Yes, I meant the fruit quality in the first couple years are not true to their varietals. First, from anecdotal evidence as people became disappointed with their first or 2nd year harvest. Second, from description by Charles Johnson of LSU on how O’Rourke and Boudreaux reevaluated the trees O’Rourke experimented in the 50s & 60s for public releases. They use a 5 year program to compare trees with similar age and soil and environment before selecting the candidates for release.
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Yep, VdB is pretty unique in that aspect. Don’t need a lot of space but yet produce high quality fruit and yield even in pots. I can probably put 1 or 2 fig trees in ground, where I currently have raspberries and blackberries, both are suffering from the heat and full sun of SoCal.
Since space is limited, so it is ideal to put your top varietals in from your wish list. My wish list is not filled yet unfortunately. 
If anyone in CA has a BM, please PM me 
It will go directly in the prime spot.
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You are going to sound like our Prez 
That LW is huge. Is it productive in numbers? How big and old is your tree? In ground or in pots?
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I’ve never had that problem with figs in pots or the ground in metropolitan areas of San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, or San Diego counties.
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It is good to hear that. I have been mentally prepariing myself to wait 3-4 years before getting any decent fruit. We also have fig wasps’ help which other areas don’t.
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Are they in pots or in ground? Do you need to babysit them in your area?
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You won’t need the wasp unless you are growing Capri Figs.
Both.
Figs are Ficus. I can only imagine them needing babysitting in zones 8 and under.
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If you want good quality fruit then place them in a 15 gallon pot (one tree per pot) and feed them periodically with a citrus tree fertilizer.
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My understanding is fig wasps can improve the taste of even common figs. e.g. nuttier seeds. Have you noticed fig wasps near or enter your common figs?
Do you do anything special in upper 80s to 90F days? How often do you water them? Or do you have a drip line to the pots? Or do you use SIPs?
Mine are 1 to 2 years old in pots and they are very sensitive to water level. Watered a new plant just once, it started rust rot and all the leaves drop. Move a plant a few feet to full sun gradually brings out the FMV. Fruits drop after watering on another fig tree. Another one drops fruits due to the heated black pot by the sun while the one next to it was fine. All leaves drop after neem oil spray with one of them while the others are fine. In the same pot, the sucker did very well in the sun, while the main trunk turns its leaves brown. I had to repot a tissue culture fig 5 times to find out what makes it tick. 
I am thinking to make SIPs or plant some of them in ground to avoid watering problem.
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Thanks for the advice.
I actually bought couple 25 gallon pots for them thinking they are still not big enough 
Now, I look at the pots, filling them up and moving them is going to be PITA. I still haven’t figured out where in the garden they like best after moving them around so many times.
There were some discussion about 5 gal pot being enough for decent production (75 figs /tree if you prune & train it properly). I did get advice on 15 gal pot being better for them.
I probably will try them all and the citrus tree fertilizer.
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Common figs are self fertile. The wasps will not contribute anything to fruit or seed development.
Capri Figs are dioecious. The wasp is absolutely necessary to transfer pollen from male to female tree.
No.
Check the soil near the bottom of the pot; e.g. insert a chopstick through one of the drainage holes at the bottom. If the soil is less than moist then it is time to water thoroughly. Keep up this practice for quite a long time and eventually you will learn the watering schedule for various kinds of weather that occur in your area and specific growing environment.
Stop worrying about the virus. The symptoms you see are more likely due to tiny pot size.
In your location, Figs should be outside in full sun all day, all year.
Neem oil is a surfactant. It will not help with any pests or diseases of fruiting fig trees in our climate.
There is no good reason for a backyard gardener to buy a tissue culture plant. Stay away from those sellers. It can take two years for an experienced nursery person to raise a TC into a sapling.
Why not save yourself two years of labor and materials cost by purchasing bareroot from a nursery – for example Green Thumb can’t be that far from you. And if the variety you want isn’t available as a bareroot sapling, then get some scion wood from someone. Figs are easy to root.
Buy a sturdy dolly.
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@grasshopper,
When growing plants in soil, consider these 5 degrees of soil moisture:
- Saturated
- Wet
- Moist
- Less than moist
- Dry
1 is when you water thoroughly.
2 is after drainage.
3 is what many plants enjoy.
4 is transitional.
5 is when many plants are dying or dead.
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How do you reply to parts of the post without quoting the whole thing? That looks neat 
I usually stick my finger in the soil to test the moisture level 1" below the soil. If it is starting to dry, then it is time to water. And I usually saturate the pot till water flows out on the bottom
The FMV is a sign of distress. I tried to figure out what caused the stress to avoid further problem. Is it too hot? too much sun too quickly? Not enough water? too much water? Or it has mites? Some are doing fine next to the one with FMV stress.
Neem oil is an organic fungicide and insecticide that have been used for thousands of years in India. I got a lot of hoppers which suck on plants (they came from a bag of Kellogg organic raised bed soil) It was too late by the time I realized it. I can control them with a 14 days spraying schedule but not eradicating them without using some toxic stuff.
I agree with the TC plant. I should have done more research first. It was my first fig, an impulse buy I guess we all make some mistakes at the beginning. It was giving me a lot of trouble during transplant but I solved it eventually and it has been growing rapidly since. But you are right about the 2 extra years wait on the TC.
There is also the timing issue during the season. It is easier to get scion in the Fall/winter but not so in the middle of June. Nurseries are usually low on their fig tree stock by June. e.g. Green Thumb carried one of the varietals I want but they sold out already and they told me to wait for next season.
I would had laughed at the buying a dolly suggestion but I am thinking about it after seeing how people actually build their pots around a custom made dolly.
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I added mulch in addition to shielding the black nursery pots with white plastic after measuring the temperature of the soil in pot (1" from the rim, 3" down) at 106F on a 88F day. Once the white plastic cover was on, the temp dropped back to ambient temperature.
I didn’t use any mulch in pot at the beginning, fearing it keeps the soil too wet. The plants I bought were under shade at the nursery I believe to reduce watering and stress. They need couple weeks to acclimate to the full sun when first brought home.
I am thinking what size pot to use next. It is not an easy decision as the bigger the pot, the more difficult to maintain them. You do need to trim roots every few years depending on the varietal. I don’t think I can lift a root bound tree from a 25 gal pot or fit it back in easily.
And then there is talk about if you give the plants too much space, it will spend the resources growing vegetatively than growing fruits. And then, how many figs can you really eat in one season? (I may underestimate myself on that one )
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No. Roots are predominantly in the lower section of the pot. That’s a sure way to promote unhealthy roots. If you feel the top of the soil is drying too fast compared to the bottom, then add up to an inch of small (1/4") orchid bark to the top as mulch.
I agree your plants are stressed. It is due to your horticultural practices.
I have studied many peer-reviewed publications, UC crop trials, etc. regarding Neem oil. I am a CDFA licensed pest control advisor and have a pesticide applicators license. There are uses of it I endorse. Stop using it on your figs. It is augmenting your problems.
Have patience. Beginning in Sept.-Oct. you can pre-order bareroot from many independent nurseries, incl. Green Thumb.
I think the 25-gallon pots are too large for your purposes. The tall 15 gallon are easier to handle. I’ve personally fruited figs in them and have dozens of (former) customers who did so as well – producing excellent crops in the second year.
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Such talk has no basis in fact – for figs.
How do you respond to a particular part of my post without quoting the whole thing?
I haven’t taken any fig out of their pots yet so I wouldn’t know where their roots concentrate on. People say they have shallow roots as do most potted plants, so testing from top is natural. I would try out the bottom test method and check out the roots of one of the plants. I had added 1/2 cedar mulch on top to improve moisture retention.
They are not all stressed though. e.g. One was fine just a few inches from another. Same age, same height, same sunlight, same watering schedule, different varietal. I do want to check out if there is something I did or something I can do to reduce the stress.
Well, I am no expert in organic pesticide. I did suspect the fig don’t need it due their sap. I was debating whether to spray the whole garden or leaving a few fig plants alone by chance. I found out the leaf drop on fig after neem oil was a one off incidence. (That doesn’t change my impression on figs being a finicky plant) And I had at least 4 more sprays since without any problem. The hoppers multiply quickly and can damage a lot of plants so I can’t just leave them alone.
In no way are figs a finicky plant in our environment. Rather, they are one of the easiest to grow. You have more excuses than a golden retriever pulling a steak off a grill. 
Neem will suffocate a portion of the hopper eggs but rarely control existing adults. If your garden in general has hoppers and you insist on using a certified organic product, then get one that contains pyrethrin and not neem. It will control most of the eggs and adults.
Select the portion of text you wish, then click on the grey “Quote” box when it pops up.
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I agree with Richard that figs are easy. I use root pouches for bigger plants. The fabric won’t conduct heat. A 25 gallon root pouch will have as many roots as a 50 gallon plastic pot. You can cut it away to root prune and transfer. A major drawback is they dry quickly. I still prefer them. Not for figs but other plants like currants can survive all winter outside in a root pouch. A pot would crack or kill your plant.
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Here’s a Janice Seed-Less Kadota root sucker that I ripped out of the ground last year (with roots) from my orchard tree and propagated in this 5-gallon pot. This is the favorite variety of one my daughters – it will probably go to Davis CA with her this Fall.
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