I need some help/advice. The only thing i have ever planted are vegetable plants. last spring a co-work gave me a fig tree cutting. Tt was about 6 inches high and had no leaves on it. i repotted it into a five gallon container and gave it a shot of MG fertilizer for tomatoes as that is the only fertilizer I had. It gree very well and i got some very small figs on it but that ws it.My friend told me to expect that and that i would get figs next year. He told me wait until the leaves fell off (I live in upstate New York and my first frost date is around Sept 15th. He said to put the container in my garage away from light which i did and to water it about once a month which i did. This spring i put the container out and gave it the same fertilizer. I am in zone 6b and my last frost date is May 15th. At first nothing seemed to happen. he advised me to check all the branches and to cut a little off the top of each one. if the wood was brown to keep cutting until i reached green which i did and all of a sudden the thing took off. It got so big that I decideed to put it into a 10 gallon container. before long the tree was filled with green figs. in all there are now about 2 and a half dozen very large figs on the plant. I checkeda few website and determined that the figs i had were called Conadria because of their light green color. I also noticed that the figs were very hard and this was now into August. I spoke with someone from Willis Oorchard who told me that the figs should ripen before my last frost date. I also found out that they grow bst in zone 8 and above. two weeks ago I noticed two of the figs were turning a purple color. that week were were hit with heavy rains and when it stopped two of the figs were nice and soft so I picked them and they were very sweet however the rest ofthe figs are still hard and some are starting to turn purple. Is there a chance that the figs will ripen before i get my first frost?? what type of fertilizer should I be using and how much and how often. I know that when my tomaotes do not ripen in time i put them in a brown paper bag in a dark closet and they will turn red. Will the ame thing happen with figs?? I forgot to mention that i plantedthe tree in MG potting soil for containers. I will be heading up to Canada tomorrow morning so if canyone can give me advice before then it would be appreciated. Thanks

Sal, I truly love figs. My wife thinks I'm crazy because I am always reading the forums and other links about figs. I want to cover my pool next year and place more figs on my deck but the wife says no. So, I'm having to tend and care for others in pots and in the ground. Girlbug2, I'm no potting fig expert but thanks for the compliment....I just learned from experience and advise from others on this forum. I do make my own soil mixture depending on the type of pot I use. I use 3 types, Superpots (1.5, 3 & 5 gallon size), normal 3 & 5 gallon plastic pots, and 20 and 30 gallon tubs. I have a fast draining soil mixture but I can not use it in my superpots. Here down South we have a bag of soil conditioner call Nature's Helper. It's also called clay buster. It's mostly pine bark fines about the size of a dime. I use this stuff with Lou's soil mixture. Lou's mix has sand but I substitue turface for the sand and it works great. And I don't have sheep's manure, I use horse manure or cow manure. I'm trying to get my friend who works for a local nursery to raise some rabbits and sell me the manure. So far he's thinking about it! For my super pots, I just use half MG half BX Pro mix. MG hold more moisture and keeps me from watering every 3 days. The superpots allow more air to the roots so the 2 balance out well. I also keep an eye on my figs and test the soil with a pH tester and moisture meter. If small leaves start dropping or leaves start turning yellow, your tree is talking to you and you have to find out what's happening. like I said, I've learned from experience and like a doctor start giving the tree a check up. And keep your trees on a fertilizer schedule. Figs in my area start getting ripe around July and August. I have several MVS Black fig trees and look forward to making plenty of jam this year. :) Dennis

I had to load "Ad Block" and "Script Block" on Fire Fox just to keep this site viewable. It is a shame when such a great site would rather sell out to commercials and harass its real supporters. I have joined Jon's site and hope to see all the wonderful folks from here over there too. I will still visit here but will shift my loyalties to the "Encanto Forum". Herman you should have your web site back up, you have just as much right to it as they do to their site, you are not competing with GW or its advertisers. Just this incident should have generated enough publicity to get you started and hopefully by word of mouth and email create some business for you. Don't give up! Woody.

Hello, I am scheduled to visit Ivan in a couple of weeks. From what I understand, his system is not geothermal in the typical sense. He has pipes laid about 3 feet under the soil about 1 foot apart and pumps warm air through them during the day time and then extracts the heat at night - more details when I have a chance to see the system. Ingevald