"David.WE.Roberts" wrote in message
...
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?

Bill

Just to check - is it a known variety of self fertile fig such as Brown
Turkey?

A neighbour had a mature fig tree which was given to him as a present by
someone who had brought it back from the Med, I think, and it was always
laden with fruit but they never ripened.

When the fruit was cut open there was the inside-out flower but no real
flesh.

Turned out it was a Mediterranean variety which relied on a specific
species of wasp for fertilisation - had to crawl in through the hole at
the base of the inside-out flower to fertilise it.

Obviously, no population of wasps here so no fertilisation.

It was never going to produce viable fruit.

We have (Suffolk) a Brown Turkey in a pot which always produces a few
fruit (four this year IIRC) and is now laden with the second much larger
crop which are not going to ripen as we don't have a glass house.

There are quite a few trees in gardens around town which look to be
unrestricted judging by the size, which are also on their second crop.

If the tree is producing figs then root restriction is not the issue.

Root restriction is supposed to limit the foliage growth to encourage the
tree to put energy into fruit instead of leaves and branches.

So unless you are in an unsuitable climate - far North or up in the hills
- a fig such as Brown Turkey should produce one crop of edible fruit an
average year.

If it has its first crop now, then that is very late.
Again, are you sure that this isn't the second crop?
Judging by our little potted tree this year we had a late start, a few
first cop figs, then a surge of growth and a bumper second crop which are
on the tree now.
So the tree may have produced a small first crop which he missed.

Cheers

Dave R

Thank you David for very good reply. Unfortunately I've no idea which
variety of fig he has:-(

Bill