Fig Tree dropping fruit

[Hellbell]

My mum has a fig tree which every year produces lots of figs but before they are ripe they all fall off. She's had it years and never managed to eat a fig yet. Any ideas why this might be or what she can do about it as she's considering just giving up and cutting it down.
Many thanks

[Geordie]

there could be a few reasons why your tree is dropping its fruit.....and if its in a pot the chances are higher of this happening. Inconsistent or not enough watering is a common culprit...if its in a pot and the weather is hot you should water twice a day; if the fruits fall off when small it could be lack of pollination; then there are the diseases - fig mosaic, leaf spot, pink limb blight etc...any signs?; even the weather can cause this by way of severe temperature changes, eg very hot full sun day and the cool nights we had recently.
Hope this might give you an idea, or a lest food for thought....don't give up, its just a matter or working out what goes wrong!

[Vagetarian]

Difficult to say Hellbell, do you know exactly what variety it is and how it was grown?

Wild figs require a male plant and a fig wasp to pollinate the female fruits or they will all drop off before becoming edible. Figs grown from seed are not true to type and are very unreliable.

I'll assume however that she's bought a commercial variety called Brown Turkey from a nursery which should fruit on it's own, otherwise she might as well forget it. In which case the problem would probably be that figs set fruit 2 or 3 times a year but in our climate they have no chance of ripening any but a few of them.

I think what she should do is to remove all fruits that the tree sets except for a portion of those that set in spring.

[ginger ninger]

I have a brown turkey fig bush. I live in Yorkshire which means I have very different weather conditions to the Mediterranean...mores the pity. I get a reasonably good crop of it most years. If your growing it in a pot...they love to be pot bound, this is when they fruit at there best. Like most fruit trees they do tend to drop fruit, you have to remove the figlets from the year before to allow the tree/bush to set fresh figs. I have a saying with my fig bush "treat it mean", I don't pamper it, I don't water it all that often...face it...it's a very hot weather plant that thrives in places like Cyprus & Greece so it's use to not getting much water or food. To be honest I leave it to it's own devices and it's thriving.

[Flummery]

Pleased to see this GN. I have one in a big pot that I've had just about a year and a half and it had 5 fruits on in early spring. It rapidly dropped 3 and is now swelling the remaining two wonderfully. I feed occasionally with tomato food and water most days as it's near the outside tap. It's like a lolliop but is now throwing side branches. Really looking forward to our first figs.
I'd say persist Hellbell, but then I'm a persistent blighter!

[BUFFS]

i have mine in a big pot by back door(what passes for a suntrap up here) and it seems to like the colder winters,its a brown turkey,we had 4 figs last year ,this year 7,so we must be doing (or not doing) something right..and they taste lovely,i agree with Flummery,stick with it,are the roots restricted at all,that affects how the plant behaves,if its in the ground put some slabs around and under the roots as much as you can,just to restrict it,it will then put more energy into fruiting,to propagate itself..good luck with it..