I have a Violette de Bordeaux Fig. The weather has been a roller coaster ride here in So Cal of hot, cold, hot, cold. My fig dropped all it’s leaves at the end of last year as is normal, but then with a warm spell sprouted a whole new set along with a crop of figs! Here it is end of February and I know I should have cut the tree back in Jan or Feb, but what should I do?
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Let them ripen, it may do another crop for you. Not uncommon, many figs give 3 crops in your area.
Cut it back next fall when it goes dormant. You can cut it back anytime but you would lose this crop, and maybe any others this year. I would leave it unless it’s in the way of something
No it is not in the way, I just don’t want to throw off production for the year. I usually only get 1 crop over an extended period. But this is a weird year. My nectarines have set but have maybe 2/3’s less fruit than last year.
Yes each season is it’s own beast. My figs are all dormant. I was just taking a cutting to root. They look good! I have a month to go before I can take them outside. It’s 31F right now.
OK well we have a breba crop, then on new growth for this year we have the main crop. Sometimes a 2nd wave of main figs happens. But I doubt on VdB, Are you sure the current figs are not the breba crop? (on last years wood) Sometimes it takes a couple of years to produce a breba crop. Or are the figs on new wood just produced this year? That would be the main crop.
It is last years wood as I never got to pruning it thus no new growth.
Breba figs are usually not as good as main crop. But hey you get an early taste. I guess these are latent fruit buds formed last year. So all looks normal. You will get a main crop in the summer.
Thanks for the help Drew51. Something to look forward to this summer.
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It got cold again and leaves look like they are going to drop now. Figs are not developing. I am going to prune it.
I suggest you leave some branches unpruned so you can observe firsthand what happens. It is hard to visualize what is going on with your tree, but I don’t think the leaves will drop unless they freeze, and the new growth should be well on its way to setting main crop figs at this point.
Oh definitely keep a couple of branches to see how it does. My potted trees leafed out early this year as well and started to produce breba. A “cold” period a bit later caused some of the breba to abort, but I still have half a dozen or so forming, a few which are quite large at this point. It’ll be interesting to see how they do and taste (all are from varieties I have not tasted yet.)
Last year with our crazy winter weather, my plum bloomed twice, or the second half was delayed, which ever way you wish to call it. That was actually nice, spread the fruit harvest out by a couple of weeks.