That’s just weird. I’m not great with tracking dates but the fig tree of a friend nearby normally fruits in May, my mother’s tree consistently fruits starting in August and runs until it defoliates with the first frost, and hers is the latest I’ve seen in this area.
All of mine were late this year too but over here in the pnw, we’ve had a VERY mild summer. Like less than 5 days of temperatures over 95 if i recall correctly
I didn’t need any more figs, but I’m posting for fig purchases that gave a good dopamine hit ![]()
There’s one UK grower I keep saved on eBay who put some up this morning and I put in for Souadi and Noire de Barbentaine.
Otherwise figs this year have been pretty chill. Had some nice brebas, I don’t chance myself to finish much maincrop but worth a try. Very far north here so our light intensity is already waning. Nights at circa 7c.
Chicago hardy - still pretty small, 2nd year in but I put it in quite a crowded bed.
Vincenzo - settled in a nice big planter that was a marble or quartz table base from a table that shattered on a moving job. Like 3/4 inch panels. Seemed more worthy a spot for this than the hydrangea before. Nearly 5ft tall now and having a crack at maincrop for the first time. A dark green/slight purpling already so perhaps it’ll be a quick finisher? Or just a very rich potting mix.
Peretta - had this lubera variety in a 15g fabric pot for a couple of years. Some good chunky brebas. No attempt at maincrop really.
Paradiso - still diddy, got last fall from a cutting. Rooted heartily in a 1g.
Violette de sollies - same as paradise.
Bornholms diamond - chunking out in a big raised bed, sharing with mostly ugni molinae Chilean guava and a zanthoxylum simulans Sichuan peppercorn
Sultane - seems pretty stunted, might get binned off or taken to allotment. In 15g fabric pot. Decent topsoils/sand/good homemade compost mashup.
Brown turkey - might sack this off, got at UK supermarket Morrisons which usually have decent soft fruit starts but all growth and no fruitlets. In a 15g for 1-2 years now.
Lungo del portogallo - very cute, tucked in another raised bed sharing with more zanthoxylum, one big simulans, a bungeanum and even a piperitum over the far end by Chicago hardy. It’s got a good sized corner though so we’ll see.
Firoma - had this lubera variety in a 15g fabric pot for a couple of years. Some good chunky brebas. Very similar to the peretta but that’s no bad thing.
Rouge de bordeaux - leggy at 6ft but chipping away. Another in a 15g fabric pot. Not fruited yet.
Hi @chippytea do you grow Ronde de Bordeaux? My maincrops have ripened around early September (I’m in Hertfordshire).
Hey @reym it’s not that old tbh, I got it from Pennard plants in the south west as a 2L or so. It’s outside in our south facing very sheltered but hasn’t been in the brightest spots. We’re on the corner of a 30s estate so only get a little triangle. It’s in that same format 15g/50L fabric pot with a fairly heavy mix as mentioned in the above post but still some good potting components. It’s put on good growth. Maybe next year will be the one but I think some are going to get relegated to the allotment if I get offered a van lift for a few at some point. My partner would certainly prefer a few less 50L-90L pots in the back garden. ![]()
Btw - Loved that you managed to find some of those rarer in UK nearly seedless kumquat seeds mentioned in one of your previous posts btw. Have a few started from m&s Nagami inspired by that.
Vincenzo ^^
Lawd knows how it got to the UK but the person it came from seems fairly thorough and knowledgeable.
@chippytea Really glad to hear about the kumquat Luke, thanks. Hopefully works out for both of us.
Regarding the figs yeah, they probably just need a bit more time to grow and mature.
Yes indeed, I was still pretty impressed at the internodal distance and how high it got before leafing out. Definitely wants to get into tree club rather than a diddy shrub ![]()
Edit: Rouge de Bordeaux ^^
The leafy growth at the base is Violette de sollies in a small pot.
Also realised I lopped the top off at the start of the year when still dormant to try and graft it out on an allotment in ground fig that apparently never produced anything
Its been mild compared to the last two years here, but mild is like 95 for summer, not enough heat is definitely not the issue. I wonder if it’s been the excess rain we’ve had, it’s finally slowed down and they’ve finally started producing. Maybe it pushed them to focus on vegatative growth and not fruit production? Idk
To push fruit quickly, from what I’ve spoken to others about and what I’ve found myself: they need a lot of high phosphorus fertilize early in the season. I think that’s one thing i didn’t do as well this season. I went over a girl’s house in early spring and saw that her figs were way ahead of mine and i asked what she did. She told me she fertilized them a ton with high phosphorus a month before i even thought about it and her plants give ever year, earlier than I thought of. She lived in a cooler area than me as well so i thought that was interesting. I started fertilizing mine then too and I think it was too late this year for me to start. I didn’t realize they liked eating so much.
Last year when i did the cuttings in June/ July, i started fertilizing early too and got crops from literally cuttings made that summer so I’m wondering if this is it
Ooh, high phosphorus early in the season? Good to know for next year! Most of the cuttings I got this year, took. The handful that didn’t, I’m gonna leave them alone, because ones that I thought died last year actually leafed out this year, so I didn’t throw any away unless they looked dead dead. All the fruits on my Panache Tiger dried up before they ever even filled out - it was weird. The only fig I ate this year that was properly ripe and yummy, was the Italian Honey/Lattarula. There were only two figs on it (the first I picked too early), but the second I waited till it felt jelly soft, and OMGOSH that was delicious!!!
I can’t wait for all the other varieties to produce next year!
I’m getting some from golden rainbow, dte, mega Celeste, Lowes Celeste, and a few other random ones
Found a double on my CH tree. Had a bunch of fruit that were doubled, single fruit too, presumably because it was like 100F out in the early Spring.
I haven’t had figs fruiting long enough to know what is normal but I have a few with fruit on them now. Most of them aren’t ripe yet but one of them ripened a single fig a couple weeks ago and one today. The rest are still probably a couple weeks away.
Are you growing your figs in ground?
Only rootstock in ground at the moment; Desert King, my plamata hybrid and a Black Mission. None of those are fruiting, just my potted ones.
This tracks with my experience this year. I fertilized in spring, but apparently not enough because some of my plants didn’t start putting on figlets until their 3rd round of fertilizer, when I got impatient and dumped like half a cup of organic 4/4/4 on all of them. My conclusion was that they must have depleted the available nutrients in their pots more than I thought, and they needed a much larger dose of fertilizer as soon as possible in the spring to get started.
Yeah I’m gonna add stuff in my pots earlier next year. Had no idea they ate this much as well but it makes sense… some of mine grow 5ft+ tall from 6 inch sticks in a year.
My neighbor has had a fig in her backyard for several years that is fairly large and has grown well but she says it has never fruited. I wonder if it’s because of a deficiency if she’s never fertilized it. I have figs in my yard less than a year old with figs on them and I haven’t fertilized either. However I have kept the area they are planted in mulched heavily with wood chips and chop and drop for a couple years now.
First Prosciutto Unk today. Holy Moly, just nudged Battaglia Green off my #1 fig ranking. Yes raspberry, maybe some acid to offset the sweet, plus complexity hard to describe. Fruited after near total winter dieback.
it could also be variety based issue as well as growing conditions






