The Importance of Sunlight | Carlos Rivera's Tips for Fig Growers
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- Опубліковано 8 вер 2024
- I've committed to doing a number of "fig" interviews each Monday night. It's an opportunity to learn from other fig growers by having in depth conversations about their growing experiences. It's a pleasure to share these conversations with you all so that you can benefit from the knowledge shared as well. These videos will be published over the coming Mondays throughout the winter. I hope you all enjoy them!
First up is my friend Carlos Rivera. Carlos is a fig grower who I deeply respect. He is a highly passionate individual with a magnetic personality for figs. Like myself he is growing fig trees in the Northeast and is located in Roselle, New Jersey. He grows fig trees mainly in containers and this season his container Black Madeira (a notoriously late variety) produced main crop on August 9th without any greenhouse head start. That is truly amazing. For instance, in the past the earliest I could get my Black Madeira to ripen was Sept 1st and that was with the use of a greenhouse. I wanted to dig further with Carlos to go through all of the steps that he takes during his growing season. We talk about fertilizer, sunlight, hand watering, pinching, his process for getting them out of his garage in the spring and MORE.
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Nice interview with Carlos.
He is devoted to his FIGS.
Is funny Been interview by a famous guy like Ross. But I think I did okay. Good luck everybody. Just Remember if I could Do it anybody could Do it. 🙏
You did well Carlos. Enjoyed listening to the two of you. You are for real. Willing to water by hand, attentive to the Figs. That's why you get good results. Thank you.
What does he do when a frost is coming? Move back inside? Or cover. 2) Does he move out each tree from the garage all together or individually when each is ready? Bud growth with leaves popping out. 3) Finally, why not cover the pots with a little shade cloth, or is the heat stimulating the roots or root tip pruning like air pruning a bag, cloth, or material pot?
It’s amazing how Carlos’s feeding is so simple but yet he’s getting incredible crops opposite of many other growers who feed all types of fertilizers.
You'll see as I publish more interviews how everyone has a different feeding regimen. I'm sure there's something optimal, but as I've said the last few years, just stick to something well balanced and be consistent. There are so many other factors of much more importance in my eye. Pruning, sunlight, heat and water for example. Fertilizer is at the bottom of the barrel until I can be proved otherwise.
I don't think you technically "need" to fertilize, it just helps. No one's fertilising all the trees out in the wild and they do just fine lol.
@@AyZeD in the wild they get all the nutrients from the earth, in the pots they don’t get the nutrients so you have to add them, try growing in pots without fertilizer and see what happens.
@@thegooch7206 I was referring to in ground trees, you obviously need to fertilize pots.
@@AyZeD ok, yeah my in ground trees get to fertilizer so you’re correct but they are talking about potted trees which are the majority on both their yards as well as many of us.
Outstanding interview Ross with our fig king 👑 Carlos!! So informative thank you both for sharing all depth information 🙏
Ross the fig boss and Carlos the fig king of NJ.... great interview
Great interview. Carlos and Alex have some awesome videos showing amazing results. Thank you Ross for all of your work and time and willingness to give to the community the way you have over the years. Great stuff!
i think the way he wakes them up so early is key. i have tried a few different methods of waking my trees up. its really the foundation to the season. of course the other things Carlos says are important. be consistent with the care of your trees.
Ross you nailed it. you dont have that full sun. those trees are blocking a lot of light. i really enjoyed this type of content. i dont bother watching most of the other videos. its the same old thing.
why not both? light and heat working together.
Two great guys talking about figs. Keep up the great work Ross and Carlos.
Great interview. I love how you picked Carls's mind.
I've just started growing figs myself in Nj. I appreciate all the extra knowledge. I'll take all the help I can get. Thanks
The 2 best fig growers
Carlos my fellow Jersey boy!!! Ahhh I miss both of you guys even more now.. I say you all need to visit me here in Texas lol, just a quick 1700+ mile trip 👍🏼👍🏼 Easy peezy right?? 😉 Great interview guys, I loved it!
Great to hear from you Jamie. ❤️
Thanks so much!! Great input and interview!! 😊
Great video, thanks for the info from you both
Thank you for the information
That concrete environment must be as hot and bright as Baghdad. I've seen other growers in 6b, who have their pots on full exposure basketball courts and driveways get great results. I came across Carlos's watering video last season, and thought I would give his methods a go this season. However, mimicking those growing conditions isn't easy.
Great video, thanks guys for all the information
A few observations. Carlos' location's last frost based on historic weather is late March/very early April, not May. That's a huge difference. I also think you need to include GDD in your analysis to make the comparison easily quantifiable. Carlos' location has a GDD of 4060 (April1 - Oct 31, base 50F), yours in Philly is 3340. That's 22% higher than in your location. This is enough difference to make late-ripening figs to actually ripen. That's all there is to it. Sure, sunlight is important, so are fertilizing, pinching/pruning, etc, but the number of raw warm days is where the biggest difference is, plain and simple.
It's 3930 in Roselle. My location is 3640. GDD doesn't tell the whole story unfortunately, but I see your point.
Great video Guys!
I've got big trees in my yard back home too that just keep growing, I'm actually thinking about just poisoning all of them, there's like 3 or 4 I'm definitely gonna try poisoning next time I go back and I'll see how that goes, if it's a success I'm thinking I might just wipe most of them out and maybe keep 1 small/medium one that's at the front and the one big one at the back. While I want more sun for my fruit trees I do need the shade for the house.
I’m sure it would be kinda a ordeal but Ross should cut those massive shade trees down
A tree service would do it for about $150 maybe.
Hi Ross, just wondering if Carlos ever root prunes his container figs?
Great video Ross, always enjoy watching your videos and so happy that you did this with Carlos. I started a group on FB and had a chance to have a few chats with Carlos. This guy is by far the most dedicated fig grower I've ever met. He takes pride in his trees, as he should. I should say orchard, it is absolutely insane how many varieties he has packed into his yard and they are all very rare varieties. And more crazy than that is that they ALL FRUIT before my common varieties give a few figs. I'm new and getting better but Carlos is truly the FIG KING OF NJ and all surrounding colder climate areas. His technique is seems so simple while we all go crazy changing fertilizers, adding to our soils, cutting, clipping, and everything under sun to get fruit. I think it all comes down to timing, heat, watering and most of all dedication. He gave me a few tips in the beginning of this season and improved my growing. Keep up the good work with helping with this crazy obsession with the almighty fig!!!! Ross, look up our page on FB "north jersey fig growers" would love to have you join up with your knowledge. We'll make you an honorary member. Between you, Carlos and a few other guys who know their stuff, we'll all have diabetes in no time !! 🤣👍
Thanks mike. Things like that gives me more energy and keep Rolling for the next season. Like I said I just having a great time. I’m Blessed to get to Ripping all this Beautiful fruit. At the end of the season is not how many varieties you have. End Getting the fruit To Ripping in this short season here in the northeast. End the next Growing season is gonna Get better. Always be positive in life Don’t matter if the sunshines or not. I know Ross for years. Great guy. Better if you meet him in person. End Remember life is better when you Grow figs. Is a Great therapy. End for those new growers out there. Start growing end enjoy life is to short. Have fun. 👏👏👏
Hey man.. figs are one of the fruits recommended for diabetics. I'm glad you enjoyed the interview. There's more to come.
When I lived on the Sabine River in NW Louisiana the squirrels would steal the Celeste figs while GREEN, and they didn`t care if you were standing there with a BB gun shooting them! It seemed like MILLIONS of squirrels invaded to destroy every fig! We had a huge tree but just gave up. I did take cuttings and put trees in a better place but had to move before they produced.
Increased heat = increased chemical reactions. Basic chemistry. So it’s this but ALSO the light. How do I know this? I live in Phoenix. Even here, if a fig tree is shaded they don’t produce fruit well.
Thank you for all the info. G_d bless you. What is pinching the tree?
Removing the growth tips in the summer. I have a huge number of videos on the topic. Just do a search on UA-cam. Ross raddi pinching.
When does he transplant these potted figs that are stored in the garage?
How much sun light should you give your container plants once you bring them inside?
Don't bring them inside unless they're dormant.
You can read about winterization here: www.figboss.com/post/winterizing-container-fig-trees-where-to-store-them-how-to-avoid-season-ending-setbacks - I cover everything.
@@RossRaddi Thanks
Ross with how much you like figs, cut those shade trees down man!