaves.
You need to
train your tree via pruning to allow for stacking. A single main trunk centered in the pot with no low scaffolds is recommended easiest to stack anywhere. If you have a multi-stem bush form, it can only go on the top layer of pots. Your chosen pot height determines how tall your scaffolds should be. The scaffold must be high enough to stick out above the 2nd layer of pots. When pruning the single-whip to the future main trunk height, remember to leave 3-5 nodes above your pot height to give enough options for scaffolds to form so you can keep the best placed scaffolds. Do not just measure the height of the pot and cut a few inches above (as I did my 1st season) because your scaffolds will form too low.
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In general, you should fill the areas furthest from the door first so that you don’t have to navigate around too many pots. Start with the
tallest trees that best fit the ideal first (ie, centered in the pot, single trunks with no low scaffolds)
as your base layer. The tallest trees should be placed furthest in the garage (not underneath the garage doors) as you lose some height when the garage doors are raised and parallel to the ceiling. If you have a tree that leans or isn’t exactly centered in the pot, they fit better on the ends of the rows. The
2nd layer should be the slightly shorter trees (as you’ve lost 14” of height by stacking on top of the base layer). If these 2nd layer trees are not a bush form, you can
easily stack 3-gallon pots on top of them for a third layer. If they are a bush form, you’ll need to stop stacking then. If you plan to open your garage doors, please make sure the trees don’t interfere with the springs, rails, etc. If you have garage door openers, double check that the emergency release pull won’t get tangled in fig branches and accidently release (don’t ask how I know).
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Pots should be arranged based on how much access you want to them. Because I planned to take cuttings, I left aisles between the figs. If you plan to water your figs in the winter, you’ll want aisles too. The aisles should be at least the width of your pot (preferably a hand truck) to be useful. I laid out my pots so that I had 3 “groupings” of fig pots that were 2-pots wide and then 1-pot wide aisles to walk in. I left enough room so that I could up-pot figs in my garage over the winter as well as have a rolling cart of head start candidates that can be rolled in and out next season as well as easy access to the snowblower.
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Here is a rough diagram that shows approximately how I fit things in (I didn’t try to represent every pot but just convey what is possible). Because I didn’t finish my up potting to 8-gallons, it wasn’t too hard to fit them in. Make sure to stand your cart(s) vertically to reduce their footprint when not in use. You can put a few pots in each too.
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I take photos of my trees (and measure them) before I put them away. This is a totally extra step, but it is really helpful when you’re trying to decide if you have enough cuttings to share. In the unlikely event I can’t read the pot label AND the wrap-around label is lost, I have a rough idea of what the fig shape looked like. This year, I took them in front of my garage as they stood out better than in the yard.
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Things I would do differently next year
- Re-consider not pruning before storage. I love sharing with the fig community, but it does complicate storage.
- Wear safety glasses consistently! It took several branches smacking me in the face and badly scratching my glasses before I learned to put them on.
- Make my grouping of figs larger (instead of 2-pots then an aisle, maybe 3 or 4 pots and then an aisle). I won’t be able to afford as many aisles if I want to fit all 160 8-gallon pots in my garage (unless I figure out how to make a 3rd 8-gallon layer).
- Arrange the figs based so that figs that need an early start (late-season figs) are the easiest to reach next season.
- Make a map of where I’ve placed the figs because it can be hard to find them.
- Find a way to photo and measure figs earlier. It really slows me down, especially when I’m wearing gloves. Get better Wi-Fi access outside the garage.
- Purge the garage of junk. We just pushed everything against the walls, but there’s definitely stuff I could toss.
