So many lush FIGS this year -

[tim]

- from friends in Mallorca (the yellow ones) & our local village (Brown Turkey) that we fell for it yesterday!

I'll do a progress report. Meanwhile, any advice - it will go on a south facing wall with a 'slated' hole - would be appreciated.

[tim]

[calendula]

I have a brown turkey in my greenhouse, now only in its second year - we could compare notes

mine's in a pot to 'contain' it - never let it get dry - keep the soil reasonable barren, they like chalky and well drained, prune in late winter (remove long thin shoots), remove all tiny fruits in late winter - this is thinnning and will help the large fruits get bigger, when you do get fruits keep them for a day before eating as they are much better with that

[saddad]

I have my Brown Turkey outside against a SW wall, in one of those large plastic buckets with rope handles. Drainage holes in bucket set into ground and half filled with brick rubble... it loves it have had about thirty over the last week or two... and it has only been out two years...

[artichoke]

I took cuttings when I moved here 7 years ago and have two thriving trees producing enough for us and other predators (woodlice are amazingly enthusiastic). They are roughly trained  1)  into a warm South and West facing corner of brickwork, and 2) again into a corner against an East facing wooden trellis and South facing wall. 1) does marginally better/earlier than 2), but 2) seems to be extending the season so I'm not complaining.

When I say "roughly", I mean I simply tie in long waving bits and chop off bits that stick out too far or have died over the winter. I am also about to cut off the highest branches so they don't get too tall.  Books make fig pruning sound extraordinarily complicated, but we seem to get more than enough with this hit-or-miss type of control, and the same goes for my first fig, which was roughly trained against a West facing wall, and very productive.

None of them have or had restricted root runs other than the fact that they all happen to have been planted in dry, rubbly soil against walls. I never feed them.

I know that there are perfect and logical methods of growing and training figs, but these work for me.

[cleo]

Mine is sort of around the west facing wall of my greenhouse-I have a wrap around job-it`s a thug,prune hard. Lovely figs though

[tim]

Thanks for all that. Any idea on how old this bush is? It's 1m above the pot.

[calendula]

I would suggest 3 years (going by the figs I have owned in the past)

[tim]

Thanks.

[saddad]

Difficult to age but probably under four... the older wood is grey rather than brown. If kept in small pots they never get really big and with judicious pruning you can keep vitrually all as fruiting wood!

[tim]

So long as you're fit enough to keep them happily moist every day!!

[simhop]

I managed to acquire a Fig tree from work this Spring and planted it in a pot which is sat in a sunny spot by the greenhouse. It has grown quite alot (although not as big as Tims) and is full with figs which unfortunatly will never be big enough to ripen. My problem is that it gets very cold here in the winter and figs aren't very hardy. I can't remember the name of the one I have but I know it is OK down to -5C. We get as low as -20C so leaving it out would be fatal. So what do I do with it - as far as I am aware I can't bring it indoors as it will be too warm. I have a garage which will be between 5-10C but only has a couple of small windows so there isn't much light. It will be too expensive to warm the greenhouse during the winter even just to a couple of degrees.

I think I will opt for the garage but do I need to water it during it's "resting period" - does it need much light during winter?

[saddad]

It doesn't need the light, as it isn't trying to photosynthesise... also needs no water if already moist as it is dormant... stick it in the garage and keep your fingers crossed...
:-\

[Robert_Brenchley]

I wouldn't let the roots dry out totally.

[Barnowl]

I've had a fig on a south facing wall for about 7 years now - started as a single cane stuck in through a hole in the bottom of an upended plastic bucket buried next to the wall. I always followed Artichoke's approach (with a vague aspiration to a fan), but last month got round to reading what I'm meant to do per RHS fruit book..........

http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0103/fig.asp

also

http://www.easyfruit.co.uk/figs/

The book and articles suggest keeping leaving the small fruits to overwinter because the larger ones tend to rot/get frostbitten.

[tim]

All noted.