Martin Brown wrote:

On 25/10/2013 16:08, Martin wrote:
On Fri, 25 Oct 2013 15:40:16 +0100, "Bill Grey"
wrote:

A neighbour has a fig tree laden with figs which which aren't ripening. He
has planted the tree in a decent sized home built concrete planter (to keep
the roots from spreading. He has been told that a fig tree planted in open
ground will yield ripe fruits but his confining of the roots is preventing
ripening.

Anyone have any ideas on this please?

He's grown it as recommended here.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening...grow-figs.html

and
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandst...opping.gardens
"Figs can produce three crops simultaneously and invariably have two
on the go at any one time. At this time of year there will be the
large ripening figs, half-sized ones and, if you look closely, tiny
pea-sized - even pin-head - fruit tucked into a joint between stem and
leaf. These tiny ones are next year's harvest. The in-between ones -
essentially any that do not ripen by the middle of October - will
never ripen in northern Europe. In a mild winter they start into
further growth, but the skins are tough, so they split and fall off,
which weakens the plant and delays the growth of the very small ones,
meaning that they often fail to ripen too. So the solution is to wait
until November and then ruthlessly remove every single fig bigger than
a pea. Resist the temptation to spare some that are hazelnut sized and
put your trust in the minute figlets - these will grow and swell
rapidly the following summer."

I don't recall ever finding wild ripe figs up here in North Yorkshire
and there are plenty of mature fig trees with big unripe ones on.

We just don't get enough sun. You might stand a chance some years in the
London heat bubble or the extreme south but I reckon it is borderline. I
do have a Brown turkey fig but it never has useful fruit. Its
predecessor was killed in the same winter that did for my tree fern.

We are on the Bedfordshire/Hertfordshire border, one the edge of a
village.

The fig tree is planted at the base of the SW facing wall a recent
extension, and the roots are in quite a bit of builders rubble and
cement.

Provided we don't get a late frost (May) it does very well - ~40 figs
eaten this year and very juicy and tasty they were.

We follow advice from Bob Flowerdew some years ago - Jan/Feb time,
remove everything that looks like a fig, even the very small figs. As
spring gets underway, new fig quickly appear and swell. They are ripe
from late July on.

We used to let the small figs over winter and while they did ripen the
following year, they tended to split and were not so juicy as the one we
now get.

Larry