Encouraging fruit on a fig tree

[ameno]

I have a Brown Turkey fig tree (more of a bush, really) in a large pot, but it never seems to produce many, if any fruit (two is the most I've ever had; it had none this year) for the breba crop (the early summer crop; the only one which will reliably ripen in this country). Yet it always has lots of fruit for the "main" late summer crop, but of course these inevitably do not ripen, so it's not like the tree is in the wrong conditions to fruit.
I clearly must be doing something wrong, but I don't really know what. Any ideas?

[mrsbusy]

Figs otherwise can be very productive but this is their weakness. Striving to make three crops a year, which they could in warmer zones, they often fail to ripen any at all. The answer is to remove every fig from them, no matter how small, in early winter. If these are left on they might just ripen after a mild winter for an early crop. However most years the vast majority of these small fruits get chilled, develop thick skins, start to swell in spring then crack and fall off. This weakens the tree which is then slow producing the next batch of fig-lets which do not develop in time to ripen before the frosts return. If the fig is cleared of all fig-lets in early winter the new crop develops earlier and ripens in summer- though it still pays to thin the number down ruthlessly. If thinned then figs can reach orange or grapefruit size as well as being melting and sweet! Outdoors the birds will rob you even before the figs are fully ripe- so paper bags popped over the best looking fruits are worth the effort.

[mrsbusy]

Hi Ameno - just logged onto the forum because I wanted to ask for opinions about removing the figlets. The text is from Bob Flowerdews website. My brown turkey fig is in its third year planted south facing in a huge bucket against the wall of our house. This is the first year we got any fruit - and we got 7 ripe delicious figs!
it now has loads of fruit on it which are bigger than a marble.
I read somewhere that anything bigger than small marble should be removed.

[Jungle Jane]

There’s some info about fig removal on this website,marble sized figs can stay -
“The figs British gardeners enjoy will have been formed the previous year, overwintering in the leaf axils towards the tips of young shoots to swell for a summer harvest. By September next year’s crop will have been initiated and the embryo fruits will be anything up to the size of grapes. Any fruitlets larger than this will have to be removed, as they will be highly unlikely to survive the winter and will only rot on the tree.”
https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/guides/growing-figs

[ameno]

My problem is that the early crop never seems to initiate in the first place. I just get a massive late crop which never actually ripens.

I removed all of the figs currently on the tree yesterday. They're the late crop and never ripen, anyway, so I'm hoping that by removing them it might encourage more fruit for next year to initiate.

[mrsbusy]

Yes it's a real leap of faith to remove a potential crop!

[ameno]

Yes it's a real leap of faith to remove a potential crop!

They never ripen, anyway, so it's not really a potential crop for me.

[Plot70]

I have got two totally random fig trees that grew from the scattered dust from the bottom of a fruit and nut bowl. The fruit and nut mix was bought from a middle eastern owned shop and the label was not English.
One has for the first time begun to produce one or two fruitlets in the leaf axials so perhaps I might get a fruit or two next year.
It is on an open allotment and took a couple of years to get used to opening its buds later to avoid them getting frosted off.
If the growths I have seen are indeed fruits they are far enough back from the tip of the shoot that the wood will be ripe enough to survive the winter.
I will have to be patient.

[Dave8abond]

Are you 100% it's a brown turkey? Being as they're meant to be a great breba producer it's a little odd that yours never seems to produce figlets late in the year for a breba crop the following year. Maybe you could post leaf/ fig pics to one of the fig forums (ourfigs.com) for help with an ID. Other than that, remove all set main crop figs and pinch growth late in the year?

[ameno]

Are you 100% it's a brown turkey? Being as they're meant to be a great breba producer it's a little odd that yours never seems to produce figlets late in the year for a breba crop the following year. Maybe you could post leaf/ fig pics to one of the fig forums (ourfigs.com) for help with an ID. Other than that, remove all set main crop figs and pinch growth late in the year?

It was sold as Brown Turkey. And it has produced a breba crop before, back a few years ago when it was still small, and they looked like Brown Turkey.
I think it's probably just fallen into the fig equivalent of biennial bearing, where it ends up only cropping every other time due to have such a large crop (it's only a small-ish potted tree), only instead of a yearly cycle like it would be on a plum tree, it's a 6 monthly cycle.
Of course, if this cycle had the large crop fall on the breba crop then it would be a good thing, but in my case it falls on the main crop.
It probably started three years ago when it didn't produce many breba fruit due to still being small, but it grew a lot and then set a lot of main crop fruit and because it was a warm summer some of them actually ripened (in late September). Ripening some of the main crop probably delayed the breba fruit induction that year, and then it's been a knock-on effect ever since.

Also, pinch the growth late in the year? I thought the breba crop first sets late in the year on growth produced that same year (to then mature and ripen the following year)? In which case, shouldn't it be pinched in early summer or so, to encourage more bushy new growth?

[Dave8abond]

Figs are not really my thing so I may have this all wrong in my head. I think people pinch early (after 5 new leaves) to help encourage the set of main crop figs. I wondered if, in your case, you removed all main crop figs and pinched now/ early Sept (this is what I meant by late in the year) you'd encourage another round of fruit set that would obviously still be small come dormancy and therefore be next year's breba.

Apologies if I'm getting all confused.

[ameno]

Figs are not really my thing so I may have this all wrong in my head. I think people pinch early (after 5 new leaves) to help encourage the set of main crop figs. I wondered if, in your case, you removed all main crop figs and pinched now/ early Sept (this is what I meant by late in the year) you'd encourage another round of fruit set that would obviously still be small come dormancy and therefore be next year's breba.

Apologies if I'm getting all confused.

It's recommended practice for growing figs in this country, so I can't imagine it's for main crop, as figs aren't grown for the main crop in this country.

[Dave8abond]

Pinching for main crop https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iutB8se2rgo&vl=en
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4_vDInoohig

My suggestion about pinching later is not something I've read about but just an idea I thought might be worth a punt based on pinching encouraging fruit set below the point pinched.

Check out folk like fruits4life and pepgrows on Instagram for main crop uk growers.

[mrsbusy]

Hi again.
I contacted the nursery who supplied me my fig and this is what they advise :
It is the small pea-sized embryo figs formed in the autumn, that over-winter to produce a crop of figs the following August/September. Any figs that are larger than this, will not ripen and should be removed in November.
I also consulted my niece who got me started with a fig tree - she gets an amazing crop every year - she lives in Surrey - and yes she advises the same - the figs to leave on are very tiny and very bright green.
I will leave my figs on in the hopes they might ripen but will remove them in November.

[ameno]

I know about all that. My problem is that those embryo figs never seem to form in the autumn in the first place (at least not in any number; I might get two or three).