High Tunnel Tour - Mid Season Abundance

Edible Acres is a full service permaculture nursery located in the Finger Lakes area of NY state. We grow all layers of perennial food forest systems and provide super hardy, edible, useful, medicinal, easy to propagate, perennial plants for sale locally or for shipping around the country…
Happy growing!

[nmeans]

Figs have major apical dominance so what you can do is pinch the apex buds on any suckers you want to terminate and they will stop growing vertically. I'd suggest selecting 3 or 4 main shoots (main crop figs are on new wood so pick green shoots), then either pinch or prune any other suckers. The new growth is super flexible so you can also pin your main branches down to the ground and form a low cordon or espalier as others have mentioned. If you do that, you'd maintain them like grape vines where you prune back to your scaffold branches each fall and allow only new growth off your scaffolds in the spring.

[RayMirshahi]

I grow a lot of figs in pots (Zone 4 Ontario). I start pinching the apical buds of the branches starting with the tallest branches sometime in July. This way you can shape your tree as well. Since your trees are in high tunnels and you're in a warmer zone, you have a bit more time to ripen your fruit. Depending on the variety, figs take between 3 to 5 months to ripen. Good luck growing. Also you can sell your cuttings.

[Limogi]

Apparently you can really de-leaf the bottom foot or so of the tomato plant since they get most of their sun energy from the top leaves. That also helps with circulating air and preventing mold.

[rochrich]

Your large spider is a "Yellow Garden Spider". As a kid we called them "steel wire spiders" since a good web brace web would feel like one if you walked into it.

[AlmostOffGridGrandma]

Proactively, I would put some red tuck tape on the tunnel holes to stop further damage. Everything is so vibrant and lush. Thanks for sharing your garden tour 🙂

[Gabi-ltmx]

People, don't forget: like, subscribe, comment. That way more people will get to know this wonderful channel.

[arcadiapermaculture]

"But it turns out, that chair there does the job..."

Love it.

[joanneoverstreet]

Interesting video ! Love the “jungle”! 😊🌱💚🌻🐝🐓

[isagt]

Fig tree roots generally are very invasive. Fig trees have a "relatively" shallow and fibrous root system that can grow two times the width of their canopy.They are well-suited to grow in containers or poor soils and although less likely to damage underground utilities or foundations they are Not very good company to other trees or plants.
I can confirm this information because 50 years ago my grandfather bought a piece of property and I remember the only thing living there, very, very well, was a big fig-tree, but to plant other trees the problem was to take out the Big fig-tree, the roots were all over that piece of land. Shallow roots but they will go far to catch everything as water or whatever they need to grow, that's why they do so well in poor soils, they send their roots everywhere.

[beckymay]

Inspirational! And relaxing. Thank you.

[yLeprechaun]

My high tunnel is an absolute jungle; near inpossible to walk without crushing plant parts, cause I can't bring myself to remove anything. I love my jungle! And the tomatoes, my gosh, I been picking red fruit for a month or more. And I need to pick again tomorrow. lOVE my jungle

[SimonIngall]

You could train the figs to the ground next year if you want them to stay lower off the poly tunnel. You also should prune them harder in the winter and use that bud wood to make more figs.

[thehillsidegardener]

I envy you on the rains, we've had none, not a drop, in two months, it's a disaster, so many young trees and bushes have died. And we're not in a desert we're in a temperate climate but it looks like I need to radically rethink what kind of food forest we can have in a climate like that. A real challenge for the permaculture philosophy.

[cantseetheforestforthetree]

Look up Japanese fig training for cold hardy figs. It should be a perfect fit for your context.

[MrTrevims]

Turmeric flowers are beautiful just to look at

[BackyardBerry]

The ol zipper spider! One of my favorite gardening friends in the tomato tunnels. I’ve definitely heard topping figs will help ripen the fruit that’s on, but have no real experience. Great work Sean. Thanks for the update.

[angelad.]

It might not be a bad idea to remove the lower leaves of the tomatoes and cucumbers. Creates some nice air flow and unburdens the plants of their old solar panels that are hard for the plant to maintain without a lot of return since it's lower light down there. Helps prevent late summer disease and the plants can focus on growing and ripening the fruit instead. Come mid Sept. in your area, if you cut the tops off the tomatoes, it will trigger the plants to ripen the fruits that are already there instead of using it on new blooms that won't give you fruit anyway. Way less green tomatoes that way. ☺

[fourdayhomestead]

Nice update. Theres a certain tape you can repair plastic with. Maybe a person has a bit left over on a roll they could gift you. 😊

[funnywolffarm]

I've never considered figs in a tunnel.. BUT they are the easiest to prune and propagate that I know of. Figs are a dream in my context (Central Texas) and will hopefully enjoy a long-lasting pattern with mulberries, almonds, apricots and peaches. Prune to keep quite small (4-5' cube) and, as a bonus, with each 7-12 inch cutting, shave the bottom inch to cambiun and stick in a pot of decent mix (they seem to like some clay) - send to someplace beaten with sun with short winters where they will thrive. My 2 cents. ;)

[danielpastoreplants]

I grow many fig varieties and have always wanted to try to basically grow one in a low espalier. You could establish some low main branches along the middle of the row and then let the new branch grow out from the main trunk..cutting the new growth back every season.
You can search for pictures of japanese fig pruning to find pictures of what I am thinking and trying to explain.
They look good..always like your videos!