Different fig varieties respond to vigorous growth differently. The Etna types (HC), Verte types, Longue d’ Aout, Florea, etc. set fruit reliably, while others will put that energy into growth and set no figs at all or set them too late in the year. All it took to make my old Celeste grow 8 ft. a year was a few inches of compost and winter damage.
thecityman- When your healthy/nourished fig trees grow out each moist Spring and put on lots of leaves and figs, they will continue to develop the fruit until the trees run out of the necessary fuel with which to grow out the fruit. Water being a biggie. When rainfall fails to keep supplying the needed liquid (along with it’s nitrogen), and no one steps up to supplement the rainfall with irrigation, the tree makes a decision: hit the “pause button” on fig development. They just hang there. Doing nothing. Once the water starts arriving again and in sufficient supply, the tree makes another decision: click on the “start button” again. Continually moist soil keeps the “pause button” unclicked all growing season. Once the rain decreased enough here that all the fig trees’ figs stopped getting larger, I can start irrigating several of them, and in a couple weeks those irrigated trees resume fruit development. By waiting a couple or so additional weeks before starting to irrigate still-dry trees, it is possible to stagger fruit ripening so that they don’t all need harvesting at the same time. My Mom used to say, “It always rains during fig season.” Stated differently, it can “always fig during rainy season”. Pushed to extreme dryness, the fig tree can opt to click on the “close water valves to leaves” button and cause leaves to dry, die, and drop. Sacrificing the leaves to keep the wood alive with the limited water supply. Maybe some fig varieties need more/less water than others. Maybe some soil there holds moisture better than other areas. I would also mulch in a big way.
1 Like
The only time I’ve ever seen BT not ripen, is when it lacked full sun.
Do your trees get all day full sun. If not, that’s your problem.
Thanks to you all, but this just makes my mystery even bigger. I say that because last year was one of the wettest we’ve had here in many, many years (fire blight LOVED IT). As for sun, my figs are in an open field with no shade anywhere near them, so they get sun from sunrise to sunset. I’ve spent a good deal of time wondering why these guys won’t ripen fruit, but I’ve given up. THey have green figs from earl;y July all the way to November, and they almost never ripen. I have mulched them a lot more this year, and last few years they had no mulch so we’ll see if that helps. Thanks
I would not graft an in ground fig in your zone. Instead I would either plant new trees or pinch the tips of your fig tree to encourage earlier fruiting. I would not take off any leaves. Instead I would take off some fruit & keep my fig bush to no more than 5 trunks coming from the crown. See my video on pinching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv20b18l46Q
IN spite of the title of this thread, it became more about the issue of why my figs wouldn’t ripen (and I appreciate everyone trying to help). Well, after 4 years in a row of my celeste and Brown Turkey figs never getting ripe before frost (which isn’t until October here usually- plenty long season), this year is a completely different story.
Only one thing changed this year from the last 4 years- I only fertilized one time very earl (March) this year and that was it. The last four years, I undoubtedly over fertilized. I used triple 15 and before this year I applied it about once a month- or about 5 times a season. I’d fertilize right up to the end of the season, and pretty heavy at that. My Chicago hardy figs seemed to love it- I always got very large, very sweet figs that would ripen and do great. And the reason I never suspected it was a problem is that even my celeste and Brown Turkey fig trees/bushes looked extremely healthy and grew incredibly fast and large. SO I thought thing were well. But this year I didn’t fertilize except once and all the figs on those trees are ripening. The trees didn’t grow as much or as fast and the figs are on the small side, but I could care less. A ton of smaller figs is much better than no ripe figs at all!!!
Anyway, you guys can tell me if you think that’s why my plants weren’t ripening fruit before or not. But this is pretty much the only thing I’ve done different this year, and since 2 different species and about 8 different trees total have ALL ripened figs this year and NONE of them did before, it seems to make sense. The only reason I’m not 100% certain is that there has been one other change this year…its been a much much drier year than past years. But if anything, from what I’ve read that would result in a fig NOT riping its fruit or maybe even dropping it.
Anyway, if anyone else has had any problems with getting figs to ripen, I urge you to consider fertilize practices as a possible cause.
I just answered another post about fertilizing more to get bigger fruit. Same as here too much fertilizer is a bad idea unless the plan is to grow firewood. With figs it causes a lot of vegetative growth at the expense of fruiting. In addition it doesn’t allow the wood to mature out and the tree is more likely to freeze back in winter. That can lead to a vicious cycle of rapid growth and few figs.
1 Like
Thanks for confirming my suspicions. This past winter I read just what you said about too much fertilize causing more winter damage. I also read that it would cause excess cracking and splitting in fig trees and I can whole heartedly attest to having experienced that. My problem- due to my lack of knowledge- is that its hard for me to see all that vegetative growth and not think of it as a good thing. In most garden plants- where I have a little more experience and knowledge- fertilize is almost (almost- I know there are exceptions) a good thing and bigger plants with more growth are a good thing and usually result in more and bigger produce. I’m now learning that the same thing isn’t always the case with fruit trees. Seeing fruit on trees that always just produced baby figs that never ripened has been quite educational. Thanks again for confirmation.
I fertilize sweetcorn like there’s no tomorrow. Most vegetables need more water than fruit trees and many need more fertilizer. Peaches often get 50 lbs N per acre. Sweetcorn would be more like 3-4 times that.
Always nice when I’m actually right about something! haha. Guess I can keep fertilizing my garden but cut way back or stop fertilizing my figs! You’d already convinced me to go easy on my other fruit trees, so I’m ok there. The only one I probably do more than once a year are my paw paws, but that’s because I just can’t believe how slow they grow…even though I know that is natural!
3 Likes
I’m reviving this topic because I have a fig grafting question.
I have 4 little baby fig trees growing from cuttings in 1-gallon pots. 3 are Bob Vance’s Reservoir (which already have figlets!) and one black bethlehem (which is still TINY, only like 6" tall). I plan to overwinter them in my garage and plant them all in the ground next spring. But I was wondering if I could or should also topwork a full-grown mystery fig over to Reservoir to take advantage of the root system? If yes, what is the best time/temperature/method for grafting figs?
I ask because I have two gigantic tree-form mystery figs in my side yard (maybe 15-20 feet tall?). Both originated as cuttings from the same original tree, and neither of my mystery trees are very productive. They’ve been in the ground for about 4 years now, and only set fruit this year for the first time, and only maybe 6 or so figs at that. Unless figs are known to get much more productive after year 4, I feel like I don’t need both of them and I’d like to replace one with the much-more-productive Reservoir.
I read the posts above about not grafting in marginal areas (I’m 7A outside Philly) in case the fig dies back to the roots over winter. But I don’t think that will happen here, because (i think) they’re in a nice little micro-climate. They’re on the south-side of my stone-masonry house, and the neighbor’s house is also only like 15 or 20 feet away, so I think it makes a heat trap? In any event, the mystery figs are giant tree-form single-trunk trees that have never had any die-back whatsoever, not even when they were very young, or when we had polar vortexes. So, hopefully, if I graft some reservoir on there, they will grow quickly and won’t die.
Any thoughts or advice wouldbe much appreciated!!!
2 Likes
For some reason, @fruitnut automatically comes to my mind as the king resident of this topic. I have never seen anyone pump out so many Cessacs in such a short period of time.
I am also curious about the most efficient way to create multiple copies of a specific fig tree via grafting in the shortest period of time.
1 Like
Not sure this answers your question but I’ve been grafting desirable scions in May onto my older trees followed by air layers in earlyJuly, removal and potting up in late August.
4 Likes
Could you elaborate on your grafting in May? What do you look for in terms of temperature, bud/leaf break/size, etc? What methods works best?
1 Like
I graft figs in early May, temps here 7 A/B Maryland are 70’s, figs are in very active growth. Can’t remember leaf size, sorry. The same week I do pawpaw grafts but a week or so before persimmon grafts that need higher temps.
I love whip and tongue grafts and fig scions are perfect size for that. Fig wood is on the soft side so you can do whip and tongue on slightly larger stock than with harder wood, like apple, just because it’s easier for the knife to slice through fig wood.
I believe all the major grafts will work on fig- w/t, cleft, bark.
1 Like
@hambone That’s so helpful, thanks so much! Is there anything special that needs to be done to account for the latex?
I know some people “bleed” fig grafting stock a few days before grafting but I’ve never done it. You might search that topic on ourfigs.org if you don’t find an answer here.
Kevin
I attended the Seattle fig tasting event today where a great variety of figs were available for tasting by group members. Probably around 30 varieties were presented by various growers. I wa amazed so many can be ripened as main crops here in this cool climate. The majority are being grown in pots which allows them to ripen due to the root system being much warmer in an above ground pot rather than in ground. It was a learning experience to meet and discuss what works in an area that has such a cool growing season. Having grown up in West, Tn, I would have thought your growing season would support most varieties. Maybe try pitting some to try it.
This next year I will be starting a Dessert King tree in a pot. When the pot is full of roots, I will cut the bottom out and allow roots to continue down into the soil. Today I learned about two other varieties that can actually ripen as in ground trees for both Breba and main crops: Lattarula and Olympian. They both are similar in taste to Dessert King, but unlike Dessert King which will not ripen the main crop here, these two will. I hope to get cuttings of these two this winter from local growers. Meanwhile if you want a very strong rootstock that can tolerate cold winters even in an above ground pot, I have Dessert Kings that I would be willing to ship to you once dormant.
Dennis
Kent, wa
2 Likes
I remember in the past learning that removing the leaves can only work if you don’t remove them too far away from dormancy, otherwise the tree will want to grow new vegetation rather than put more energy in to the figs. Also I wonder if a fig tree leaks too much sap that it might shock the tree, and delay fruit production. I have never tried it myself.
When grafting figs, excess sap flow can interfere with grafting success by flooding out the graft union. You can avoid that by grafting early in the year just as the trees begin to grow. Sap flow is much lower then than in summer.
If you try to graft on a rapidly growing plant in summer the graft can flood out. Making a few cuts near the graft is of no value. Retaining a lot of leaves on the plant will “bleed” off way more sap than a couple of cuts. It’s easy to do T or chip buds on rapidly growing plants in summer because you retain all leaves until after the graft heals. If you cut off all leaves and attempt a cleft or whip and tongue graft it will flood out.
3 Likes