No, not a pejorative term for the members of this forum!!

My 'tasty but fussy' (sadly still unidentified, despite the best efforts of forum members), seems to be very prone to them. I normally remove them, on the assumption that they grow at the expense of the tree.

So I was about to remove 3 or 4 of them, when I noticed baby figs growing on them!! These figs have gotta be serious candidates for ripening, so now I'm in a dilemma - to remove or not to remove? Any ideas/advice please? 

This is a fig tree that likes to grow in bush form.  Many do.  It's not a grafted tree, so what you think of as suckers are just new trunks coming up from the root system.

If you don't want a bush form, you'll have to remove them, and train your tree with one trunk.

Suzi

let them ripe. if they don't measure up, cut the suckers off with main branch and get rid of 'em all :)

Pop a hole in the bottom of a 1 gal pot and slip over the top of the sucker and all the way down to the ground. Careful, don't knock off your figs. Fill the pot with potting soil. Water occasionally but don't go crazy. Figs will ripen as normal, and at the same time the sucker will fill the pot with roots. In the fall, after the bush goes dormant, cut the sucker at the base, under the pot and send it to me :-)

hahaha, a good one Aaron

Hmm, some mixed advice there.

Yeah, I'm familiar with the technique Aaron - it's a variation on air layering. But as layers go, it will be pretty modest compared to what I normally do. Having said that, it is a way of getting rid of it without losing the potential for ripe fruit.

Hmm......I wonder......after another 2-3yrs in the pot, it could become a decent-sized tree - big enough to gift. I'm starting to warm to the idea. As for sending it to you, wouldn't wanna be responsible for landing you in the clink.

Suzi - Yeah, I prefer a single trunk. These 'suckers' look a bit untidy, but I like the idea of more fruit from this tree. It's not the most giving in terms of crop (which is why 'fussy' appears in its nickname), but it's one of my all-time favorite fig flavors.

So for that reason, I'm gonna go with Aaron/Bullet. Except for the bit about sending it to him.

Change of plan. The suckers are too close together to put a pot over the 2 principals, so I'm gonna go with Pete's idea. If they fail to deliver by early fall, off with their heads. 

What zone are you in? If this is an inground tree and you are in zone 7 or lower, I would allow it to develop as a bush form. The more trunks  you have the less likely a freeze killing everything above ground.

Hello Gene

Zone? Not sure without looking it up. I live in London, England, so 6a I think. Or possibly 6b. Yes, it's in the ground, but I doubt there is any serious risk of die back from frost damage, etc. Our temps here rarely fall below -6C, and this year we barely reached -2C. Even my loquats survived this winter - first time in 5 years.

The problem with leaving the suckers alone is that I would have a large main trunk (about 5 - 6" dia.) surrounded by spindly little things - might look a bit strange. Still, willing to give it a try for at least one season. Probably wouldn't do the main tree any harm, and curiosity would have been satisfied.

Thx for your input.

UPDATE 23rd May 2014

So glad I kept those suckers:

 

Never seen figs so close to the ground before.

 

They're only suckers, but these are currently the biggest figs on the tree. How is that even possible?

 

Yet another sucker fig.

 

And these 2 are barely off the ground.

 

Seems I made the right call, thx to some useful advice from the members who posted above.

Some fig varieties are bush form.  The suckers (not) just bring joy!  Enjoy your figs!

Suzi