I love figs too, have jars of jam in my freezer and frozen whole fruits that I haven't done anything with yet. I keep mine trimmed at about 6.5 feet so we can pick without ladder.
Why didn't you taste the fruit?

SCButtercup said:Why didn't you taste the fruit?

Not my tree. I propagated it, but it belongs to them. It's hard sometimes to track down the successes and failures of my customers, so I pay more attention to the more public examples. I'll ask how the fruit was next time I stop by--there were pictures posted on Facebook of food made with them, so I know they were eaten. Without tasting it myself, though, it's hard to know how it compared to those from my own trees.

I do wish I had a name for the Jolly Tiger reversions, though. I've given a lot of them away now and it's confusing to call it "Jolly Tiger, Reverted." I need to track down Barry Yinger, whom I got my original from, and see if he knows the origin of the variety.

JT is a Chimera of Masui Dauphine

ediblelandscapingsc said:JT is a Chimera of Masui Dauphine

That would be consistent both with my experience with this fig and the rumors I've heard of its origins in Japan, where MD is the standard fig of commerce. Thanks for that--I'll start marking these accordingly. Do you have a source for this?

Bass from trees of joy

I'm from Victoria Canada zone 8-9. So I'm new to growing fig tree and I bought a 4 ft brown turkey from Costco this May. In June, many new leafs grown from the bald tree and I Need July, I can see 4 green figs fruiting on the tree. I heard people saying I can't water too much or fertilizing too much in the first 3 months to encourage root grow, however, this summer is super dry in BC, I think I didn't water enough so the 4 figs stil staying green now. Can I still give it a boost now or it's too late? Will my figs still going to ripe? I also notice there are some brown dots on the top leafs, what cause that? I will post some pictures tomorrow during the day. Thank you very much.

I don't get good figs on my fig trees until they have been planted for a couple years. First year figs, in particular, often taste funny here. Usually I just pull them all off so that they don't slow down the tree getting better established. I don't think lack of water will delay ripening, though it might make them smaller and drier. I'm in the desert, though; establishing new fig trees requires lots of (deep) watering here.

Shekay said:I'm from Victoria Canada zone 8-9. So I'm new to growing fig tree and I bought a 4 ft brown turkey from Costco this May. In June, many new leafs grown from the bald tree and I Need July, I can see 4 green figs fruiting on the tree. I heard people saying I can't water too much or fertilizing too much in the first 3 months to encourage root grow, however, this summer is super dry in BC, I think I didn't water enough so the 4 figs stil staying green now. Can I still give it a boost now or it's too late? Will my figs still going to ripe? I also notice there are some brown dots on the top leafs, what cause that? I will post some pictures tomorrow during the day. Thank you very much.

As a general rule, water the fig tree for the first two/three years after planting every week if it didn't receive at least one full inch of rain the previous week. In the following years it's advisable to deeply water the tree every ten days or so in dry weather to increase the sweetness (sugar content) of the figs: it's a trick I've learned from French vine growers.
I've never used any fertilizer on fig trees.

Mind figs outside their native range have an inconsistent ripening period, which may vary by as much as two weeks year on year: This year they are only starting to ripen right now here (Zone 8a) while last year they had already all ripened by the 15th.
Also mind until the tree is fully established fig production will be both small and extremely variable in quality: if some figs taste "funny", it's absolutely normal.

I think you really can't over water your fig tree when it's young, and if you want the figs to size up and ripen, I'd go for twice a week deep watering if it doesn't rain and the weather is warm.

I'm growing in 9b to 10a so quite hot for 4 months over the summer. My fig sets two crops of fruit but usually the second one doesn't manage to ripen up until November, and sometimes the leaves have dropped by then so they never do get ripe. What I've found in our fast-draining sandy soil is the figs plump up and ripen suddenly when they're ready, and it's usually after there has been some heavy rain, so extra water helps them along. They do seem to take forever to get to the ready stage.

I'm saying, wait patiently, and water more when the weather is warm.

Oh, thank you for all the advises, I just took some pictures of my little fig tree. And you can see there are only leafs growing from the top of the branch.





There are also many smaller trees coming out from the bottom of the tree, do you think I can transfer them into pot and bring them inside for the winter? When will be a good time?



I also found there are some black spots appearing on the top big leaf. What do you think it is? Once again, thank you very much.

I wouldn't worry too much about those spots, they are most likely due to excessive use of fertilizers. Just stop using them.

About those suckers... is your fig tree grafted or not? Suckers can be used for propagation (through ground layering), but if the tree is grafted you'll get something completely unlike the scion.
However I suggest you just remove them because they are not just draining the tree of strength that could go into growing the main trunk and the figs themselves. You can always propagate the tree at a later date through cuttings.

Is it a good time for pruning now? and when do people usually do propagation? Because its in late growing season now. The tag of my fig tree said its a brown turkey, I guess its not grafted.

Your Fig tree could still be a brown turkey and be grafted onto a different root stock. If its grafted you'll find the graft union above ground ( aproximately 4" (10 cm) above ground). If so, only those cuttings made above the union will be of the same variety. Otherwise those suckers could by now have developed their own roots and become separate plants. The best time to do that is late fall. If so you could then place them in individual bags and overwinter them in a frost free place. My fig trees ( which are three now) were made from suckers that grew just like your pic of a mature fig tree of a good friend of mine. These suckers all produced figs after waiting 4 years. I expect them to improve each year from now.
Arturo

Hi Arturo,

May I ask what do you mean by place the cutting in individual bags and overwinter them in a frost free place? They wont just dry out and died?

Once the plants goes fully dormant and has lost all its leaves you can separate the suckers, keeping as much roots as possible and pot them in a plastic bag/growing bag with soil, keeping the soil moist ( but not wet), in a frost free garage/ basement etc. It will stay alive but dormant all winter long and will start showing signs of life by the following spring ( I suspect more mid spring there). Then you could grow them the first season as they are in grow bags or give them away ( as my friend did)...in fact he sent me the suckers bare root, kept moist with paper towel inside a box, by mail; this was late winter for him ( near Buenos Aires) but too early for me (northern Patagonia), so my trees stood potted inside until better weather arrived. They spent two full years in growing bags until I found them a good place inside one of our large greenhouses. Otherwise, with our very cool summers, our figs wouldn't have ever ripened. I hope I answered your question. however I would gladly share my local experience with you. We might be sharing similar weather conditions.
Arturo

In the US only backyard growers and collectors are grafting figs. Nurseries here mainly propagate figs via cuttings. There are pros and cons to both but for me the pros of rooted cuttings outweigh the cons of grafting figs . The reason being is we experience die back periodically be it from a late frost, an abnormally cold winter, or even too much new growth going into winter. If your tree dies back to the ground the grafted portion is lost forever. Even temps just below freezing can really hurt a fig tree if it's still actively growing. Stay away from high nitrogen fertilizers to avoid this and avoid applying anything late in the season. Figs don't need a lot of water either. You can't help with rainfall but unless your soil is bone dry it's best to avoid watering. Over watering will send up 6ft high super tender shoots. Not only will this make the plant vulnerable to cold damage it also makes it vulnerable to newly planted trees toppling over in high winds or limb breakage.
Shekay figs need hot weather to ripen properly, you may have a hard time ripening figs in your area because of the mild summer temps. Desert King is the best suited fig for mild summer areas like those in the Pacific North West. If you find your figs just stay green forever or are still hard even when color appears you may want to think about getting a Desert King fig tree. It shouldn't be too hard to find either. In the PNW it's as common as Celeste is in the Southeast Other good ones that may work well in your area include Olympia, Takoma Violet, Marseilles VS Black, and Ronde de Bordeaux. These may be a little harder to find but are well worth the search.

dyzzypyxxy said:But Paul, I think you will need to protect it enough to let some trunks mature before you will get any fruit. Maybe put it in a big pot and roll it into shelter once it loses its leaves in winter?

Mine makes figs on the woody stems, and it did take a couple of years' growth before it started producing on the mature woody trunks.

It's lost the whole set of spring leaves already to the rusty fungus, but is growing new ones. I just don't know if I will ever get a fall crop of figs from it.

My fig froze to the ground this past winter after 2-3 years of bearing fruit. I see some fruit started on the new stems that just grew this spring from the ground.

Sally sadly this will be an on going thing unless you protect your fig tree overwinter. In your area figs in ground they should be wrapped. It's going to put all it's energy into new growth and try to set a crop but that new growth will be tender going into winter and there's a good chance it will die back again this winter if left unprotected unless you get a super mild winter. I'm also sad to say your figs probably won't ripen up this year if they are just now coming on the tree. Figs need high temps to ripen properly and once temps get in the 70's the ripening process slows to a creep. If you want a tree outside and don't feel like winterizing it a good option for you would be "hardy Chicago" it can freeze to the ground and still give you ripe figs by the first frost. Atreano is another good option but isn't as sweet and tasty as HC.

thanks, for the information, Daniel, I got them more or less as novelty, no one in my family is super crazy about them, so I'll take that into account.
I have gotten ripe figs from this bush, 2 years, without protection. I think I bought a potted bush, and Brown Turkey... maybe. Another here is a cutting from a huge tree grown by a friend other side of Baltimore- that has yet to reach bearing size..

If you know how to root cuttings and want to try hardy Chicago and/or Atreano I'll be happy to send you some cuttings for postage once my plants go dormant. Just shoot me a tree mail if you are interested