How long does it usually take to yield figs from a 6 inch cutting.  Anxious for figs.   I know different figs have different growth rates, but let me know what you have and how fast.

I never let figs produce the first year.  It's crazy, allowing them to fruit will hurt the growth of the plant.  If you let them fruit too young, they often taste awful and are very few in count anyway. 

18-24 months minimum on a couple of fruit.  Lots of factors involved, including whether you put it in the ground or keep it in a pot. 

If you want figs right away, go to the store or market and buy fruit.

I always allow the age of the tree dictate the how much fruit I will allow it to bear.

I don't pull the fruit off my figs unless they are newly rooted maybe that is wrong but I haven't lost any of them.

last year I got several figs from same year Hardy Chicago, VDB and Texas everbearing they were started at Chistmas and had fruit by late June and put out maybe 5 or 6 pretty tasty fruit each.

Peters Honey made 3 fruit and were very bland

some others made fruit late but frost got them

Does anyone think that maybe those of us that live in the South and have a long growing season may be able to let our young trees produce fruit without endangering the health of the tree?

I am sure the Southern states and those with warmer zones would have a different and BETTER success with production earlier.  But they can be just as susceptible to Frost at different times of the year.

I really think it depends on the plant.

A little plant that is stuggling and barely growing will be set back by making fruit but a plant that is growing so fast that it has to be up potted 2 or 3 times in a summer will have plenty of energy to survive even if the top gets fried.

And the extended growing season down here means that we can get a plant up to a 7gal size in its first season  were as up north thats not as likely without a greenhouse.

Thanks for the info.   Yes, i'm near Phoenix, so it's definitely Spring already and summer like conditions  probably here in a  few weeks.  It got up to 85 degreees one day last week. I started a Strawberry Verte cutting about 1.5 years ago (from about 8 inches) and it's about 8 feet now in a pot.  Hope to have figs this year.   I started pulling off breba figs since they were superhard and last year's breba figs never ending up getting soft.  They just dropped off the tree last year.   

Here is my experience on the topic.

 

  

 

Amazing.   What part of the country are you in?   What kind of soil do you use, and what fertilizer (if any) did you use?

Height isn't what you're going for, it's caliper.  Very important to remember that a tree is a big hydraulic system, pumping nutrients back and forth through the trunk, so height is nowhere near as important at thickness of the trunk and main branches.   

I usually won't let my trees start to hold fruit until they get caliper greater than 1" at the trunk.  The reality is, a 1/2" thick tree trunk that's 6' tall just can't effectively push nutrients around to support the fruit, and can't distribute energy from photosythesis at the leaves.  Usually my trees are at 1"-2" caliper by the end of year 2.

I want to know what you use as well. Again seeing those picks and hearing what you guys expect for size out of your trees makes me think I really did something wrong last year. From cuttings started around last December through the summer the highest any cutting got was maybe 2 feet and these were also different varieties.

I am from Bulgaria in Europe. My father makes good compost.  I add composted pine needles from the nearby forest and also some standard soil mix from the garden center . So 30% compost  30% pine needles, 30% mix.  As for fertilizer I don't really remember, but I think I used only little Ammonium nitrate. We have long hot summer and that's what fig plants love.

This could also be a good time to warn folks against using liquid fertilizer on newly started trees, unless you like seeing your plants go into shock, potentially killing them ;)

I started with 1/8 strength Miracle Gro Triple 20 working my way up to 1/2 strength by end of season.

I didn't use any fertilizer last year. In my case I think it was my potting mix

Pen, very impressive. If I get only half that much growth on my cuttings I'll be happy. Assuming they root that is.  :)

I wouldn't want to get figs off a cutting . . yes it's possible that they produce something . . but rule of thumb is: You want the plant to grow and develop first. For that matter . . if you have a young sapling . . and it tends to produce a few figs . . well . . you might pinch them off to allow the tree to work on growth . . not spend it's energy supporting fruit.

That being said . . .I have a black mission in a 15 gal container . . and the 1st year I had it(albeit probably a couple of years old from a nursery), it produced a handy amount of fruit . . . I let them mature . . and they were worth the wait . . but a young tree potted, is much more viable than a 1st or 2nd year cutting

We all know that removing fruits the first and second season is good for the plant. I know but the temptation is way to strong to resist. And to tell you the truth I don't regret at all. These Celeste figs were just delicious. 

That is great Pen, mind if I ask how you select/harvest your pine needles? I am guessing I should just rake the fresh ones to the side and then rake up the decomposing ones underneath, but have never tried it.

Brent you guess right. That's the way I do it. Composted pine needles is great addition to the soil mix for several reasons. First I will mention that most of the soils around the world have PH of around 7.0.  Fig trees can adapt to different kind of soils and PH, but the perfect one is PH 6.3 Composted pine needles are acidic and when I add them to my mix the PH is exactly  6.3. This may be one of the reasons my plants grew so well.  Another good reason to add pine needles is to bring life to your soil mix (good bacteria, fungi and many other creatures) . Most commercial mixes are simply dead, made out of peat, perlite and other "dead" matter. There is a great deal of cooperation between bacteria, fungi and plant's roots when absorbing nutrients. And last I will say that adding organic matter to any soil mix is always a good thing. One thing to consider is that you have to use more nitrogen if the pine needles are not completely decomposed (and most of the time they are not which is not a problem at all).

I agree about the commercial mixes using peat and perlite way too sterile for my taste I use a pine bark based mix and have even used straight pine bark fines with good results.

I also don't mess around when it comes to fertilizer no liquid or granular only coated timed release like nutricoat or osmacote and at about twice the recommended amount.

That and plenty of water will put any of the fast growing fig types in a 7gal. container with a 1inch or better caliper given a nice southern growing season.

(Disclamer) This is just my results your results may vary :)

and I have had a few that refused to grow good so I dumped them

Jim,

Twice the recommended amount!  Good to know (meaning I didn't). I have been slacking...

How much do you add to a 7-gallon container?