I kept a pair of figs growing in the window this winter. I actually ate a small fig this week off of one. I noticed this morning that they appear to have spider mites, is there any thing I can do
Spider mites thrive in very dry air which is the case for indoor heated homes. Try spraying a mixture of olive oil and soap. At least it will make your fig fruits healthier. for more stubborn mites, try searching the forum for Joe Real’s Italian Dressing recipe.
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They can be blasted off with some water and yes,a little soap or a mixture of it with some kind of oil with water,sprayed on the plants can smother them. Brady
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Just be careful. If you don’'t get the ratio right with oil or soap you can harm the plant. Figs are fairly tough though. I myself prefer to use horticultural products as they are made correctly.
1.5 TBSP vegetable oil per gallon is the maximum limit for most indoor plants. 4 TBSP oil per gallon is my maximum limit for dormant outdoor plants during winter. I normally use 1 TBSP of olive oil per gallon water matched with 1 TBSP of Dawn liquid hand dish washing soap. mix oil and soap first before mixing them into the water. adding baking soda up to a maximum of 3 tsp per gallon can also help prevent many fungal diseases.
You should not keep the fig tree growing in the winter. It should go dormant for some period of time. You can winter it in the garage for one or two months and then bring it inside next to window if you want it to start growing early.
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why? most figs become ever bearing in a tropical setting. I haven’t seen any article that says figs really require chilling hours. Perhaps true for those very cold hardy ones, but most figs, I don’t think so. I have many friends that grow figs in the tropics and they tend to be ever bearing if you can make them grow. Sometimes they require tropical fig rootstocks.
It did go dormant last fall for two months. I let it leaf back out and grow inside for the winter.
I have been curious about this for awhile if they actually needed a dormant period or not. What varieties are your friends growing in the tropics? The same as we grow here?
My VdB and Mission never truly get dormant here in SoCal. They do lose a lot of leaves, but always have some and even push new growth if we get a hot spell like this crazy ‘winter’. I have three figlets that started in early December and continue to slowly get larger.
Not the person you asked but I do live in the subtropics and have definitely seen a fig tree or two planted out here where we don’t get below 60 in the winter. I doubt they truly need a dormant period, they may be like the mulberries here which lost their leaves and went dormant over the winter and are leafing out and blooming now as February has been uncharacteristically warm.
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Not who I asked but it sounds like you are the perfect person to answer! Do the trees you see planted out appear to be everbearing in that climate? I am wondering because I have a greenhouse that I warm in winter and I wonder if I could keep my figs in production through the winter. Thanks you for the info!
Drew
I may be slightly less than perfect for answering this question lol, I’ve only seen that fig tree in a particular person’s front yard when I visited their house a couple times so I can’t say for sure whether it is ever-bearing but it definitely had fruit on it when I saw it. I bought a fig tree myself a couple weeks ago and am gonna grow it in a container so I suppose I can use my own experience in the future to say whether they would be ever-bearing or not eventually.
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Yes keep us up to Speed!