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A tradition to welcome winter: Staten Island Italian cultural foundation ‘tucks in’ fig trees
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — For the Ficus trees among us, it’s time to go to sleep. So goes the “Burial of the Fig” ritual, an event happening virtually from Casa Belvedere’s Facebook page on Thursday, Dec. 9 at 2 p.m.
The Grymes Hill Italian cultural foundation will play host to a ceremony dubbed as bending or “tucking in the trees” led by fig experts like Mary Menniti of TheItalianGardenProject.com and horticulturalist Carmen DeVito of GardenCult.com.
“They’re doing it two ways — they’re wrapping and they’re burying,” advised Joyce Venezia Suss, Casa’s Director of Special Projects.
In an illustrated essay on the subject, Menniti notes, “If you live in the Northeast where we’ve had several very cold days and nights, don’t panic if you haven’t yet buried or covered your fig tree. It generally takes sustained freezing temperatures and icy winds to do permanent damage.”
And so it is necessary at this point to tuck in the plant for a long winter’s sleep. In Menniti’s documentation, the root ball of the tree should be loosened from the ground with some larger roots left intact. The tree can be covered in plywood or fabric, then further topped with soil.
Yes, it’s an effort to bury it in a trench but Menniti says, “The taste of that first fig next summer will make all the work worthwhile.”
A similar “tucking in” goes for potted fig trees as well.
Says Ficus farmer Peter Cundari of Eltingville, “Fig trees are more hardy than one realizes. I don’t panic anymore about getting them all in ASAP.”
Now in early December, he wraps them in cloth and plastic and puts them down for a nap in his garage.
He explained, “I’m the boss, not them. I learned what they need and when they need it. Some want shelter fast like a crying baby. Then you have the macho varieties — they need more time to harden off. They need more cold weather to go into dormancy.”
Indeed, a little chill is a happy thing for the hardier fig plants.
Cundari maintains, “The cold is good for them — even a frost or two. It’s like getting hit with a good left hook by Rocky Marciano. The, they go into a coma. And then I say, ‘Bless you, figs. I’ll see you in the spring!”
Pamela Silvestri is Advance Food Editor. She can be reached at silvestri@siadvance.com.
Check out my interview with an iconic garden writer and learn how garden professionals have adapted their work in the age of Covid 19
On the QT – March-June 2021
As Featured on NBCNews.com – How to Choose the Best Pots for Indoor Plants in 2021
Experts explain how to choose an indoor pot to keep your plants healthy.
By Zoe Malin, Shop TODAY
When buying a planter, there’s more to consider than just how it looks. The type of pot you use for your indoor plants can determine how healthy — or unhealthy — they are, according to EJ Kaga, CEO of HomeGrown Garden, an online retailer that sells heirloom seeds and gardening kits. The material a pot is made from, how large it is and its drainage features all impact the plant and its health. And you also need to keep the type of plant you’re potting in mind, as different plants require different growing environments.
“Finding the ideal type of planter will depend on what you are growing, since this will affect how warm the pot is, and how well it drains water,” Kaga said. Once you find the right type of pot for your indoor plant, you can experiment with “colors and shapes that harmonize with the foliage colors and texture of the plant,” added Carmen DeVito, founder of Garden Cult, a garden and landscape design company.
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