Topic: Figs

[tricia]

I have a 4 year old fig tree in a 40 x 40 cm tub against a south facing wall. Last year quite a few incipient figs formed at the end of June and matured nicely only to fall off one by one before ripening. This year figs have again formed and are slightly larger than pea size. I water the tub every other day as the weather has been so dry, but should I be feeding it as well - and if so with what? I gave it a small handful of pelleted general fertilizer in early Spring when I gave my apple and pear trees the same treatment. (They are so loaded with fruit I've been thinning them by hand ).

I'd be grateful for any advice.

Tricia

[johhnyco15]

figs like it dry and bad soil id leave it water sparingly

[Plot 18]

I watered sparingly last year, and all the figs dropped off :(

So this year it is getting a good soak every other day here in the very dry SE corner. At the start of the year I followed Ken Muirs advice and tickled some slow release Osmocote into the soil/compost mix. It has grown very well and is smothered with figs, so I hope to get some to ripen this year.
You sound as if you've done the same thing so *fingers crossed* for both of us....

[ACE]

I think like a lot of plants especially  from the warmer parts of the world the plant/tree has to be kidded into thinking it is dying before it fruits. The circle of life makes them reproduce before they die.

[saddad]

In Devon it won't be the weather.. they grow monstrously large at Antony House (NT)... I'm just waiting the start of a bumper crop here in Derby.. I had a bit of "June drop"  for the first time ever.. but now have about 200 almost ready... not sure what has gone wrong with yours... sorry!

[Vinlander]

The best fig harvest I ever got from a pot was when I left it  on top of a full compost heap (out of the way while I started a new heap).

It grew and fruited very fast - the reason being that it had rooted right through the compost heap and into the soil below where it could find water - unlimited supplies for a plant that originated in much hotter climes.

I pruned it that autumn before releasing the pot from its roots  to get at the well-rotted compost. Some of the roots were thicker than the holes they had escaped from. Nevertheless, the plant survived perfectly well - but next year (without soil contact) it behaved exactly the same as other potted figs - most of the fruit dropped off.

I now regret I omitted to put it on another freshly-filled heap to see if it would repeat its performance, but I'm fairly confident it would.

Basically this is a well known method called root pruning, but made easier because if the pot is big enough to support the (autumn pruned) tree you can just put a spade under it to remove all that year's roots.

I'm theorising that figs only need root restriction to keep them fruiting when they become big enough and old enough to feel secure - maybe they build up a reserve of energy and become 'complacent'. Root pruning also prevents this - but it is a lot of very very hard work on an established tree - but virtually no work on a potted one...

I've been both very busy and very short of time for the three years since I made sense of this behaviour, (by a whole interlocking raft of unavoidable circumstances) - so I haven't been able to test it as a continuous strategy - yet.

But you get one very good year with no ill effects to the plant afterwards (none that weren't going to happen anyway).

Cheers.

PS.  My rich heavy clay is sufficiently restricting to get annual crops from trees planted straight into the (hardest, poorest) soil - good for a decade or so, but they still get to 4m x 3m even with top pruning. When the trees get established enough to stop fruiting it will be easier to just kill them and plant new ones.

PPS. Has anyone tried removing half the biggest, oldest leaves from a potted fig tree before it drops its fruit?