Today, I went to a new guy, a farmer from Greece. He showed me how they grow new trees back in the old country without any fuss. I'd never seen anything like this before, so I took pictures for all of you fig lovin' folks.

One of several healthy fig trees in this guy's yard, with large yields of sweet figs. This Greek farmer retired to Florida, and he gets things to grow very well in our sandy, poor soils.

In Greece, the farmers cut open the side of a can and tuck it securely around a branch and fill the can with dirt. Sometimes, they use a pot. Not sure how he did that. Must go back and learn more from him.

The branch gets full size roots in thesoil-filled can over the following months. This guy waits almost a year, and has the roots bulging from the tin or plastic can before it is ready to plant.

Eventually, the farmer cuts the big branch off just below the pot and then he simply plants it as a fully mature, large, fully rooted fruit bearing tree. No fancy soils, no tiny cuttings in jars, no perlite, no rotting tender tiny roots, no fungus.

Now, THIS is amazing! Hooray for the Greek farmers!

I am a huge fan of air layering! And Greeks. Love those dolmadas made with the leaves of my vines!

My best friend is a Greek bouzuki (sp?) player up in Boston. No figs up there, but his uncle down here had a fig tree (now mine)and the figs are good on it. In a different thread, I talked about that fig tree.

There is a large Greek community here, centered around those sponge-diving guys down in Tarpon Springs. I now have ten fig trees of 6 different varieties, all compliments of those kind hearted Greek customers of mine. You Greeks rock. Your figs rock even more!

Nice looking fig tree your dad has there! Perfect leaves, nice general shape. Does he get plenty of good figs? Does he fertilize/mulch? And yes, I see what he did there. He knows his stuff. Yes he does.

noss

no fert or mulch on the fig. it produces good sized crops, but the birds and squirrels get a chunk of the figs. my mom eats a few now and then, and my aunt a few houses down gets some, and he dries and freezes the extras (mainly for a few chinese soups).

noss

The old Greek guy would cut two long slices thru the bark on the bottom of the place he wanted to put into the pots. It encourages roots. Others do nothing, and then others remove a ring all the way around the branch before wrapping it.

When my trees get bigger, I'll play with this a bit. And if you try it, please stay in touch and post pics!