Topic: How are your figs?

[artichoke]

About growing figs against walls: mine are both in sunny corners against walls, but my sister-in-law's father was a fruit farmer in Kent, and I remember him showing me his fig field perhaps 40 years ago. He was growing figs like his apples, smallish trees well spaced out in an open field, not a wall in sight. As far as I remember, he didn't get a good commercial crop every single year, but in a good warm year they were well worth their space.

[Silverleaf]

About growing figs against walls: mine are both in sunny corners against walls, but my sister-in-law's father was a fruit farmer in Kent, and I remember him showing me his fig field perhaps 40 years ago. He was growing figs like his apples, smallish trees well spaced out in an open field, not a wall in sight. As far as I remember, he didn't get a good commercial crop every single year, but in a good warm year they were well worth their space.

That's good to know, thanks! I'm much further north (Derbyshire) but it sounds like it's worth me having a go. There's only the two of us to eat them anyway, well four if you count the dog and the rabbit...

[Jayb]

Due to health reasons I grow all my own fruit and vegies so have as much variety as possible. Have a look at my web site. http://path.earthgarden.com.au/forum/viewthread.php?forum_id=7&thread_id=1579&pid=101931#post_101931

Thank you for sharing Jimc's Garden, I've no where read it all yet, but so interesting, lots of good stuff to learn about. Would just love to be able to grow some of the things you do 

[saddad]

I have a brown turkey in a restricted bottomless tub, against a south wall here in Derby... had a great but early crop in late July and August but still picking a few from the "second crop" which we don't usually get... 

[saddad]

Four more this week... 

[Vinlander]

Standard advice for planting figs is to restrict the roots - this is generally true for nearly all fruit trees except those grafted onto a dwarfing rootstock - whose reduced vigour does the root restriction for you.

If a tree is too comfortable it seems to put off reproduction - as simple growth is going so well.

There is a 20m+ tall tree in Charterhouse Square that didn't produce a single fig in the 10 years I worked there - the fact that it was a few feet from a plague pit might have had a lot to do with it.

There no recommended dwarfing rootstocks for figs even though bijou varieties of fig are available - it's just that I've never heard of anyone using them as a rootstock - however British figs aren't a commercial crop so who knows?

A young fig tree can do well initially - especially if the soil is hard or heavy - I have high hopes of many productive years from figs planted in heavy London clay (especially as I chose an area that hasn't been dug for 30 years).

However root restriction (or root pruning) is more reliable. Starving doesn't work. You need to make it well-fed but nervous...

In London and the South a good "indian summer" can mean a few figs per week right into October. It's pretty unpredictable, but the successful figs will be visibly swelling a week or more before they ripen - so if you are removing "no-hopers" don't dump the big ones until the weather turns cold. If you put a plastic bag over the most likely ones you can speed them up quite a bit - but always have a hole at the lowest point or condensation can gather and rot them.

If you need to prune heavily then don't take a third all over - you will cut off all the embryos - better to take out whole branches to let in light and air. If all the branches are too long try to find a point that has as much branching as possible and shorten to above that.

Brown Turkey is streets ahead of the rest for cropping outdoors, and is only beaten on flavour by figs that would produce almost nothing without glass - though White Marseilles can give you a few really lovely fruit in a good year.

Cheers.