Advice from the Help Desk of the
UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County
 
Client's Request: I need some help with pruning, grafting, and transplanting young fruit trees. I'm especially interested in growing Brown Turkey Figs.

MGCC's Help Desk Response: Thank you for contacting the UC Master Gardener Program Help desk with your questions about pruning, grafting, and transplanting young fruit trees. Some of your questions were answered on the phone and others required some “digging”.

Before pruning any fruit tree, it is important to know its bearing habits, and ultimately what shape or size you would like the tree to be when it reaches maturity. You mentioned that you would like to know how and when to prune the Brown Turkey fig that you bought and planted in a pot last year. You also mentioned that you wanted to know how and when to graft a fig branch (or scion) from your son's tree onto yours.

It is important to know that fig trees bear on first year wood. Pruning your tree in late fall after the main crop will allow the tree to recover and generate new wood for the next year's crop, or crops. Brown Turkey figs produce both an early and a late crop. The first crop or “breba” matures in early to midsummer, and the second, or main crop, matures in late summer to early fall. If you'd like both an early and a late crop, pruning should be done after the second crop is harvested. Sometimes severe pruning is needed to reduce a tree's size, or to encourage the tree to put its energy into the main crop. In this case, the breba crop will be severely reduced or eliminated. Pruning this way might also make new growth susceptible to cold injury. For your young tree, pruning for aesthetics will be your main concern, but as a general rule always prune any dead, diseased, dying or crossing branches as you find them.

Grafting a different fig cultivar onto your tree, involves taking scion wood from a healthy tree this winter, and preserving it in a bag with moist peat moss until spring when the grating should be done. Here is a link with detailed instructions about one grafting method you might try.
https://www.gardenguides.com/125489-graft-fig-tree.html

You might also consider getting hands on experience at the Golden Gate Chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers Scion exchange on January 20^th in Berkeley. Here you may take a grafting workshop, as well as finding hundreds of varieties of budwood for grafting and cuttings to root. Please see the following website for more information about the event, as well as its location. http://www.crfg.org/chapters/golden_gate/scionex.htm. (Editor's note: Many years ago, I attended the CRFG's Scion Exchange and brought home scions of 22 different types of figs. I planted them all directly 1 each in gallon containers. They all survived, much to my surprise, since I'm not fond of figs. Fig Newton cookies yes. They eventually all were donated to dia to a much better fate than my garden.)

You also mentioned that you have a two-foot-tall volunteer fig tree in your yard that you'd like to transplant. The best time to dig up and transplant a fig is now during its winter dormancy period. You will need to measure the trunk and calculate that for every inch of trunk diameter, you will need to allow for ten inches of root ball diameter when digging. So, if your tree is 1 inch in diameter you'll have to allow for an almost 1 foot diameter of root ball. You should also dig the root ball at least 1” beyond the canopy of the tree to minimize damage of any lateral roots.

Other important facts when transplanting your fig tree include: planting it in full sun, digging the new hole no deeper than the root ball, using existing soil when back filling the hole, and avoiding planting in areas that collect water, in order to mitigate the possibility of “wet feet”, which might make the tree more susceptible to root rot. Use the following link for a comprehensive guide to fruit tree planting and care. http://homeorchard.ucdavis.edu/8048.pdf

For more all-inclusive information on how to prune, including shaping, types of pruning cuts, and much more, see the following link. http://homeorchard.ucdavis.edu/8057.pdf

This is a lot of information to take in, but I hope that you are successful in your home gardening pursuits, especially for your fig trees.

Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County (JJM)

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Note: The  UC Master Gardeners Program of Contra Costa's Help Desk is available year-round to answer your gardening questions.  Except for a few holidays, we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 75 Santa Barbara Road, 2d Floor, Pleasant Hill, CA  94523, although we will be moving sometime soon. We will notify you if/when that occurs. We can also be reached via telephone:  (925)646-6586, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/  MGCC Blogs can be found at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Blog  (http://ucanr.edu/blogs/CCMGBlog/)

 

Advice for the Home Gardener from the Help Desk of the
UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County

Client's Request:  I went on Tuesday evening to a very good presentation at the Lafayette Library by Master Gardeners. I had a question that the presenters could not answer and their advice was to ask it directly to the Help Desk -- so, here it is....
I have planted a new garden with native plants and have not added any amendment to support the plants' growth. I read online that mycorrhizal fungi can be added after the plant has been set in the ground and it will enable healthier root and plan growth.  Is that correct?

Help Desk Response:  Thank you for contacting the UC Master Gardener program regarding mycorrhizal fungi and your native garden. We know that plants and mycorrhizal fungi live in a symbiotic relationship, very beneficial to both species. The fungi colonize the plant roots, helping with uptake of water and minerals. It is well known that plants in healthy soils with good mycorrhizal colonization are much healthier. You can promote this by appropriate irrigation, minimizing soil disturbance by not tilling, and limiting fertilizer, especially phosphorus. Also, using a surface mulch will help.

There have been many studies on the effects of mycorrhizae on growing plants, which show definite benefits, but it is not clear that adding them to an existing landscape is helpful. There are many different species of mycorrhizae, and it seems that they need to be adapted to the particular environment or plant species, and if you add 'foreign' ones, those native fungi already present may defend their territory and your garden will receive little or no benefit. Also, one study that I know of looked at viability of commercially available mycorrhizae inoculants and found that some did not have any live ones! That being said, if you still want to try this, a reputable and appropriate source should be used.

If your garden was prepared appropriately, and the plants are healthy and thriving, and you are using mulch, it should be fine without adding the mycorrhizae. In addition, I could not find any recommendation to add mycorrhizae for this situation on the California Native Plant Society website:   http://www.cnps.org/cnps/grownative/getstarted/starting_a_garden.php

I hope this has been helpful and that your garden will thrive. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact us again.

Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County (SMW)

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Note: The  UC Master Gardeners Program of Contra Costa's Help Desk is available year-round to answer your gardening questions.  Except for a few holidays, we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 75 Santa Barbara Road, 2d Floor, Pleasant Hill, CA  94523. We can also be reached via telephone:  (925)646-6586, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/ MGCC Blogs can be found at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Blog  (http://ucanr.edu/blogs/CCMGBlog/)

For many years, I have been sowing seeds in the ground, but in the last four years, I have been moving to indoor propagation of vegetables and flowers under controlled heat and lighting conditions.   Typically, I sow seeds in an open or multi-cell planting tray using a soil mix of compost, peat moss, perlite, and vermiculite.  I have also used Rockwool cubes with success, but I prefer a light soil mix.

I am always looking for new information that will help improve my propagating techniques.  A few months ago, while googling seed propagation, I came across an article by Stephen Scott of Terroir Seeds, about seed orientation.  Scott believes that pointing the seed in the right direction (meaning with the root in the down direction) when planting will improve germination rates and vigor of the plant. 

As a plant begins to grow, an embryonic root emerges from the seed, termed the radicle or primary root.  This allows the seedling to become anchored in the ground and begin absorbing water and nutrients.  No matter how a seed is planted, the root will orient itself towards the pull of gravity in the downward direction.  This is known as geotropism.  According to Scott's article, by planting our seeds with the radicle pointed downward the root would not have to use additional energy changing directions, thereby increasing germination rates and vigor in the plants.  This seemed so logical and, as a vegetable and flower seed propagator, I was delighted with this new knowledge.  But, does planting orientation of the seed really make any difference in germination rates and vigor? 

Before painstakingly planting my seeds with the radicle pointing down, I decided to research this theory a little more.  One of the first web “hits” to come up was a repeat of the same article posted on the Monterey Bay Master Gardener Blog.  I also found a similar article written by Master Gardener and Environmental Scientist, Diana K. Williams at SFGate.  However, I wasn't able to find any UC Davis studies on the subject.  Interestingly enough, the few university-based studies I did locate either did not support this idea, or directly contradicted it, such as studies with cucurbits (squash, pumpkins, watermelons, and cucumbers) that showed higher germination and vigor rates when the radicle is planted in the upward direction.  While this is not a widely studied subject, most folks who have studied the subject make it clear seed orientation does not affect germination or vigor.

Although a little let down that the seed orientation theory came to naught, I nonetheless enjoyed my on-line sleuthing, and for now at least, I'll continue to plant my seeds without worrying about orientation.