Olpea, don't get me started on the unanswered mysteries of animal behavior in relation to fruit trees. OK, too late, I've started. My robins, which are ridiculously plentiful on my property, leave everything but blueberries and mulberries alone (maybe you need those as a diversion crop). Of course they would go for cherries if I had them unnetted. Everyone has crows around and only sometimes do they attack fruit but on sites they do everything must be netted. A loose net will do as they won't climb around under a net. At least that's the behavior of our crows. So far. A very sane and intelligent client of mine told me of a very fat woodchuck making a 4' vertical leap from a dead stop to get above one of my baffles. Mystery- was this an olympian woodchuck or do Michael Jordan acrobatics come as standard equipment at the woodchuck factory. When I told this story to someone else they told me of seeing a cotton tail rabbit clearing a 4' fence- that's a little cotton tail, not a jack rabbit. I have sites nearby where the deer go as high as 7' to strip foliage and fruit. At my site they never go above about 5'. My squirrels used to run up trees to get away from me but once I got a shotgun and slaughtered them for a few weeks they avoided trees and scurry in crazy angles through weeds and rocks at the slightest sign of my motion- even from a window. My wife's movement doesn't disturb them. My son's theory for the squirrels is that I eliminated the local gene pool of confident, tree climbing when stressed, squirrels. That's a theory. One thing I know, the behavior of same species wildlife vary a lot.

Great, thanks! Never seen anything like it, and my Portland friends didn't recognize it either!

This is the pertinent portions of a thread from a few years ago that might help: Multiple Plants in One Hole The three-to-a-hole thing is a totally new concept to me. I question if that would work because each of the trees would grow at unequal rates. I have a Fuerte, a Reed and a Haas planted in close proximity (15 feet apart) and clearly the Fuerte is growing much faster than the other two. All three were planted at the same time, but the Fuerte is easily twice as big as the other two. If you put three trees in the same hole, wouldn't one eventually overgrow the other two? ___________________________________________________________________ Three in a hole planting is easy. To insure good drainage first make a 12" to 18" mound that is at least 4 or 5 feet wide. Then dig a hole in it large enough for the three 5 gallon size trees. Throw some slow release fertilizer in the hole. Make sure the trees are a few inches above the soil surface. They may settle a little. And you don`t want them planted too low. Cover the whole mound with a thick coat of mulch and you are set. The trees won`t grow any slower because they are sharing a hole. Its a great space saver. Reed and Pinkerton are Guatemalan and Fuerte is a hybrid. You need a Mexican for better pollination. Bacon would be a good choice. ___________________________________________________________________ For years I`ve done the 3 in a hole planting with all my fruit trees from avocados, persimmons, cherimoyas, asian pears and guavas to peaches, plums, nectarines, apples and apricots. I get good production from all of them. I`ve never had one of the three trees grow faster and take over the hole. It works especially well with stone fruits like peaches. In one hole I have a early bearing peach, a mid season and a late season variety. My avocado trees are still young so I don`t get that many avocados yet. _________________________________________________________________ Three in one or 4 in 1 up to several in one hole is a very good alternative to multigraft trees. I have pears that are not graft compatible so I planted them all in one hole, and they are not complaining. They've been busy supplying me with fruits for two seasons now. But then again, most of my fruits are multi-grafts, some I did the grafting myself. __________________________________________________________________ It is still possible to plant them in one hole if the difference in size is not great. So just find a bigger Granny Smith to match the size of your Pink Pearl. During the dormant season, you can dig out the pink pearl to bare root it. Make sure to prune the top to compensate for the root disturbance. You can prune the pearl to be the same size as that of granny smith. Then plant them back together in the same hole. Deciduous trees that go a period of dormancy are okay for this. I have even dug bigger trees, bare-rooted them and relocated them to the proper place. When the winter temperature is mild, I dump a lot of ice around the plant everyday for one week before I dig them out and bare-root them. You can not do this with Avocados and most other evergreen fruit trees like citruses. ___________________________________________________________________ ??? You're mentioning 5 gal plants.... I was under the, perhaps misguided, impression that to do this 'multiples in one hole' technique you had to use bare root trees. ???? ___________________________________________________________________ You don`t see bare root avocado plants. For some reason only "stone" fruits like peaches, plums and apricots are available bare root. I`ve only seen avocado plants in 5 or 15 gallon containers. The trunks aren`t as close as they would be if they were bare root, but it hasn`t made a difference in my trees. ___________________________________________________________________ I think the reason you don't see bare-root Avocados and Citrus is because they're evergreen trees. You can't really bare-root an evergreen commercially. __________________________________________________________________ ..so can i place all three 5gal buckets(with the bottoms cut out) in the hole?? will that work??? only reason ide like to do that is i once heard that the buckets serve as a guide for the roots to shoot more downward rather than outward.. that way the roots dont get all crazy and lift my back wall up in the future... but if you just drop all 3 in the hole bare root style so be it..whatevers best for the tree's is best for me. i love hass and reed never tasted bacon though .. anymore tasty trios that will work great together??.. ___________________________________________________________________ Â

Hi Cayla, That's good the nurseryman pruned it back because that will make it branch out rather than stay one little trunk, usually. Figs don't read the books. :) I was having trouble with several of my little potted trees and I cut them halfway back at the start of the season and they then decided to put out more bushiness and have set figs for the first time. They're 3 years old. Could be they would have done so anyway, but they look a lot fuller now and there are figlets on them. Yes, growing the little tree to give it a good foundation would be my top priority. Meanwhile--Walk, or drive around your area and look for fig trees. What zone are you in?/where do you live? It might make a difference where you live because if you live in a cold area, then you might not see trees until their owners bring them out when it's warm enough, or dig up/unwrap their trees. It's fun to search out fig trees. I wish you the best with your little tree. Happy figging, noss