The fig will grow in almost any location, but it attains its highest
development on a rich, moist, but well-drained soil, that contains
abundant humus.
A plentiful supply of lime, phosphoric acid, and potash is also needed,
and if not contained in the soil must be supplied by fertilization. The
best conditions for fig growth are found in the bottoms and hammocks
rather than in the sandy uplands, though many fine specimens can be
found in either location. In planting for home use it is advisable to
plant the trees near the house and about the farm buildings, for they
always thrive in such locations, while many failures have been made in
attempting to establish them under orchard conditions, especially in the
light soils of the “piney woods” region. It is not easy to account for
these failures, since the old dooryard trees are so universally healthy
and thrifty, though growing without care or attention. Several causes
can be cited that may contribute to the result, but all seem
insufficient to account fully for the facts observed. There must be some
undetected factor that contributes to the almost universal superiority
of dooryard over orchard-grown fig trees in the Gulf States.
One of the most obvious difficulties in establishing a fig orchard
arises from the fact that the young trees are tender and easily injured
by the cold. Figs start very early in the season, and the frequently
occurring spring frosts often catch them in quite vigorous growth. This
does no great harm to old trees; though the young leaves are killed,
they soon push out again, and as the principal crop of fruit is borne on
the new wood the crop is not much injured. With young trees, however, it
is different, as the tissues of the trunk are softer. Fine, thrifty
trees of one or two years’ growth are killed to the ground by a slight
freeze after their spring growth has started. They may start again from
the root, but their vitality is injured and they do not seem to fully
recover. Such trees at 3 or 4 years old are often no larger than after
the first summer’s growth. Young trees also suffer much more severely
than old ones from extreme cold in winter, even when entirely dormant.
It would appear that the shelter afforded by buildings and yard fences
may sufficiently protect young trees from damage, when in an open space
they would be severely injured. Then, if from a dozen cuttings stuck
down in such out-of-the-way places only two or three grow, they are seen
and remembered, while the failures are forgotten, whereas an orchard row
showing a stand of only one-fourth is very unsatisfactory. The dooryard
tree usually gets the benefit of ashes and house-slops, and perhaps the
wash from the barnyard. These sources of fertility are all beneficial,
for the fig is a gross feeder. Its roots are never broken by the plow,
which is another great advantage, for the fig has a shallow rooting
habit and does not thrive when its feeding roots are disturbed.
In the light soils of the South it is extremely difficult to keep plows
and cultivators from running so deep as to do serious injury to fig
trees, and the proper cultivation or treatment of a fig orchard is
therefore a serious question. Many growers advise against plowing after
the first year, but the tree will not thrive if choked with grass and
weeds. To keep a large orchard clean with a hoe is no small undertaking.
Some advocate heavy mulching to keep down weeds, and that is doubtless
often advisable, but the hard, clean-swept southern dooryard seems to
suit the root habit of the fig better than any system of cultivation yet
devised. Another point to be considered is that the fig suffers severely
from root knot when planted in the fields where vegetables or cowpeas
have been grown, as the nematodes causing this trouble multiply in the
roots of all such crops.
In planting a fig orchard care should be taken to select new land that
is known to be free from these pests.
The fig has a spreading habit of growth and when old requires
considerable room. As the cuttings cost but little, it is well to plant
rather closely, with the expectation of thinning out the trees when
necessary. With 200 trees to the acre the earlier crops would be double
those obtained from a planting of half that number, though doubtless 100
full-grown trees would sufficiently occupy the land. Twelve by 16 is a
suitable distance for the trees when young. Removing alternate rows when
needed would leave the permanent planting 16 by 24 feet. It is best to
plant two or three cuttings at each place, to be sure of a stand. All
but the most vigorous can be cut out if more than one starts to grow.