The ONE. One fig.

[vash]

I have a fig tree on borrowed time. It’s maybe on year 5 or 6 of being planted in the ground. It’s tiny. It was in a wine-barrel pot, and it had some more fruit then. Replanted it, and NOTHING! My wife wants me to take it out.

I keep thinking, “next year is the year!”

I just plucked the one fig it had this year. It was huge. Best fig ive ever eaten. Well best half-fig I’ve ever eaten. My wife and I shared the lone fruit.

This will eventually produce a more substantial crop right? Or should I dig it out?

[KFC911]

If you kill the tree that produced the best half-fig she's ever had ...

You decide

[vash]

Hahahaha. Good point.

[Tidybuoy]

it is my understanding that fig trees need other fig trees to pollinate and may need manual pollination. Maybe that is the problem. I'm no expert but maybe google the subject. I live in an area where there are a lot of fig trees and so they always seem to be full of fruit.

[pwd72s]

Might try feeding it next spring....tree food root spikes, punched into the soil around the drip line.

[A930Rocket]

Originally Posted by Tidybuoy

… may need manual pollination…

I’m not going to Google how you manually pollinate a fig!

[TimT]

LOL you need to find an old Italian guy who is wearing black wool pants, and a White button down shirt who is gardening and ask him about figs....

[vash]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

Might try feeding it next spring....tree food root spikes, punched into the soil around the drip line.

I dont think it is this. I have been fertilizing it like it was a marijuana plant...there is bat-poop all up under there.

[juanbenae]

A neighbor of mine breeds Great Pyrenees for livestock protection. When a female comes into season, he and his wife will say the "fig is ripe".... They only breed their two females once a year or less so keeping the male, Beef away from the ripe figs when they don't want a litter presents a big challenge...

Beef loves him a fig too......

[Bill Douglas]

"Save the fig, save the fig."

That is a very fine fig. It would be sad not to do a repeat next year. And with a bit of luck you could have one each

[vash]

^^^ one could hope.....

[masraum]

Congrats on one tasty fig!

We bought this house 4.5 years ago, and it came with a fig plant in the ground. 3 months after we bought the house, we had a cold snap worse than this area had seen in decades which killed the fig back to the ground. Then we had 2.5 years of severe drought.

You motivated me. We've had good rain this year and the fig looks really healthy. I went out and checked. We also had one tiny little fig. It was very tasty.

It looks like the single tasty fig thing is going around this year!

Originally Posted by vash

That's a nice big fig. At least there was enough for you both to have plenty of fruit. Our one fig was probably half that size.

[LWJ]

I think your fig tree is a metaphor for life. I just don't know what it is saying. But, it is cool. Don't kill it.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Tidybuoy

it is my understanding that fig trees need other fig trees to pollinate and may need manual pollination. Maybe that is the problem. I'm no expert but maybe google the subject. I live in an area where there are a lot of fig trees and so they always seem to be full of fruit.

According to Google's AI, pollination is either not required or is a specialized activity that requires special bugs.

Figs, a unique "inside-out" fruit, require pollination by tiny fig wasps in some varieties. These wasps, specific to each fig species, enter the fig through a tiny opening, pollinate the flowers inside, and lay their eggs. The process, called "caprification," is essential for seed production in certain fig types like Smyrna and San Pedro varieties. However, "common" fig varieties, like Brown Turkey, do not require pollination and produce fruit without insect assistance

[greglepore]

That fig is a breba. Its an early fig. It'll produce a larger crop at the end of summer.

You're kinda in a marginal fig area. You're in the NE, right? The old school dago's there would either dig the fig up and bury it in a trench to protect from frost and replant in spring or wrap it with burlap and stuff the burlap with straw. Here in Va they mostly survive but last year was rough, mine died back but is 7 ft now.

Dirty secret-DEF is 100% pure urea nitrogen. Dilute it with like a quarter cup in a gallon of water and feed it to your fig early on. Its like fig steroids. I also spray it on the lawn spring and fall from a tank on my zero turn at 2 cups per 15 gal.

[Tobra]

I have a nice old Italian guy who is a patient that has a fig tree, not purple like that one.

Wife likes figs, says the ones off his tree are much better than ours. Guess I should be pruning it

I have a grapefruit tree, she wants pink grapefruit, fine. In the ground 7 or 8 years before fruit that was not 90% rind, little GD golf ball size fruit after you start with a big softball. I was not pleased. 10 years it got a few that were decent. After 15, it was rocking,after 20 I would characterize it as astonishing.

[masraum]

[gregpark]

I have just the opposite problem and it's a messy one. I planted this fig 10 years ago and it produces too much. So prolific my chickens get tired of them and I rake into the yard waste bin every day. Constantly hacking on it too so I can walk and drive the mower under it. These trees seem to want to grow low, right to the ground. Not pleasant stepping on a ripe fig barefooted

[masraum]

Originally Posted by greglepore

That fig is a breba. Its an early fig. It'll produce a larger crop at the end of summer.

You're kinda in a marginal fig area. You're in the NE, right? The old school dago's there would either dig the fig up and bury it in a trench to protect from frost and replant in spring or wrap it with burlap and stuff the burlap with straw. Here in Va they mostly survive but last year was rough, mine died back but is 7 ft now.

Dirty secret-DEF is 100% pure urea nitrogen. Dilute it with like a quarter cup in a gallon of water and feed it to your fig early on. Its like fig steroids. I also spray it on the lawn spring and fall from a tank on my zero turn at 2 cups per 15 gal.

Interesting. I'll have to give the urea nitrogen a shot.

Ours is growing between a crepe myrtle and a pecan tree, but still gets good afternoon sun. There was another plant on top of it that I cut back to nothing to give the fig more breathing room.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by gregpark

I have just the opposite problem and it's a messy one. I planted this fig 10 years ago and it produces too much. So prolific my chickens get tired of them and I rake into the yard waste bin every day. Constantly hacking on it too so I can walk and drive the mower under it. These trees seem to want to grow low, right to the ground. Not pleasant stepping on a ripe fig barefooted

I don't think they are naturally trees, they have to be trained that way.

I think bush/shrub is the natural growth habit of figs.