Fig tree ID & yellowing leaves

Hi all,

First time poster here… but have enjoyed reading.

I just moved into a house with a very nice fig tree. I’ve never grown one and don’t want to kill it. Wondering if you can help me identify which type this is. Also, the leaves are yellowing and this has me concerned, do you know what’s causing this?

I’m located in Santa Barbara, but very close to the ocean with a microclimate that results in fog until at least noon for a lot of the summer. Temps never really exceeded 80 this summer. Maybe 60s or high 50s at night. In terms of water, I have not been watering it although it was probably receiving some when I watered the lawn prior to deciding to let the lawn die to replace it with a less thirsty variety. I haven’t fertilized.

Thank you!

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I think this is a caprified fig. Or it is pollinated by fig wasps. It is really hard to say what fig it is in central and southern California. There are seedling fig varieties.

Some members from S CA may have more insights than I have.

Good looking fig.

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Those large seeds make me think that the figs were pollinated. When that happens the figs are harder to identify especially if the area has a lot of fig seedlings popping up everywhere.

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It’s water stressed and you should give it some water. Hand water deeply once a week should be sufficient. Once it starts to recover, you can give it some fertilizer to help green it back up, but it’s not really necessary IMO.

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Thanks all, super helpful.

Just following up on this… apparently this type of fig tree (still don’t know what it is) is deciduous, so it was nothing to worry about. It lost all its leaves over the winter. All the leaves came back in the spring and the tree is looking amazing. However I should start pruning it since it is getting huge, at least 15-20’ tall, so most of the figs are out of reach.

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Yeah sometimes problems go away after the next year, did you specifically do something to it to get it running well again

I didn’t treat it with anything or do anything specific. It just sat all winter and then leaves came back starting around February.

I did notice walking around the neighborhood that all the other fig trees were just sticks so that gave me a hint that I didn’t need to worry :smile:. Whatever the variety is that people are growing around here, it definitely loses all its leaves in the winter.

Edit: added photo. Unfortunately on a very gray day but you can see the comparison with the photos above taken in September '21.

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Yeah, I don’t live in a very warm climate since I am in northern NJ but that’s interesting are there trees that keep their leaves in the winter because here the vast majority loose their leaves, pines don’t.

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Yeah that’s really nice, good luck with the tree, hope it continues to thrive :smiley:

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