I am experiencing my first broad crop of brebas on almost all my trees right now. I am noticing that on many trees there are only a few breba. They are a bit scarce in short. This inludes some plants, such as F. preto, that I thought did not produce breba at all. Some, such as White Genoa, are supposed to be scarce producers. All my trees were protected in my garage with a space heater turned on anytime the temperature dropped below 25F. Does the cool weather in spring affect breba growth? Another characteristic I am noting: some breba shrivel immediately and drop. But on some varieties, such as Marseilles Black and Negronne, and Malta Black, all of the brebas have set and will probably mature fully. What is the nature of breba growth in zone 7b? Or in other northern climates? Is it a good idea to remove excessive breba in a delayed spring like this year? Would be most grateful for anyone's thoughts on these questions, and any thoughts on breba.

I have some of the same questions as a lot of my trees are in the their 2nd year now.  With some, like Atreano, there were a lot of brebas and I pulled some off.  With others, many of the brebas are falling off on their own.  Last year I left all the breba on my VdB and didn't end up getting much of a main crop.  With most figs the main crop is better than the breba crop it seems.

I have the same questions. Half of my trees have 10-15 small figs. Take them off? I would hate to think that leaving them on would spoil the main crop.

I think we can all agree the main crop takes priority when we are talking about self-pollinating figs especially in a short season. But who cannot resist an early treat? The question is whether leaving a few breba will set back the main crop. One would think that the plant energy lost on a few breba would not be too detrimental.

in short season, take most breba off other than few that you want to taste. in places like where I am, it doesn't make much difference since most of the breba drops by themselves. only few trees will hold on to breba here for some reason. VdB this yr dropped all breba. so did Persian White. last yr, all Kathleen's Black dropped it's breba. VdB usually holds on to breba here, but VdB is very productive here and put on good number of main crop even with full number of breba.

not sure at all why breba drops here... might be winter isn't warm enough.. or just too long. not sure at all.

My advice is slightly different from the above.  I think that how you'd want to manage this depends on the variety of each tree.  For example, English Brown Turkey makes brebas that taste great, in fact I like them better than the main crop.  Furthermore, the English Brown Turkey main crop figs take so long to produce and ripen, that in a short growing season it's unlikely that you'd get any main crop figs successfully ripened... the season here in zone 5 is just too short (and probably down around NYC too... some of the NJ folks have told me they never get main crop EBT there... I think it was Vasile who reported that but not sure).  Luckily though, English Brown Turkey makes lots of brebas here.  So for English Brown Turkey, I'd suggest that in your area, leave all of the brebas on (because you're unlikely to get any ripe main crop from that variety).  

That principle generalizes.  For varieties that require a long season (longer than you've got in Queens NY) to reliably produce ripe main crop figs, then I'd suggest leave all the brebas on those varieties of tree.  

I also don't know to what extent the ripening of brebas really "takes anything away" from the main crop.  Maybe some of the experts on here will comment about that principle.  But for a healthy mature tree, leaving the brebas on to ripen might not have much impact or reduction of main crop production.  Aside from the maturity and size of the tree, there are probably other variables to consider too.  For example, some varieties may have main crops that are less affected (by breba ripening) than others.  (So this factor also might be dependent on the variety).  

The net of my point is that I think the answer to your question is variety-dependent.  And for one specific example, if you've got English Brown Turkey around the NYC area, I'd say leave all the brebas on.

Mike   central NY state, zone 5

<edit:  32 minutes later>  P.S.  I usually just leave all the breba on my trees.  Lots of them fall off on their own.  But I like letting the tree choose what fruits to ripen, rather than me knocking off breba in the hopes of getting more main crop.  The one exception I practice is when the trees are very small and/or young.  When they're small trees, especially first-year trees that were just rooted (but sometimes smaller second-year trees too), then I knock off most figs those trees produce (when the figs are small).  (For me, this applies to any figlet on a too small/young tree, whether breba or main crop).  That's because I want the tree to put its energy into getting top growth and root growth, not into fruit production.  But after the tree has reasonable size, then I stop knocking them off.  (And there are probably some differing opinions about what constitutes "reasonable size").  I don't really know if that's any accepted/recommended practice, but it's what I do.

Very sensible analysis Michael. One really has to take the time to "get to know" each variety and its characteristics.

That's the perfect response I was looking for Michael.

I usually get tremendous growth, of branches and roots, even if there is some fruit on a young plant. Of course, first year fruit is also of inferior quality, so there are many variables. Definitely knock off late fruit on a young tree, anything appearing after say, mid-july.

Hi Rafaelissimmo,
In my Zone7, we can get early frosts as of 15th October and freshness as of 15th September .
Some years like 2013, frosts came mid/late November. So depending on the year the answer may vary.
But the rule is to target the brebas in my Zone 7 .

If you knock all brebas, it is known that the tree will start setting the maincrop sooner ... Sooner enough? who knows ? It all depends of the weather.
For "panache" in my Zone7 don't wait on brebas - they all fall off. I looked at the tree of my neighbor and after popping figlets, all the tree has are leaves now .
Knowing "panache" is a late maincrop fig ...

So I mix the two point of views, and any misshaped brebas is knocked off - 14 already on my Dalmatie tree1 / 14 still hanging on .

The brebas need some heat - not too much - but a small cold around 2°C in the night could be enough to make them yellow and fall.
I saw that this year on "Goutte d'or tree2 - lost 3 ", Brownturkey (1 - I was shocked! ) , my unknown from the Italian (5 - Shocking as well !) .

So the question is more: Are the trees able to reliably ripe the maincrop at your location ?
In my location the answer is NO - but some year with some luck ... So I go brebas.

Now getting brebas implies to not trim/cut the tree !
Last year I pinched my bigger UFTI ( half of the stems ) - that probably (or not?) helped more maincrop figs to ripe last year.
But the drawback is I have no brebas on those stems this year ( but I do on the other stems) !!! The question is now: Will those stems set the maincrop faster ... Time will tell ...
If they do, then I might each year go for half trim after brebas harvest

Last year "Goutte d'or tree1" dropped all brebas, and the maincrop started appearing as of 1st of September - really tooooo late - but last year we went from winter to summer .
And the tree is young. Hopefully this year the maincrop will appear as of 1st of July as for other strains ... This year that tree has some ten big beautiful looking brebas ...

Last reason to keep the brebas: On most of my strains they are supposed to be bigger than the maincrop figs ...

Thanks Mike and Jdsfrance, great explanations!

One last thought on this topic that I wanted to share:  There are also some varieties that produce brebas that act like common figs (they're self-fertile and don't require caprification), yet their main crop figs do require caprification/fertilization by the wasp.  It's one of the four main types of Ficus carica, and is sometimes referred to as the San Pedro type.  (Though lots of people reject that name because of the confusion it causes with specific varieties that are named by one variant or another of the name Saint Peter).  In any case, there are a good number of commonly grown figs that fit into that category, the San Pedro category.  I think Desert King is one of them, and I think Gilette is another.  So obviously if you live in a place where you don't have the fig wasp, it only makes sense to keep all your brebas for that variety, since you won't ever ripen their main crop.  Some of the reference docs describe these four categories, e.g.
http://www.ocfruit.com/files/Figs_Coastal_SC.htm         (I've seen more complete descriptions of the San Pedro category, but this document at least shows the four categories).

Happy fig growing!

Mike   central NY state, zone 5a

Thanks Michael, I do not have any San Pedro types, I think they are probably a good thing to have in Northern climates, but mine are all self pollinating, parthenocarpic figs.