It's warm and sunny out! It's actually in the 60's! I'm doing a bit outside today and I walked the yard to see what's happening with the trees. I have brebas forming on the following trees:

Negronne
Chicago Hardy
Vern's BT
BT
Atreano
Gene's Vashon
Osborne Prolific
Italian Honey
Desert King
Maybe Ischia Green
Maybe Adriatic

All my trees are youngsters so they don't have many as of now.

I was the most surprised by Chicago Hardy. I hadn't heard of this tree being known for brebas.

Question: How big or how old do you require the trees to get before you allow them to grow the fruit they try to put on? I have some that were cuttings last year and are trying to give me brebas now. Allow or deny?

Chicago Hardy breba

Bumping this up with my question -

Question: How big or how old do you require the trees to get before you allow them to grow the fruit they try to put on?
I have some that were cuttings last year and are trying to give me brebas now. Allow or deny?

Hi Nichole,

             I have only been growing figs for 1 year, I  asked myself this question just yesterday. Most of my trees are in 5 gallon buckets or 10-15 gallon nursery pots. It was a pretty nice day for us here in Western WA  yesterday, so I had my barns side door open. So my figs could soak up some well needed sun. I did a quick check and almost all of my figs had Brebas.

       My trees are still a bit on the short side . (all under 5ft.) So I am hoping that if I take off all of the brebas , the trees will focus on growth instead of fruit production . I have done this before on all of my other fruit trees , especially on my Apples . I learned that even with proper thinning,  branches will become overladen with fruit and self destruct.

Whether it's right or wrong I have left every tree that I've started from a cutting grow figs the first year if it is growing on them. I have gotten breba figs off of a cutting started the year before with no problems. The way I see it is that if a tree is capable of producing fruit then it will. If it can't then it will just drop off and continue to put on growth. I have never lost a tree due to it growing a fig. Some people take the figs off the first year so the tree will put more of it's energy into growing instead of ripening figs. I'm too impatient to wait so I let them do their thing. I think it's just a matter of choice, a bigger tree or a taste of fruit. How much bigger would the tree be? That is something that I will never know. Do I care to know? Not really. I got my fig and ate it too;)

Nichole,

The tree will make the decision for you!  If it's capable of carrying the Brebas to maturity, it will.  If not, they will abort.

kiwibob,   Seattle