I have a Paradiso. It is in it's second year. All my fig trees died to the ground last winter. I am not sure if it was the cold or if I stopped watering to early. We had a early freeze that hit the trees before they dropped their leaves. So I am not sure what was the real cause. The Paradiso came back stronger than any other tree and has a good crop of figs for it's size. We are in a bad drought here in N.E. Texas but I am keeping the trees watered. If we ever have a normal year I am sure the Paradiso will make a excellent tree. I can not tell you about the taste, maybe later this month.

jstall:

Mine taste great and have a really good size. Guess I'll try the six varieties I have outside as well but at 4500ft elevation this is poor fig country. We were near zero three nights last winter and it killed the towns only 30 year old fig nearly to the ground. I've got Blue Celeste which Herman says is very hardy so I'll try it outdoors for sure.

The Brown Turkey and Celeste I got from Womack's Nursery have frozen to the ground even with massive insulation.

There are at least 3 "paradiso's" out there. One has brunswick type leaves, which dosen't seem to be yours. There are 2 similar ones, one gene in Wash.D.C. type and a very similar one that Georgie says is identical to Gene's. The last one is, according to Georgie one of his most cold hardy figs, and he has a lot of figs. The first one I mentioned, I bought as paradiso but turned out to be brunswick.

ejp3:

Thank you very much for that information. Hopefully mine is the hardy strain. I'll try it outside.

I got mine from the figs-4-fun guy, I think.

Hi, I just up potted my Paradiso I bought it locally here in Massachusetts. I video taped it and put it on YouTube.

Here is a link that might be useful: Paradiso up pot video

tmc2009:

Are you really saying figtrees.net recommended that fertilizer program? I'm going to try to say this as gently as I can but I just can't agree. All three of the fertilizers other than lime are high or very high in P. High P fertilizers are seldom recommended for fruit.

Too much P can tie up other nutrients and throw the whole system out of balance.

And dumping that mix at full strength in one spot is not the right approach. I could see mixing a little in with the perlite and potting soil but never in one spot. About a half cup of the bone meal mixed in with the potting media would be more than enough P.

A fertilizer like 5-10-5 or super phosphate should not be applied at planting unless it's a small amount mixed in and watered heavily. The fig will not root into that mass of fertilizer all in one spot because it is too strong and will burn the roots. All you're doing is leaching the fertilizer out the bottom of the pot. Leach it out or burn the roots are your only choices with that application.

Lime is not normally applied in one spot. It needs to be mixed in with the soil especially if raising the pH is an objective. As a nutrient it is safe in one spot because it won't burn the roots. Lime and bone meal mixed in with the soil is a reasonable approach. Neither will burn the roots.

I'm sorry to be coming on so strongly. But my 40 years as a professional agronomist are kicking in. My apologies please.

With all sincerity, I have to disagree with you. But I do agree with most of what your saying in regards to the leaching. Makes perfect sense.

I have spoken with Joe Morle (Figtrees.net) and have bought several trees from him. He has been doing this for over 30 years. While I agree with your assessment of dumping it all in one place may not be ideal, I can not argue with results.

I have about 40 varieties right now and I used the same method on all of them. Results have been varied, but all in all I have to say that success has been achieved. In hindsight I would have added more lime to the soil and maybe mixed it in like you said with the other fertilizers.

Most of my trees, anywhere between 1 and 3 years had about 12-25 figs which I cut in half depending on the size of said tree. I did not want to tax the tree too much.

I also had another 15 varieties which I tried another method with-self contained watering. Using Osmocote and about 2 cups of lime, I had tremendous growth but next to nothing in terms of fruit. The high nitrogen caused the tree to just shoot up.

With the high phosphorus, the other trees bore fruit but had little growth.

With the Osmocote I like that in terms of long term possibilities of establishing a tree but not short term in getting some fruit.

I would say, when I repotted I did not re-fertilize during the season, only the triple 20 every 3 weeks.

I respect your knowledge and professionalism, but I can't argue with my results.

nypd:

So Joe Morle actually does recommend this method. Wow is all I can say!!! That is the most obviously awful method of fertilization I've ever seen. The amount of fertilizer added in that video is probably about 50-100 times what is needed for the volume of soil added to that pot. And placing it all in one spot is dead wrong. The vast majority won't be used by the plant and can't be used by the plant.

I haven't applied that much P to all my in-ground and potted fruit trees in 7 years. I'm producing about 2,000 lbs fruit per year in a 1700 sq ft greenhouse. And my soil is low in P.

My results are great as well. Look at the first picture that's one year after rooting a cutting and has 21 figs. That plant was the size of a pencil in July 2010. It's been fertilized with a total of about one tablespoon of slow release Osmocote over two years. The second mother plant has 120 figs on a 15 gallon pot fertilized the same way.

Just because Joe's method doesn't kill the plant doesn't mean it has any merit.

I agree with the Osmocote-My plants in self watering containers grew about 2 feet in 12 weeks.

I have to say I didn't see the rest of the video so I don't know how much TMC added to his plant.

I mix them together and add about the size of a jar of baby food. Then I take out the 5-10-5 and put a top dressing of the other 3 in fall.

I won't jump on your thread about the SWC. I'll start another one.

nypd:

I think he potted up from a 9 inch to 12 inch container. For that he made four holes 3-4 inches deep by 1 inch wide and filled them with the mix of lime, super phosphate, bonemeal, and 5-10-5. Then he recommended fertilizing every 20 days with 20-20-20. Then as if that weren't enough top dress in the fall with the four above minus 5-10-5. And I assume that's every year.

What does that add up to, several pounds of mostly high potency fertilizer for a 12 inch pot every year? The only thing I'll credit Joe with is wasting as much fertilizer as possible without killing the plant.

I'm sorry I don't have anything else to add.

But I know several forum members, here and other sites, that swear by both methods.

I also know several others that add just fast acting Miracle-Gro several times a year with success.

I'm not here to defend anyone but I do know that both TMC and Joe have been very successful in what they have done.

But I have success so I can't argue with my eyes.

I totally agree with fruitnut and my experience tell me he is right.
Now,if I owned stock in fertiliser and chemical companies,I would bent a little(maybe),and agree with TMC and Joe Morle!.
Fig tree are the very few fruit trees,that could not be made to need sprays and chemical,and the Chemical co,gave up on trying to destroy the disease resistant cultivars and replace it with cultivars that do not grow without chemicals and poisons.They eliminated just about all resistant cultivars,of other fruits and vegi,in the USA,and promoted cultivars that grow only with chemical help.
They introduced a modern culture in this country in which grower are educated in the idea that cultivars that will grow without chemical never existed in the past,and so applying chemicals to any plant is a must.

No offense taken everyone. I can use all the advice I can get. I've only been growing figs for three years now so I'm just trying what other people have done. I should probably put a disclaimer at the end of the video that says this is one of many opinions on proper fig care your results may vary. Oh, I see that my DuPont stock went up today. Just kidding.

I have to agree with nypd5229 and Joe Morle's high phosphorus producing more fruit. My first year well rooted planted fig trees from raintree yielded a good 150 figs on each tree yet they didnt mature. I used a 50/50 ration of MG cut with superbloom yielding a 1 - 2- 1 ratio. I didnt want to mess with bonemeal as it doesnt breakdown quickly nor superphosphate but I did add lime. I now use a 2 part MG to 1 part superbloom ratio yielding a 7 - 7 - 5 ration which is more balanced. My figs grew in 30 inch containers 1 sucker grew 6 ft in the season. I live in zone 9a so it is a good long season here in Henderson NV. My main job is working for antichrist in the casino biz :-)

I would love to get a few paradiso cuttings, sale, or trade! My main comment though is on amount of superphosphate in JM method(how much?). When fertilizing in 15" pots I give each plant a fistful of granulated lime 3x(beginning, middle, and end of season), a fistful of ironite (trace elements at the beginning of season), and 1tsp/week schultz bloom booster (10-52-10). My figs do very well on this regime. I have to water at least 1 gallon/day (lots of leaching). The reason for the high phosphorus level is to boost the number of blooms, or figs.