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Sorry got my Grannies mixed up .....  :-[

Don`t make the mistake I made by planting one in a greenhouse-they grow and grow!!

Not so much `pruning` needed as major butchery :)

This is my fig tree, grown from a small cutting about six years ago. I asked another plotholder to stand next to it to give an idea of the size.



As I said before, I didn't know that I should have restricted the roots when I planted it, I don't suppose it would have grown quite so big if I had.

There are lots of figs on it, even more than last year

Quote from: cleo on June 23, 2009, 16:34:08
Don`t make the mistake I made by planting one in a greenhouse-they grow and grow!!

Not so much `pruning` needed as major butchery :)

If planted in my walk-in coldframe it would surely survive BUT I'd have little room to grow anything else unless it was sternly pruned and trained. But maybe I'll think about that... hmmmm. So many ways to skin a cat.

That's still a baby Betty... they can reach 20' easily... there are some in the parkland attached to Anthony House on the south coast...  :)

I still have one small plant that has not really grown much in its pot for the last 5 years....still trying to decide where to put it! ::)

Very useful thread! This is our first year with our fig tree and we've put it in a giant pot with some drainage in a suntrap area. Seems happy enough. I'll have refer back to this one in a couple of years when it decides to put on some fruit.  ;D

Quote from: saddad on June 23, 2009, 17:33:34
That's still a baby Betty... they can reach 20' easily... there are some in the parkland attached to Anthony House on the south coast...  :)

Oh dear, I'm going to need a ladder......

It should fruit next year Squashfan.. just keep cutting out the top Betty...and encourage lateral rather than vertical growth...  :-X

Quote from: GrannieAnnie on June 23, 2009, 17:15:36

Quote from: cleo on June 23, 2009, 16:34:08
Don`t make the mistake I made by planting one in a greenhouse-they grow and grow!!

Not so much `pruning` needed as major butchery :)

If planted in my walk-in coldframe it would surely survive BUT I'd have little room to grow anything else unless it was sternly pruned and trained. But maybe I'll think about that... hmmmm. So many ways to skin a cat.

I don't know if this would work where you are (thinking of those winter temps!) but how I over :) winter some of my more delicate and precious plants in the garden (mostly yellow cannas) I get a bigger pot than the 1 they are already in, put some straw in the bottom, then put the plant & pot in then stuff more straw around the sides then shove more straw around the plant and then wrap in fleece. Nice and snug!! I remember seeing the banana plants wrapped up in a similar way at Christopher Lloyds garden, except they left them in the ground and then built a frame around them and filled the frame with straw, and covered with fleece. But this is all in East Sussex .....

1066

Meant to say that if you have a glut of figs, homemade fig jam is just the best!!

Quote from: saddad on June 24, 2009, 16:47:37
It should fruit next year Squashfan.. just keep cutting out the top Betty...and encourage lateral rather than vertical growth...  :-X

I should have said that it is full of fruit at the moment, impossible to count how many.  But your tip about cutting the top is correct.  I did this a couple of years ago and it fruited well last year too.

We have one in a pot that we got from Wilkies last year. It had a fruit on which has now dropped off. :'(

Figs grow everywhere where my Mam lives, on the high plateau behind Trieste in Italy. It frequently drops to -15°, no idea what variety it is.

There is a Bavarian Variety that is supposed to be extra frost hardy...  :-\

Quote from: saddad on June 24, 2009, 21:06:19
There is a Bavarian Variety that is supposed to be extra frost hardy...  :-\

That would be Violetta it's hardy to -20ºC (-4ºF), it produces very nice figs, survives outdoors in Wales without any frost protection, but dies if it gets covered in a highly concentrated mix of glyphosate & sodium chlorate by the idiot attempting to clear the plot next to yours.

Quote from: 1066 on June 24, 2009, 17:03:46

Quote from: GrannieAnnie on June 23, 2009, 17:15:36

Quote from: cleo on June 23, 2009, 16:34:08
Don`t make the mistake I made by planting one in a greenhouse-they grow and grow!!

Not so much `pruning` needed as major butchery :)

If planted in my walk-in coldframe it would surely survive BUT I'd have little room to grow anything else unless it was sternly pruned and trained. But maybe I'll think about that... hmmmm. So many ways to skin a cat.

I don't know if this would work where you are (thinking of those winter temps!) but how I over :) winter some of my more delicate and precious plants in the garden (mostly yellow cannas) I get a bigger pot than the 1 they are already in, put some straw in the bottom, then put the plant & pot in then stuff more straw around the sides then shove more straw around the plant and then wrap in fleece. Nice and snug!! I remember seeing the banana plants wrapped up in a similar way at Christopher Lloyds garden, except they left them in the ground and then built a frame around them and filled the frame with straw, and covered with fleece. But this is all in East Sussex .....

1066

Do you add water ever during the winter? Wouldn't it dry out? 

Figs are mediterranean plants they like to be kept dry in the winter.

Would agree with Baccyman there, so no to extra water. Besides the pots are outside and the covering is permeable. If they were indoors then yes, but only a little and not very often.

1066