Fertilizing Figs

[Gareth]

hi guys,

Got my fig potted up, both of them actually, and now i really want to get some good growth on them.

So, what do figs like fertilizer wise?

i have them in a 100% diatomite mix, and currently ferticlizing them with chicken manure and seaweed fertilizer.

Gareth

[hugh grant]

Figs love dynamic lifter! And lots of it!!!


Hugh

[dave]

Ive always fed my fig with dynamic lifter and sometimes a weak,watered down mix of worm wee,seasol and powerfeed... it seems to like it!

[Graeme]

Figs are like Goldfish - they just don't know when they have had enough to eat
They respond to anything you want to give them and respond well. I have even fertilized my Figs with Orchid Fert and they have responded.
Peletised Chook Poo is great and it wont hurt to add a little (make that a lot) of Blood and Bone as well.

[Jamie]

agreed, figs can be absolutely power fed, using chook poo it can cake up and get sludgey, just remove that as neccessary and replace it. put in plenty of slow release, and feed with a liquid fert. i use whatever is on special or cheap at the time with the liquids, they are all about the same, i have used the standard miracle gro and the tomato one, the tomato one has a higher nitrogen level from what i remember, the only thing i would avoid is a slow release called nitrophoska, it got nasty with one of my figs.

i feed pretty heavily and get pretty good results, my figs that i am growing on are getting fed every five days with a liquid feed like miracle gro, thrive etc.
two to three days after that i use seasol and superthrive, and have the chook poo and a slow release on at all times, i havent used blood and bone yet either but i cant see it hurting!

[dayne]

i only use liquids and if i use anything else i use fert baskets i dont put any solid ferts on soil it breaks down into the soil clogging it up allso what fert u use depends on what growth you want nitrogen grows leaves and lenght but is terrible for close internodes so if you fter ramification use a more balanced fert nitrogen=quick growth but long internodes theres more to it thsan just pile on chook poo work out what you want then go from there

[Gareth]

Well i am using chicken manure (not pelletized the loose bagged stuff) and ill plan on getting some blood and bone.

But im looking to thicken the tree and get some more branch growth for developing the overall shape.

So i want to bulk it up AND achieve some new growth.

So in conjunction with chicken manure and Blodd and Bone, what other fertilizers would people recommend as an all round good slow release and liquid fertilizer, is there an NPK rating i should be looking for, or a sepcific brand of liquid fertilizwer and slow release?

Also, just some confirmation on both the chicken marue and the blood and bone, is the un pelletized chicken manure any good and is it the same as the pelletized stuff? should i be using more of this than i would the pelletized version?

And what exactly does both the chicken marue and blood and bone supply to the plant, as i dont want to overdo one element with another fertilizer if im already supplying it.

Should i be using some dynamic lifter as well?

Gareth

[dayne]

To thicken trunks is usually best achieved in autumn and late summer I at this stage use a hight pk rating right into winter than switch to a higher n rating end of winter into mid summer I don't recomend blood and bone or dynamic lifter an if you do use it put it in a stocking then put this on a bucket of water fill a watering can and use that way it can kill a tree quick and it's terrible for your soil it's better to grow in free draining soil and heavy feet often than to put it in the soil as once it's in you have no control of the feeding this is the best way

[Jamie]

this tree was grown in a heavy dynamic lifter environment, i used at least 3 inches of DL ontop of the soil and was feeding high nitrogen ferts through out, it even had some urea placed on the surface a couple of times, internodes were closest i have seen in a fig ever.

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like i said i am heavy handed on ferts but i have also built my regime up to that aswell over a period of time. Daynes idea is good with the DL in the stocking, you can place that stocking on the soil surface as well and it is a cheap form of fert basket. as long as ya missus doesnt notice her good fishnets on ya bonsai

dayne is right with DL clogging the soil/medium up to so to use a stocking/fert basket is a very good idea.

by the way the fig i put up is just starting to leaf out again now if anyone was interested all my grow on figs receive the same heavy fert regime and they all seem to love it.

jamie

[NathanM]

I haven’t used any dynamic lifter at all, because where I used to live until only a few months ago I didn’t have space to use it without stinking out the whole house
I use miracle grow at 1.5x strength and seasol. My figs are all very healthy and pushing out growth

[Gareth]

hmmmm, seems like evryone has different experiences depending on their area and availability of supplies.

Well considering im using chook manure, should i just be aiming to provide a balanced liquid fert and a slow release?

What NPK rating should i be looking for? or does it not really matter with figs?