Brown Turkey Fig

Yes, both fig trees were transplanted into much larger pots at the beginning of this growing season. The brown turkey was in the garage this past winter, however the winter before it was in the crawl space. In that environment it endured brutally cold temperatures. When placed outside the following spring, it did not produce any figs even though it did the prior summer. I did not do anything to the root balls during the transplanting process, as I never performed a transplanting like this. Should I attempt to detangle and prune back the root ball?

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Here is the brown turkeyā€¦


And here is the commonā€¦

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If a tree is not ready to produce fruit, pinching doesnā€™t help. Iā€™ve triedā€¦got more side branches forming, but no fruit. If the tree is ready and there are double bumps at a node, youā€™ll get fruit, but youā€™d get it even if you didnā€™t pinch. The question is, will you get it quicker if you pinch?

there are exceptions to the above, people have reportedly pinched when there was only one bump at a node and still gotten fruitā€¦

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You might have 2 Brown Turkeys :wink: Was the bigger one pruned to the ground last year? It looks like it grew very fast. There are so many branches on the small one it is restrictive, Iā€™d probably prune everything off but the trunk and a few inches of the upright branch in the spring and get it to grow upright.

Bark mixes use a lot of nitrogen also, ammonium sulfate really helps mine get going.

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Yes- Iā€™ve been pinching my Battaglia Green fig and get forked branching but no fig set. BG is a very late fig so apparently pinching will not accelerate its internal timing for fig production.

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I would not object to having two brown turkeys, lol. I see what you are saying about the shorter tree having branches that are too restrictive. When should I prune those branches? I will be summer pruning one of my peach trees this weekend, so Iā€™ll have the clippers out.
As for the taller fig tree, I purchased it last fall. It grew a little bit since then, was definitely noticeable taller than the small one from day one(at least double the height).

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Spring pruning before they come out of dormancy gives them the most vigor. Iā€™ve never tried summer heading cuts like I was saying they do for breba production, I just thin entire branches on vigorous inground trees in summer, so I donā€™t really know how it would work out.

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Well, Iā€™m in the process of re-reading Grow a Little Fruit Tree by Ann Ralph. She is a proponent of the summer pruning method. Iā€™ll see if she touches on anything regarding fig trees.

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No pinching is a myth! Only if you want new branching would I recommend it. Figs will show if given lots of sun, heat and water. I do winter pruning in Jan-Feb. That fruit does look irregular.

Update from yesterday. Full of figs!

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Looks greatā€¦ So many figs!!!

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Ate my first ripe one a couple of days ago, and it was very good. Have about 50 green ones on my small Brown Turkey tree.

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They are getting fat now. This is a pic from 2 days ago. Are these getting close?

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Figs have a very long lag phaseā€“theyā€™ll plump up to around where they are in that photo and appear to stay at that point of development for weeks sometimes. Whatā€™s happening is that cell division is stopping and cell enlargement is beginning, in other words the fruit is formed and then begins to ripen.

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So far this year, I put these out daily to get some sun and bring them back in at dusk.


Curious as to what regular temperature I should wait for to leave them out full time.

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Just above freezing and Iā€™d stop moving them.

Looks good.
Never seen that type of fig before

Well, if that is the case, I should be good to go as the two week forecast here has a low of 35 degrees. However, on those days, I might wheel them back in to be safe.

The little one is a Brown Turkey, the taller was sold to me a ā€œcommonā€ fig. The Brown Turkey produces a pink/reddish fruit. The common produces a white fruit.

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Stage one fig growth takes 30 days, then once they are a certain size they sit there for 40 days and do nothing ( the most frustrating stage), then when they are older than 70 days (some varieties take much longer than others-Brown Turkey is about 80 days) they swell overnight almost doubling in size, changing color and after about 5-8 days they droop and are ripe.

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