I am newish here, i have been reading this formum enjoying, learning and becoming completely obsessed with growing figs in my little microclimate of the Puget Sound. My weather is about 5-10F warmer than just a mile or so inland. Winter average is in the 40's So unless we get a hard freeze and if i plan well, I can harvest food from the garden, pretty much year around ....
So here I am posting because I pruned like a madwoman this weekend.
We get the odd crazy spring freeze and am worried. I wasn't even thinking and was pruning a plum, cleaned my pruners and began witth just trimming the deadwood out of my huge desert king. The goal has been to train it into an fig arbor and I had missed the window after my late but massive harvest.
So I went after my pride and joy, my huge lanky tree, ended up topping it to a reachable height ( in the plan) while leaving the lower branches to wind over the arbor. I love how it turned out and know my harvest will be significantly decreased since I removed all the upward growing branches ...but my biggest fear was that I could harm this beautiful tree because of the potential for freezing, the rain to cause rot...
Oh please reassure me that my king of the garden can survive my lack of impulse control?
My second desert king is left unscathed, so I will have plenty of figs,.. but the smaller tree never has produced the huge extra tasty fruit I get from the newly pruned tree. ( Location and soil I am sure so I plan to feed more appropriately this year )
Anyway I hope in my heart I did no significant damage, less fruit is no big deal this year. I just really want to know if it well be " ok"?

Fig wise my addiction and urge to collect more types of figs is becoming impossible to control! I have things I could trade for cuttings but am not sure what the protocol is here?
Other than the kings none of my fig trees are old enough to start taking cuttings. But I have a huge list of potentially unique plants and trees that may be of interest for a swap
My other figs are In pots in the green house now, but will come out next month.
I have a panache, black mission and Negrone ( will stay in pots near a lighted greenhouse on the south side of my home.. in hopes someday they produce) and a young brown turkey that is heading for the garden this year permanently.

I love how my tree is shaped now! But good grief did I do serious harm by pruning so much right now?

Thanks so much for any response to my panic or answers about swapping.

I know a lot of folks prune their trees this time of year.  Not sure about the implications in your specific climate, but I would guess you'd be OK.

I don't think there is anything wrong with proposing a swap on this forum, even if you are offering some "non-fig" items. 

If you have lot of desert king cuttings, you might offer them up in exchange for your desired varieties.  Send me a PM; I probably have a variety that would interest you.

Good Luck

Welcome Heidi! I am also in the puget sound area. Your tree will be fine. I also heavily pruned my DK this year to give it a more desirable shape. I may not get much, if any, fruit this year but I will be rewarded for my efforts in future years. That is how I look at it.

I may have some spares I can give you. I am rooting a bunch and there is no way I can keep all 40 of these cuttings... plus the ones coming from UCD. I'll let you know if things pan out that way.

Welcome

Welcome Heidihi!  My daughter had a little buddy named Heidi, and I always called her HeidiHo!  She was a cute little thing with an amazing personality.  My daughter couldn't go to Cirque de Soleil one time, and I had front row tickets, so Heidi went in her place with me.  We had a great time!  Always liked that girl!

She did move way up north to the state of Washington.  Is this you, Heidi?

Anyway, welcome to the forum and it will be fun to watch your fig collection grow!

Suzi

Heidi, if makes you feel better, I am in also in the NW (Seattle) and I will take some of your cuttings, perhaps trade? Send me PM if you wish to trade or pass on some of your extras... the King will be fine. there is a nice video about pruning king fig.

Well I don't live anywhere near you buy if you have cuttings, I'll trade. I have only 1 unnamed fig but it is from Sicily. Let me know. The cuttings I have are rooting now.

Hello Heidi and welcome to the forum!  You came to the right place for information on figs.  For all my Northwest forum friends, Heidi, Grasa, Nicole,  I have a few questions:

I know your area is more rainy than most. 

How often does it rain there?

When does Spring come?

When does it get warm and stay warm?

When does it get hot?

How hot does it get there?

When is your summer season over?

I know Desert King, Osborne Prolific, Pingo de Mel, Danny's Delite are great in your area.  What other figs are considered excellent for your climate?

I'm in the Southeast and we have 4 full seasons but sometimes the weather goes crazy.  I just want to see if some of those that are best in your area are also excellent in my area too.

thanks,

Dennis, here is a basic breakdown of Seattle's average monthly temps and rainfall. We don't get super cold but we don't get super warm, either.

http://www.weather.com/weather/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/USWA0395

I try to encourage microclimates by shoving all heat loving plants against my south facing fence. COOK!!

You might get more figs than if you didn't prune.  

Dennis, there are more than your list, Kiwibob, Slavi, Scott, Chris, Bill and am sure there are others..
 yes it rains and it is cold and my experiments are out of this world..so i read hot peper is not good for gnats, so I sprinkled hot peper on my recent transplanted pots... 2 days later, a layer of white mold is covering all my containers..good thing today i am home..took all of them to the porch and removed all the top whitish I could... and replaced the top soil... not sure what will happen.. hot pepper was a bad idea, it molded very badly.

Gnat battle here is ongoing.  I decided to cut up little strips of the sticky fly paper and glue to popsicle sticks and put in each container.  the wine/soap mix continue collecting them, the sticky tape does a good job, but it does not protect each plant.

My grafts into the local unknowns are doing much better than those that I rooted from cuttings. Something about these unknowns that make them more resistant to gnats, cold, over or underwatering.  

Welcome to the forum.  You might have less fig this year, but a huge mature Desert King should be able to produce plenty figs.  

Many members from PNW area will have few extra rooted cuttings of different varieties this spring or summer, if you can wait......  LOL...  I know it is challenge to not be able to have those interesting fig cuttings right away..  :)

Welcome!  I love the PNW but it's not the best for figs.  If you have lighting in your greenhouse now is the time to bring your Panache out of dormancy.

Nicole is that a pitty in your picture? If so please know I am a bully woman :) have adopted  rescues for years! 

I am awestruck at the responses thank you so much! 

My " cuttings"  are currently in a huge tangled pile in my driveway, I will sort them out and share for sure. I work a paying job as well so i was tired and tossed them..but they stay fresh, so my nespxt day off I will snip the Goidelic parts ..I didn't think desert king would be in demand since it is truly wonderful and easy to grow ( here anyway)

I am so relieved that I could even o better!

Suzi I wish I was that Heidi, but I am a grandmother ( albeit much tooooo young to be one hehehe) I have never been to cirque but sure would love to go! My personality seems to be what my friends call " odd but a nice of odd" whatever that means? I feel loved so I don't question. Maybe you could find her? I would love being found by a mother figure! They were a huge part of my lifeM

Dennis your questions from my personal 35 years of life here are as follows 

(All you PNW'rs know you can drive a few blocks in some areas  and have a different climate right?? ) I live right in a South Puget sound pocket and can watch the weather from three sides..it is not always what I am having that is for sure. My work is 15 miles and  usually totally different than home. So whatever I say may mean little)
 I hope this helps, it is based on my completely subjective opinion 

I know your area is more rainy than most. 
WAY! 

How often does it rain there?
- Depends on the year we have had  100 days straight or a week, when it is not raining my area has zero humidity, with excellent soils drainage and lots of sandy loam ....you wouldnt think it but everything dies out fast! But yes I think I am having a drought if I need to water anything!

When does Spring come?
 -For me it is here now, unpredictable as it is ...spring is defined by the alders blooming...they are and usually do bloom in February.

When does it get warm and stay warm? 
-I think it is mild most of the year

When does it get hot?
 - " hot" is in the high 80's so ..not often 
We have had a few  truly hot summers, great tomatoes so little effort those years! but I lived in Arizona and THEY have " hot" 

How hot does it get there?
See above 

When is your summer season over?
I would say summer ends mid to late October ..sometimes right up thanksgiving, we have had thanksgiving picnics.

To sum it up for nyone who wants to move here

We are pale, even those of us with some ethnicity! Photophobic.. have mossy feet, love to ride naked in parades...drink tons of microbrews and coffee...take antidepressents or pretend we dont need them..loose our sunglasses because we never need them, no umbrellas but live in wellies ....There are high levels of caffiene, antidepressants and thc measured in the Puget Sound ( second hand info from a friend who owns an analytical lab)

So growing figs here is fun and if you can not go to the Mediterranean? Why not bring it here! 

For the record a third of my yard is dedicated to native plants, because people here have lots of environmental guilt and concern...for damn good reasons!

Wow that was a lot to say! 

Wow! Thanks Heidi! Sounds like I need to visit the PNW for a few weeks!

Thanks!

Dennis - come in July or August. That's our best time. Warm, sun, green and lush, blue waters.... it's the only time of the year non-natives fall in love with our area ;)

Heidi - I agree with the various climates in the same general area. Half of my yard is shaded from my neighbors tree, the other half is HOT. The soil is hard and dry unless I keep it well watered through the summer. (that's where my figs go). No greenhouse here though. I hope my future property will have room for a big one...

Summer seems to end for me in September. I don't expect much from my plants after that.

And yes, this household is pro bully too. In fact right now one of my girls is licking my hand and making it really hard to type.
My girls are Staffordshire Bull Terries - the smaller english cousin to the AmStaffs and pitties. I love them all.

Hi Heidi!  I hope this will be a good start for you to come to the forum more often!

Wow! a 100 days of rain!!!  I think we went near 100 days without rain!! 

I would love to see a picture of your trees, and I am sure others would too!! 

I look forward to reading more about your garden and your fig trees.