Fig Culture / Edible Figs: Their Culture and Curing. Fig Culture in the Gulf States.

by Gustavus A. Eisen; F. S. Earle

SOIL AND LOCATION.

The fig will grow in almost any location, but it attains its highest development on a rich, moist, but well-drained soil, that contains abundant humus.

A plentiful supply of lime, phosphoric acid, and potash is also needed, and if not contained in the soil must be supplied by fertilization. The best conditions for fig growth are found in the bottoms and hammocks rather than in the sandy uplands, though many fine specimens can be found in either location. In planting for home use it is advisable to plant the trees near the house and about the farm buildings, for they always thrive in such locations, while many failures have been made in attempting to establish them under orchard conditions, especially in the light soils of the “piney woods” region. It is not easy to account for these failures, since the old dooryard trees are so universally healthy and thrifty, though growing without care or attention. Several causes can be cited that may contribute to the result, but all seem insufficient to account fully for the facts observed. There must be some undetected factor that contributes to the almost universal superiority of dooryard over orchard-grown fig trees in the Gulf States.

One of the most obvious difficulties in establishing a fig orchard arises from the fact that the young trees are tender and easily injured by the cold. Figs start very early in the season, and the frequently occurring spring frosts often catch them in quite vigorous growth. This does no great harm to old trees; though the young leaves are killed, they soon push out again, and as the principal crop of fruit is borne on the new wood the crop is not much injured. With young trees, however, it is different, as the tissues of the trunk are softer. Fine, thrifty trees of one or two years’ growth are killed to the ground by a slight freeze after their spring growth has started. They may start again from the root, but their vitality is injured and they do not seem to fully recover. Such trees at 3 or 4 years old are often no larger than after the first summer’s growth. Young trees also suffer much more severely than old ones from extreme cold in winter, even when entirely dormant. It would appear that the shelter afforded by buildings and yard fences may sufficiently protect young trees from damage, when in an open space they would be severely injured. Then, if from a dozen cuttings stuck down in such out-of-the-way places only two or three grow, they are seen and remembered, while the failures are forgotten, whereas an orchard row showing a stand of only one-fourth is very unsatisfactory. The dooryard tree usually gets the benefit of ashes and house-slops, and perhaps the wash from the barnyard. These sources of fertility are all beneficial, for the fig is a gross feeder. Its roots are never broken by the plow, which is another great advantage, for the fig has a shallow rooting habit and does not thrive when its feeding roots are disturbed.

In the light soils of the South it is extremely difficult to keep plows and cultivators from running so deep as to do serious injury to fig trees, and the proper cultivation or treatment of a fig orchard is therefore a serious question. Many growers advise against plowing after the first year, but the tree will not thrive if choked with grass and weeds. To keep a large orchard clean with a hoe is no small undertaking. Some advocate heavy mulching to keep down weeds, and that is doubtless often advisable, but the hard, clean-swept southern dooryard seems to suit the root habit of the fig better than any system of cultivation yet devised. Another point to be considered is that the fig suffers severely from root knot when planted in the fields where vegetables or cowpeas have been grown, as the nematodes causing this trouble multiply in the roots of all such crops.

In planting a fig orchard care should be taken to select new land that is known to be free from these pests.

The fig has a spreading habit of growth and when old requires considerable room. As the cuttings cost but little, it is well to plant rather closely, with the expectation of thinning out the trees when necessary. With 200 trees to the acre the earlier crops would be double those obtained from a planting of half that number, though doubtless 100 full-grown trees would sufficiently occupy the land. Twelve by 16 is a suitable distance for the trees when young. Removing alternate rows when needed would leave the permanent planting 16 by 24 feet. It is best to plant two or three cuttings at each place, to be sure of a stand. All but the most vigorous can be cut out if more than one starts to grow.

CULTIVATION AND FERTILIZATION.

Unquestionably figs should be thoroughly cultivated during the first season. This is necessary to give them a good start, and as the young trees make their largest growth after midsummer it is important to continue the cultivation late in the season. Unless the soil is quite rich some fertilizer should be used, as the future of the tree depends largely on its vigor during the first season. An excessive use of stable manure or other nitrogenous fertilizer should be avoided, as the tendency of these is to induce a soft, succulent growth too easily injured by the winter. The “piny-woods” soils are deficient in phosphoric acid, and this should be a prominent ingredient of all fertilizers used in regions where these predominate.

It is not advisable to attempt to cultivate any vegetable crop among fig trees, on account of the danger of increasing root knot, and because such crops are likely to interfere with cultivation at the time when it may be most needed.