Fig Talk

Can… i get a cutting of zadar and Neverella from you :joy::joy: mine all died and i didn’t go out looking for more cuttings lol

I should pull this off, but I was under the impression that DFIC 0023 would never produce a crop here, so I wanna see when it falls off. I didn’t think it would be so clearly different from the other figs, but it has red stems with a little fuzz on them. Very pretty, although not as ornamental as a rubber or fiddleleaf fig.

Sure. Send me a DM with your address and I’ll send them up right away.

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My potted figs started to wake up in my garage a few weeks ago so I put them outside as soon as the forecast had nighttime lows staying above freezing. However, after a couple weeks outside they’ve stopped growing and they leaves are turning yellow and partly brown. Could it be just too cold? Temps have been mainly between 35 and 55 degrees. The garage was a constant ~50 deg, not very warm but also not as cold as the nights have been outside.

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A little up date on the sad amazon trees!! they seem to be doing ok, regrowing leaves and such and now I have cuttings that seem to be rooting!!





I have noticed a few things, the smith cutting i got started getting leaves very fast compared to the others, and the raspberry latte cuttings I have are really slow to show any budding for leaves but the did start to its just very tiny!! First attempt at cuttings and I am loving the whole process!!

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didnt realize this chicago hardy guy was so close to ripening. full tent fig:

couple days later(today):

not a lot of color on one side.

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picked it today:

first ever ripe fig. not impressed but wasnt expecting much considering it was grown in a tent. a little sweet, hint of some berry, maybe a hint of “green” :man_shrugging:

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Temps under roughly 40 F will convince a fig tree that it’s time to go dormant. (How does the tree know that winter is leaving rather than coming? It doesn’t, so it prepares for the worst.) So a growing tree exposed to sub-40 F temps for any extended period will typically drop its leaves.

The good news, I suppose, is that when this happens the trees sleep for about a month then wake up again, assuming temps have turned warm.

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Thanks. That’s pretty rough for me; temps don’t stay above 40F at night here until at least May. But I guess it would be better to leave them in the garage until then rather than risk a cycle of dropping leaves and having to start again.

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Fig trees tend to do OK with cold temps that are gradually increasing. They struggle with a transition from warm or even cool to outright cold. One strategy is to take them out of storage while still dormant but after the risk of really low temperatures (<15-20 F) has passed. Let them endure April nights in the 20’s. This will slow down the process of leafing out. The result will be a gradual take-off rather than a fast take-off followed by a crash.

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Well they’ll get better in the summer heat. Don’t water if you can help it before picking them. Like a tomato. Plus tbf my friend grows CH figs and was a very underwhelming experience. I think he waters too much and the tree didn’t get enough sunlight. But still the only other MT Etna type I grow and tried is Crozes. The Crozes were even still good in December here with part shade. Get one if you don’t have one they’re very tasty and prolific figs. Steve mentioned the Ondata is a bigger better version.

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Finally got around to starting some of my fig cuttings. This is around 50 figpops:

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Here are my successful starts from this winter. One of those I did purchase, an Angelito, at the Ohio Fig and Fruit Tree Festival a couple weeks ago. I’m only keeping 5 of those trees the rest are being given to friends and family.

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Those look awesome! Even some baby figs already, nice work!

thinking about the right time to move my growing and fruiting indoor figs outside, is there an absolute low temp you wouldnt want to flirt with? some in grow tent conditions and others are just basement + lights.

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@Jaimeadams – Nice work!

@kinghat – In my experience, “growing and fruiting indoor figs” will object if they are suddenly subjected to temps <40 F, maybe even <45 F. They think it’s autumn, drop their leaves and go dormant. It’s a `1 month set-back, at least.

There’s really no benefit to bringing the trees out early. They don’t grow well unless it’s >60 F during the day and >50 F at night. I’d suggest that you plan accordingly.

As an example, I’ll bring trees that are emerging from dormancy out of storage in late April when temps can still drop below freezing. They don’t set fruit until mid-June. But the trees I am giving a head start under lights in a >70 F basement don’t come out until mid-May, which is when nighttime temps are reliably >50 F. These trees have already set fruit while indoors.

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Well, I noticed this this morning! These are Olympian with the forming fruit.
I also have Peter’s(?) Honey, and Black Turkey.

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Congrats! Brown Turkey?

Probably messing up my names… Something Turkey is one of the varieties.
Olympian making fruit.
I have six pots total, two of each variety.

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My Stella, Celeste and panache have started forming fruitlets as well!

Odd, i got this random honey fig from Etsy 4 years ago and it only seems to create figs on new growth and never on old growth :sob: it’s my oldest tree but has never produced except on new growth… no idea what variety it is and when i asked the etsy seller about it, she gave me an attitude and got mad at me… I’ve been thinking of killing it but i don’t like killing fruiting plants or any plant…

In Colorado, it always died down to about a few inches from the soil and came back every year.