Fig

[Loqueris]

I have just recieved a very large Fig tree from a lady who was giving up after the sad death of her husband.
The tree is a good 7 - 8ft tall and is kept in a container. I believe that the tree originated from a cutting from a plant in Italy.
My problem is that apparrently it has not produced fruit except for one very sad shrivelled pathetic lonesome fruit last year.

I know nothing about Fig trees and how to care for them other than they like a compacted root system and was wondering whether anyone could give me some hints or tips to get this tree fruiting.

I live in the Scottish highlands and am keeping it in a polytunnel at the moment until the weather warms up enough to put it outside somewhere sheltered.

Any ideas?

[chilliking]

i've recently been given one so have been doing a bit of reading.

from what i gather now is the time to do any pruning. then rub of any growing buds in June if you want to preserve the size/contain growth. also ive read you should remove quite a lot of the tiny fruit in the autumn to focus the trees efforts on fewer fruit otherwise they won't ripen.

like i said i am new to figs to so i'm sure others with more experiance will offer some better advice!

[Kristen]

You will have pea-sized fruits from last year which will produce fruit this year (well, in years when the Winter wasn't so harsh as to kill the embryo-fruits )

The tree will also produce fruits in the current year, but the British Summer is not long enough to ripen them, and generally they are removed so the tree doesn't waste energy trying to get them to maturity.

But I dunno about pruning it I'm afraid. Trees planted in the ground normally have their roots constrained, the size of the "container" defines the size of the eventual tree. So I don't think there should be a problem growing it in a container (of reasonable size)

[PAULW]

1 I would not remove any immature fruit as the June drop will reduce the number the plant can support
2 Water water water, 2 years ago my fig produced a couple of figs last year it got a can of water every day and I had a good crop, it is very easy to forget that a fig in a tub cannot get its own water even if it has been pouring down all summer,

[Loqueris]

I can't take off any fruit cos there aren't any.
All I have is 2 plants - one of them is 2 upright stems that are bare and just show some shoots at the top (it's about 7ft).
The other has 3 shoots, again bare, again about 7ft tall with shoots at the top.
I cut one of the shoots right down about 1/3rd today just to see if it would encourage it to shoot further down so I could contain the height a little and create a bush rather than a few bare stems.

I'll just leave em then and see what happens?

[rustylady]

I did a quick google for you - check this site out How to grow Figs: A guide to choosing, planting, training and looking after Fig trees

[smallblueplanet]

...
I'll just leave em then and see what happens?

We've just yesterday planted a small (originally in a pot) Hardy Chicago against a sw house wall. This article by Bunny Guiness was useful & interesting.

Growing figs - Telegraph

There is also this website with lots of info & links

Figs 4 Fun

Reads Nurserys hold the national fig collection in the UK

Fig Trees - Reads Nursery

HTH