In article ,
Martin Brown wrote:

I have seen a wild fig tree in central Manchester (on the river visible
from Blackfriars bridge that fruits profusely) and also at places like
Fountains Abbey not that far from me so it is possible on a variety of
soils iff they like the conditions. I'd have thought your sandy soil
would be more to its liking and you have a few degrees of latitude
advantage in terms of sunlight. I think they are fully cold hardy in the
UK once they get established so I doubt that is the problem.

The point is that its young growth sometimes gets cut back fairly hard,
and always gets cut back a bit. It always recovers fast when things
warm up, but that produces leaf and new shoots, not figs.

There are lots of plants that are fully hardy in the UK, but don't flower
or fruit. My understanding is that the fig fruit crop we normally get
in the UK comes from the figlets formed the previous year, and it is
precisely those that don't come through. Sometimes it produces a few
fruit that are both formed and ripen the same year, but not many and
not always.

If my understanding IS correct, then I am definitely onto a loser.
What I am not entirely sure is whether that is how figs behave in the
UK as well as in warmer climates.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.