Fig Tree

furndire

I moved my fig tree into the greenhouse to overwinter. It has loads of small figs on about 1 inch across. Will these come to anything useful? Is there anything I can do to help these survive? The leaves have almost all dropped off the plant.

squack

yes if they don't rot or fall off then they should ripen next summer.. i have a load of small fig trees that i made from cuttings. i moved a lot of them into the polytunnel last winter and kept the compost fairly dry. many of the immature figs did eventually ripen, delicious..

soolin

I have an out of control fig tree, so please be careful to keep yours trimmed. Ours is now as tall as a two storey house and is beginning to be a problem as a tree surgeon wants lots and lots of money to cut it back as he says access to it is difficult due to the height and width of it. Mine is obviously out in all weathers is never treated with naything, fed or looked after. All we do every year is collect the figs that fall off as several kilos of figs squashed into the patio make a lot of mess.

I don't even like figs.

furndire

Keep my fingers crossed then that they will ripen next year.
The tree is in a pot, so easily controlled.
I love figs one of my favourite fruit - I was so disappointed this year that although there were a lot on early , all but 2 dropped off before ripening.

Blackjack_Davy

furndire wrote: »

I moved my fig tree into the greenhouse to overwinter. It has loads of small figs on about 1 inch across. Will these come to anything useful? Is there anything I can do to help these survive? The leaves have almost all dropped off the plant.

The really small one in the buds near the end of the shoots will ripen next summer. The larger ones will not come to anything, in fact they should be removed because they inhibit the growth of next years figs.

Figs naturally have two crops per year, but the british summer is too short for the second crop to ripen.

furndire

Ooh that goes against the grain taking off the fruit - but makes good sense, so will have to take off the large ones - Shame there is nothing you can do with them.

Just editted to say
Taken them all off - there were 50 - the "tree" is only about 3ft high, with a spread of the same, I thought that was quite a lot. Just hope that the first lot of fruit is as good next year.

humphriess

All the leaves have fallen off my fig tree. Is this normal? I thought my plant had died. If it's not dead do i need to bring it in for the winter (its in a pot), i heard that moving the plant around is not very good for it? Last year, i moved my plant outside on sunny days and back in in the evening, every leaf that grew on it fell off, someone on this forum told me that figs don't like to be moved. Am i better off leaving it outside covering the pot in fleece and hoping for the best?
THanks

coolpran

hi humphriess, same thing has happened to my fig too. this was after we have moved the plant to a bigger pot in september.
i hope someone answers this one

furndire

The leaves fall off my fig every winter, just grow again in Spring the next year. I assumed it was a deciduous (excuse spelling) tree. I usually leave mine growing against a south facing wall - no fleece or any protection. I thought I would move it because it had so much unripe fruit on - but after reading BlackJack Davy's comment, I've removed them all, and will probably put it back to its usual spot.

soolin

My tree goes bare in the winter (it still has a few leaves now though as weather is still quite mild) but the little figs stay on and ripen next year.

The only time we ever weighed our crop was when dad made wine one year and we stopped weighing after a few weeks at 24kg of figs.