I have been reading about using olive oil on the fig eye to force it ripen. Many have indicated success with some varieties. My question is at what stage one should start using the olive oil during the fig life on the plant? Can it be started as early as the beginning of Auguest to ensure early ripening or is it too ealry or too late?
How about enclosing the plant (if still small) in a transparent plastic enclosure to trap heat and raising the temperature (for those in Zone 5 for example)? Will the humidity in the enclosure cause problem with the plant health?
It is my first year growing two fig plants in Zone 5 potted in mid May (Bifara and white fig from Grimo Nut Nursery in Canada). I got 7 ~ 8 good size figs on each plant but only one on Bifara got semi-ripened. It is too late to try the enclosure method this year but if I do not hear a bad news here, I will try the enclosure method along with the olive on the fig eye next year. I will appreciate input.

Enclosing the plant works but you have to leave the bottom edge open so air circulates back and forth.
Also keep,in mind that next year the 2 figs you have will be older.
The older they get the earlier they mature there fruits.
And that will help.About oilling i do not have experience.

Thanks Herman2.
I had been reading your posts on GardenWeb with great interest since I started with fig plants this year. Your posts are always useful and practical. Thanks.

Ottawan,
I live in a lot warmer climate than you but I have did the oiling thing quite often with pretty good results, I think if it was me, I would do what Herman recomends + do the oiling, what have ya have to lose?

Cecil

Thanks Cecil
You mentioned that you did the oiling thing quite often with pretty good results, would you be able to answer this part of my question in my post " at what stage one should start using the olive oil during the fig life on the plant? Can it be started as early as the beginning of Auguest to ensure early ripening or is it too ealry or too late?" Thanks again in anticipation.

Input from others will be appreciated as well.

OttawanZ5,

In regard to your question about when I oil my figs, If the figs look like they are about full size but not ripening, then I oil them,  You can usually tell if it is going to work in a few days because they will really start to swell & change colors, Now to the question about when to try it, someone in the forum in your climate might be better to see when they do the oiling, Here in East Tx. August is just fine to do the oiling!

I hope I have answered your questions satisfactorily!

Good luck!
Can't wait for next fig season Eh! ?  HAHA :)

Cecil

Thanks Cecil
Yes, Can't wait for next fig season Eh!
Though there is too much snow, slush, deep freez and wind chills to pass through until then.

I was told to oil no earlier than 2 weeks before the fig should ripen, also that it can be done through out the season to produce better tasting figs.

Gloria

gwarring mentioned that "I was told to oil no earlier than 2 weeks before the fig should ripen, also that it can be done through out the season to produce better tasting figs. "
Most others are indicating otherwise that oiling the fig eye degrades the fig taste!
Figs in our climate do not reach full favour that they can reach in fig friendly warmer places so I can't make good comparison and will be relying on others input. I hope gwarring and others will provide more input after having oiled more figs.

My other thoughts about oiling the fig eye is if the ripening was due to oiling or it was due to the natural process/cycle since the fig was close to ripening anyway. It is recommended not to oil, say, more than two weeks before the expected ripening time. Only well experienced fig experts may know that only two weeks are left for ripening. Many may be just a week away from natural ripening when oiled thinking they are two weeks away from ripening and then get ripe figs after a week. In such cases the conclusion may be wrong because it was the natural time to ripen.
I will surely oil all figs that have some potential to ripen if I hear about a frost warning week or two ahead.
I know that old experienced people in fig friendly countries have been doing this for a while but some doubts linger on for the reason mentioned above (i.e. was it the oil that pushed it to ripening or was it because it was close to ripening anyway).

Ottawanz5 I too was wondering the same thing my Bronze Paradiso still has about 30 figs on it but I have been hesitant to try the olive oil. I think I will give it a try this weekend see what happens.

I oiled my figs beginning of Sept and although I had a bountiful harvest, I would not dare to confirm it works 100%.

Nelson, if you have that many figs on paradiso, perhaps you can try to oil half of them. In my oiling, I used olive oil and I obseved some of the figs ripen very fast with little swelling & they tasted flat. Some like my Vicenzo, Slocan, Deanna, Tony's Greek tasted great. I have a feeling it impacted my Dark Portuguese, Hardy Chicago, Marseillies VS bountiful harvest in the sense they drop but taste was not affected. The dropping of figs could also be attributed to weather. We had great daytime weather like 25*C to 28*C but night time it is down to 12*C. Thus I am not certain which is the culprit. Next year I will have these variants in an enclosure. The only variant I did not oil was LSU Golden Celeste as the bigger fruits were dropping but it is a great producer. It will go into enclosure next year by end Aug.

Thanks Paully I think I will do like you said and oil about half and see what happens the smallest I have on the tree are about the size of a quarter the others are about double the size. This Bronze Paradiso produced over 50 figs this year easy but as they would start turning ripe the rats and squirls would steal them.