Despite getting proper care and fertilizers, some common figs drop their fruits before ripened. Most greek varieties do this ( markopolou, vasilika mavra just to name a few). And there are figs from different sources that drop their fruits while some don't. Celeste from Dr. Rival does not drop their fruits while celeste from other sources drop their fruit. Vasilika Melissi, Vern BT, Rouge dB from different sources behave differently too. Any idea why this is happening in Malaysia? Is it due to weather? Does growing in colder climates makes them fruiting while in a hot humid climate makes them drop their fruit?

Dear Norhayati,

I am from Europe but I am living in Malaysia. You Malay people like to call Europe as 'colder climate'.

What I am telling you is in Europe there are seasons.... There is hot season and cold season. In Malaysia the temperature is 32-34°C throughout the year. In Europe fig fruit is ripening during the hottest time of the year when the daytime temperature is somewhere between the 38-44°C. It is because the air is less humid so the atmosphere less resists to the rays of the sun. That is why you boleh goreng telur dan roti canai diatas besi kereta that you cannot do in Malaysia. In Malaysia I don't need any sunblock when I go to the beach despite I am of Caucasian race with white skin and blond hair. In my home country musim panas must use sunblock otherwise my skin gets 2nd grade burn after an hour on the beach.

So luruh buah is definitely not because the weather. Maybe because your variety is a Smyrna-type one.

Dear helike,
I have stayed in USA before. I know what four seasons mean...winter, spring, summer and fall. ..Smyrna needs that special wasps for pollination. I am writing about common figs that do not need wasps to fruit. These common figs drop their fruits despite getting all the good care and fertilizers. I have made a list of them in fb under Nenda Mysha. I am perplexed by the situation when common figs do this. I can understand if smyrna types do this, that's why I always tell newbies to refrain from buying cuttings from Turkey since almost 95% of them are smyrna.

My only common fig that drop their fruits is Black Sicilian. The list has more than 50 common varieties that drop their fruits. A friend of mine has a celeste which bore 70 fruits and he got to eat only 2 fruits. It is very frustrating for some hobbyists when they bought these common figs and they dropped their fruits. Any constructive help from members here are greatly appreciated.

Or could it be that some common figs need to go through these four seasons ritual in order for them not to drop their fruits? Like hyacinths need to be stratified in order to bloom in hot climate?

Do your figs ever go dormant? It's possible that trees that are in continuous growth are always expending energy so there is not enough reserve energy to bear fruit. In temperate areas, winter dormancies provide the plant an opportunity to stock up on energy to be expended over a shorter growing season. Maybe thin out flower crops to see if that helps? Just a theory. 

This can also be a symptom of excess nitrogen fertilizer.

Interesting question that has come up before.  Not sure if anyone knows the answer.

Common type fig trees dropping their fruit likely has to do with the fig tree stress level during development of the figs; 
Whether too much/not enough water, container too hot for roots, too much fertilizer ... 

In Zone 6 with hot dry summer, cool wet spring I have never had figs drop with figs grown in ground.
A couple of container grown figs that I let dry out and get stressed when figs were developing did drop some crop.

There are some varieties that are known to be notorious for dropping figs.

Could the lack of dormancy opportunity for the figs in Malaysia be a factor? 
Figs (ficus carica) are indigenous to temperate climates with a winter period that lets them go dormant for a couple of months. 

 

No, they never go dormant. But sometimes based on my experience, they drop their leaves in december. And December being winter in the northern hemisphere, could I consider this as dormant period? They do bear fruits..lots of them but they drop all the fruits before they ripened. The funny thing is some of these same varieties do produced ripened fruits when bought from different sources.

We observed this after 2 seasons. And in the case of my black sicilian, it is into its third season fruiting. Some hobbyists even put ice in the containers to simulate dormant periods.

I had around 100 figs on my Celeste tree and all but 2 dropped off. Here in Hawaii, figs go dormant in November and come out of dormancy in mid March, thru early April. I'm just getting a few to wake up now. So far only Celeste has dropped any fruit.

A way to stimulate dormant periods is to keep the fig tree potted and don't water it until it looses its leaves (this will be much more effective than putting ice on the roots, which could kill the plant).  You can resume watering after the leaves drop so the tree doesn't die.  I do this with my Pakistan mulberry tree in a 15 gallon pot and get 2, sometimes 3 fruiting seasons on it each spring to fall when I should just get one fruiting season. 

Keeping figs in pots and elevated above the ground on a brick or something in a rainy, tropical location will also reduce the risk of them getting too much moisture and not sweetening up as much as possible.

Kyyada,
Really? This is the first time I heard of this. Learning new things everyday. Thank you