wrote:
Pam Moore wrote:
I back up Charlie's advice. Bob Flowerdew off GQT gives the same
advice. Anything bigger than a pea will not survive a cold UK winter
and will slow up the formation of new figs for next year. The better
protected the plant is the earlier it will start to fruit next year.

Ta. Will do.
Is it worth either fleecing or moving to the greenhouse? (Moving would be
... a struggle, but possible - we've moved the tangerine tree to tthe
greenhouse, where the tangerines are still ripening up!)

If you can move it, you can probably save all the budding fruit,
especially if you can keep the temperature over (say) 5° C

Look in hardware outlets for a couple or three little three-wheeled
plates called 'dollies' - makes moving hevy things much easier. (Except
on open ground!)

--
Rusty

David Rance wrote:
On Wed, 3 Nov 2010, wrote:

It sounds like the first small fruits failed to overwinter for you last
year, the fruit still on the tree will not ripen now and can be removed,
next years fruits are still tiny button like buds in the axials, we ate
our last figs on 12th October from the Brown Turkey, first figs were in
late July.

Ah, ok. Yes, this was the first year it had any fruit, so I guess it
needed
to have baby-figs last year, which didn't come.

Do I /have/ to remove the unripe fruit, or can I just leave them to do
their
own stuff?

I was given a tip by my daughter a few years ago - and it worked!

My experience was exactly the same as yours and I never got any figs to
ripen. Emma told me to remove ALL the unripe figs now and then the new
figs next year will ripen. She was right, and I started getting figs to
ripen. Last year I forgot to remove them. This year - no figs again!

When I get home I must remember to remove the hundreds of small green
figs on my tree ......

I *NEVER* remove the little figses, and always have more figs ripening
than I can eat.

I tried removing the small ones from half the tree one year, while
leaving the other half untouched, and it made not a ha'porth of difference.

--
Rusty

kay wrote:

It always seems that this second useless crop is about twice as large as
the crop which ripens.

Given the right conditions, I believe the fig should provide three
flushes of fruit a year.

--
Rusty

In article ,
says...
Pam Moore wrote:
I back up Charlie's advice. Bob Flowerdew off GQT gives the same
advice. Anything bigger than a pea will not survive a cold UK winter
and will slow up the formation of new figs for next year. The better
protected the plant is the earlier it will start to fruit next year.

Ta. Will do.
Is it worth either fleecing or moving to the greenhouse? (Moving would be
... a struggle, but possible - we've moved the tangerine tree to tthe
greenhouse, where the tangerines are still ripening up!)



Figs vary a lot and are the oldest known cultivated plant, the actual
trees are quite tough as are the very small embryo fruits, but in our
climate the trees become deciduous and lose their leaves.
Cultivated figs have been selected because they will form figs without
the small tropical wasp that does the honours where figs come from. some
varieties will set viable fruit for each flush of figs but the varieties
commonly found in the uk do not always do so, some set one crop some two,
and it will make no diffence how warm you keep the plant it still will
not form ripe figs after the self fertile flush its programed to do, as
it needs the missing wasp.
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea

On Thu, 4 Nov 2010 12:56:30 -0000, Charlie Pridham
wrote:

In article ,
says...
Pam Moore wrote:
I back up Charlie's advice. Bob Flowerdew off GQT gives the same
advice. Anything bigger than a pea will not survive a cold UK winter
and will slow up the formation of new figs for next year. The better
protected the plant is the earlier it will start to fruit next year.

Ta. Will do.
Is it worth either fleecing or moving to the greenhouse? (Moving would be
... a struggle, but possible - we've moved the tangerine tree to tthe
greenhouse, where the tangerines are still ripening up!)



Figs vary a lot and are the oldest known cultivated plant, the actual
trees are quite tough as are the very small embryo fruits, but in our
climate the trees become deciduous and lose their leaves.
Cultivated figs have been selected because they will form figs without
the small tropical wasp that does the honours where figs come from. some
varieties will set viable fruit for each flush of figs but the varieties
commonly found in the uk do not always do so, some set one crop some two,
and it will make no diffence how warm you keep the plant it still will
not form ripe figs after the self fertile flush its programed to do, as
it needs the missing wasp.

Fascinating info, thanks Charlie

Pam in Bristol

It's possible to get two or even three harvests off a suitable fig variety in the greenhouse, allegedly.

I would leave the Brown Turkey outside, planted in the ground with restrained root run, and enjoy a big late harvest in late summer. You won't get as big a harvest off a tree in a pot of a size which is easily moveable between greenhouse and outside.

But figs are easy to air-layer. So you might like to grow yourself a second one in a pot which you keep in a greenhouse and move out for summer, and see if you can get an extra crop off that one. But I wouldn't bother unless you heat your greenhouse in the winter.

bear in mind also that figs are quite susceptible to red spider mite.

I can remember reading this up once. The fig wasp life cycle is quite complicated, in that at different times of year you get different ages/sexes of fig wasp, eg you might have the developing youngsters at one time, and the males at another. And the fig tree has adapted to synchronise, producing different types of flowers depending on what the life stage of the inhabiting wasp is at the time. Hence some crops develop into edible fruits, others do not. I really must go and look it up again and remind myself!

In article ,
Rusty Hinge wrote:
Charlie Pridham wrote:

some
varieties will set viable fruit for each flush of figs but the varieties
commonly found in the uk do not always do so, some set one crop some two,
and it will make no diffence how warm you keep the plant it still will
not form ripe figs after the self fertile flush its programed to do, as
it needs the missing wasp.

Must take a trip to the Med with a butterfly net and a wops-proof jamjar...

Make sure that you make the net yourself, because it will need to
be made of midge netting. And, of course, bring back some of the
wild figs that the wasps need as a host ....


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Charlie Pridham wrote:

Figs vary a lot and are the oldest known cultivated plant, the actual
trees are quite tough as are the very small embryo fruits, but in our
climate the trees become deciduous and lose their leaves.
Cultivated figs have been selected because they will form figs without
the small tropical wasp that does the honours where figs come from.

I believe those varieties are all descended from Brown Turkey, are they
not. Mine's a straight Brown Turk, according to its label when bought.

This month I shall take a cutting (complete with little figs) and
conduct an experiment in the greenhouse.

Watch this space, but don't exect anything until the summer at the earliest!

some
varieties will set viable fruit for each flush of figs but the varieties
commonly found in the uk do not always do so, some set one crop some two,
and it will make no diffence how warm you keep the plant it still will
not form ripe figs after the self fertile flush its programed to do, as
it needs the missing wasp.

Must take a trip to the Med with a butterfly net and a wops-proof jamjar...

--
Rusty