Hello - For many father successfully grew figs. Feeling nostalgic, a few years ago I decided to try it for myself. I began with two Chicago Hardy bushes. Given my minimal experience I figured they would be safest. I've covered them in winter. They have died back to the ground but have never produced a single fig.

Early this year I convinced a local shop owner to sell me to trees from his private stash. I believe the species to be Dottato but I'm not exactly sure yet. I plan to overwinter these guys in my attached garage. I bought them early this year when they were little more than twigs. IU repotted in 15 gallon pots with a good soil mix. You can see from the pictures that they're green and healthy looking, But again - No figs!

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. They get lots of sun and water. For the potted ones I used a mix of quality potting soil, sand and peat moss. And I'm not over fertilizing....In the case if the pots not at all yet. I'm in zone 5b.

Everyone I know who grows figs gets a good crop - or at least a few. The guy who sold me these last trees has figs growing on his. I see people propagating cuttings and getting figs coming up on the cutting....

I don't know what I'm doing wrong here....Can anyone offer any suggestions.

 
 

Hi TorontoJoe
doesn't sound like you are doing anything wrong
you just need Patience
it' almost too late to fertilize this year but starting in may next year fertilize
read the post from Ascpete about fertilizing works well for me
good luck

Dear friend,

I taste one sweet fig last year, so I am hoping that I can get some sweet fig this year, I bought few nursery fig trees at March, all of them are long stick ( no branch) in small pots and I planted them in ground, 5 weeks passed, no figlet, I went back to Nursery, all of their fig trees had many figlets, so I was very disappointed.

I think that nursery potted fig trees like sticks ( no branch) in small pot for some reason.
1). Easy to transportation
2). Easy to bear fig in current year, ( but bad for next year fig)

I am newbie, so I might be wrong, I guess that.
Sometime, it is better to ask yourself questions,
1). Why fig tree bear fig?
2). Why fig tree grow more leaves?
3). Why fig tree grow more roots?

If roots get some nutrition, It grows more roots and more leaves, When it feels that timing are right ( DNA stuff), and if it has leftover nutrition, it bears fig at right time (DNA).

Since figlets has lowest priority.
If you plant your tree in ground, It is harder to bear fig because roots can grow and ask for more nutrition.  ( potted fig tree, roots growing are limited in pot)
If you plant has more leaf tips, it ask for more nutrition using grow hormone, therefore, let chance for your fig tree to bear figs.

If you plant your very young fig tree in ground or re-pot them in bigger pot, your chance to get fig for current year should be deceased.
Tree growing are very tricky, small pot roots ball means less chance for fig next year because it can not suck up more nutrition to support more branches and more leaves)

I think that best idea is that, you may feed  them heavy dose of fertilizer at right time, I find that fig tree can handle high dose salts or fertilizer.
I feed heavy dose fertilizer at spring time for all my newly in ground fig trees, all of them are bearing figs now, Although, they are late by 2 months, I hope that they are still able to ripen them .

Herman, why do you suggest round pots instead of square pots?

Hey Guys - Thanks for the input.

Ricky - I'm looking at what you wrote about fertilizer. It's my understanding that too much fertilizer inhibits fruit growth....

Herman - The guy I bought the trees from grows them in 2.5 gallon buckets, filled with garden soil. Maybe 3 holes in each and sitting on his asphalt driveway. These trees are putting out 15 - 20 figs each. By no means do I doubt your wisdom - I'll try anything that will get me some figs. I'd like to better understand what you're suggesting here. 

-I should remove them from those pots and remove all the soil - then mix the existing soil from each 15 gallon pot with 5 gallons of perlite and one pound of limestone powder?

-What does the limestone do? Is it just drainage? If so will the sand not do the trick?

- For the in ground Chicago Hardy, how deep should I be incorporating the limestone?

-I don't understand the benefit of putting a pot in the ground? Or why I should drill holes in the sides and plug the bottom? Or why they should be round? These are 15 gallon and considerably larger than the 2.5 gallons in which their cousins are bearing fruit.....

-"Don't water in ground trees" - I've never heard anything but that they need lots of water in summer? What's with that?

Again thanks - I'm learning a lot here.

One more thing - I'm in Sicily every two years and I'm headed there this August. I intend to bring back some cuttings from the family homestead. Figs and olives. How long do you figure I can store them once cut and what would you say it the best way to protect them for transport? I'm afraid they will dry out and die before I get them home to  start rooting. Also not sure if I should be taking new or old wood. Thoughts?

Joe,
Lots of great questions and asking is good. I am by far not a pro so most of your questions will be answered by others.

As far as the lime, it helps lower the ph because figs prefer acidic soil. First check your soil ph level with a tester. You can buy a 3-in1 soil tester (ph, moisture, light) for $10 on Amazon. I believe a good acidic level for figs is 6.5.

The holes on the side of the pot help areate the roots and prevents it from getting root bound. This also promotes root growth in young trees.

If you are fertilizing, be sure to check the NPK levels. If the "N" or nitrogen level is high then it may produce beautiful green leaves but little/no fruit.

Using garden soil: I never use garden soul for my potted trees/plants! There is a difference between "garden" " "potting" soils. I always try to buy the best potting soil at the best price then add my own ingredients to ensure success.

Cuttings: i am not sure how you plan to transport your cuttings but I had cuttings from a nearby tree that I put in a bag that were still good even after one week. But this is something you definately want to get good advice on. And, if there is a list for receiving cuttings, pleae add my name to it..:-)

By the way, there are a lot of great postings on this forum about all of the topics/questions you have & you may want to do more in-depth reading using the search function.

I hope this is helpful.

Hi TorontoJoe,

Welcome to the forum.

Each grower has his own ways to do and uses own tricks. It is up to you to try and see what works best for you.

A tree dying back to the roots every year will have a hard time producing. So you should find a better protection for your tree. For instance, you could dig it up in the Autumn, and put back in place in the Spring.
I see in the photo of the in ground that it has several stems growing. One remark is: the more stems the later they'll all be.
Even with fig trees that are bearing fruits, one should remove the root-suckers asap. I just cleaned 10 from my bigger fig tree
So select 3 or 5 and clean the others, just like with tomato plants.
You could chose another path, and that would be to let them all grow and airlayer/root all but 3 that would stay. You would be targeting the propagation of the tree, instead of fruit production.
The ones you remove, you pot them , overwinter them in a garage or basement or cold greenhouse, and come next Spring you put them in the ground.
It takes some time and is some work, but no pain, no gain .
I'm in Zone7 and it already takes some work too get them to fruit ... So in Zone5... it can be done, but you'll have to provide good cares !
For me here, I have to have 3 years old wood on the stems for them to produce fruits.

For your potted ones, they look unhappy - not enough leaves on the branches. Not knowing the history of the tree, it ain't easy to tell why. But, what I see is that they are a bit tall for those pots.
They are perhaps just adapting to a new environment ...

As for fertilizer, you can fertilize until 1st of August. If you don't fertilize ... Don't put high expectations on the trees. In pots, the soil gets depleted quite quick, so IMO no choice but fertilize.
Limestone is a fertilizer. It will raise the PH, not lower it. Limestone is lots of calcium and trees need that to set fruit.

Burying the pots would get the roots to escape to the dirt and have the trees feeding (water+nutrients) on the outside dirt too - which makes them thrive.
Come Fall, you'll be cutting the outside-pot roots.

By the way, are you sure that your HC is a true HC. In your zone, you need fast ripening strains. Don't go with the first strain you can get, but select the ones that are really adapted, like HC.

Good luck ! and yes, use patience. It takes me 3 years growing a tree for her to fruit ... when she does ... or she'll get/gets the compost pile ... Life is hard ...

Lol! You guys are great! I love this forum. It pleads there are more tricks than there are varieties of figs.

I'm going to take all this great advice and maybe take a few risks as well. I'm headed out the door now for some fertilizer. And I'll be trimming the in ground fig down today

Thanks all!

Thanks Herman. I think I understand now. I actually don't know that these are Kadota. I was just making an assumption based on what i thought it looked like.bit may very well be a Celeste. If I ever get a fruit I'll be able to better identify. I do know that the guy I got them from is very successful with them so probably not Kadota then.

As for the pot.....I actually hadn't planned to put them in the ground. I was planning to continue them in the pot above ground as I've seen done before.

I experiencing fig envy. Those are beautiful!

I just did a PH test and its indicating 4.5. Which means to me is slightly acidic. If I understand correctly lime would make the soil less acidic so I don't think I want that.

I'm a bit averse to chemical fertilizer so I'm putting in some manure. I figure it can't hurt.

I'm new to this and don't think the term "pinch" has come up. What is it? Is it something I should be doing to my skinny potted or in ground figs?

Hi Joe:

Are u sure that it is PH 4.5?, it is extremely acidic, you should add lime rightaway.

What kind of manure you put in soil? Manure from farm? or bag manure from big box company?

If you put those bag's manure from big box, They work quite well and pretty sure that your fig tree will bear lots of fig next year.

If you use those manure from farm, it takes quite long to compost properly.

It is little bit late now to bear figlet, because it won't be able to ripe them before winter,  However, It is still good idea to add some gentle fertilizer, so it grows more roots and leaves and preparing a big crop for next year.

Again, you are in cold area, you should harden your fig trees then winter protection before winter.

I bought one of these at home depot

https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.moisture-light-and-ph-meter.1000719599.html

I don't know how accurate it is but it definitely came up as 4.5. This does surprise me as I just mixed this soil up recently from good quality soil, sand and manure. I thought figs liked more acidic soil...Drew wrote earlier "As far as the lime, it helps lower the ph because figs prefer acidic soil."

If you think the lime will help I do have it now so will throw on. I don't know how well I'll really be able to work it down but perhaps if it's on top it'll trickle down with water.

The manure is 100% sheep and pre-composted from bags. No fresh poop for me...

Fig tree like slightly acidic like 6- 6.5, 4.5 mean than it is 20+ times more acidic than what fig tree like, If your meter is accurate, you should use lime to boost your soil Ph to 6 -7 level.

not sure why your soil is so acidic.

I think that those bagged manure, Their PH is not regulated.

I'm going to re check tomorrow with PH test strips. Thanks

I would use that soil for blueberries. They would grow great in there! I had the same problem with my blueberry plants until I figured out the right PH. They went from being almost dead to thriving like you wouldn't believe. Hopefully fixing your PH will do the same for your Figs:)

Drew51:  Forgive my ignorance.  In post 10 when you refer to "second leaf,"  what do you mean? 

Hi

I'm told that here in Toronto last frost is May 9th and first frost is October 6th. 

Frankly I'd be happy if they looked like they were even trying to produce figs. So far though I've seen nothing at all.

All of those pictures were taken this past weekend. Thats all the growth I've had this year. In the potted trees I'm not sure why leaves are only developing from the tips????

It's not that unusual for young trees to concentrate leaves at the tips. If you pinch just the growing tips off the potted ones it should encourage them to start producing branches and leaves along the older growth. The neighborhood groundhog or squirrels did it for me this spring. LOL

Okay, you have a similar number of growing days to what I get, and Hardy Chicago is my go-to tree. I'm wondering if your Hardy Chicago might have been a tissue culture plant. Sometimes that can return the plant to an immature state, and it needs to reach a certain age/size to begin fruiting. Lots of nurseries and box stores sell those up north, so that is often among my first thoughts.

Another option in the north could be too much water. Growers in hotter longer seasons have to combat lower water tables and higher water needs than northern growers. An inground tree in Toronto won't need as much supplemental water as one in Texas. During a hot dry spell give it a drink, but otherwise let the soil get a little dry before watering well again. You could be accidentally triggering growth over fruit by being too kind. Also you might try a fertilizer that has a higher second number than the first number in future, as too much nitrogen can make a tree all leaves and no fruit.

Third possibility is the winter damage. That slows fruiting way down. You could try talking to other inground growers in your area about beefing up your winter protection. You could also try to root a cutting off your trees and see if growing it in a container and overwintering in the garage produces a fruiting tree for you.

The leaves and growth certainly look like my HC, but there is always the possibility that the fig was misidentified. I don't think it a likely possibility between the leaf shape and the apparent hardiness of the tree though.

This is interesting. I had been watering the in ground and potted trees every day. I never thought water could directly affect fruit production. I guess I'll do some pinching and lay off the water

I was given small starts 3 years ago.
Plants were from Alabama, I live in northern Indiana, Overwinter then in attached garage .
This year thry are loaded with figs
Last year on ripe fig 1st of Oct.

I got some real PH test strips and checked my soil again. It was coming up somewhere between 6.5 to 7...So that piece of junk meter is going back to HD.

I'm going to back off on the water and did some pinching last night so fingers crossed - I don't know how long it normally takes for the effects of pinching to show.

Hello Toronto Joe.. You asked if the lime used is for better drainage...I think your thinking of the limestones (rocks). What we mean about lime is not the rocks that you may be thinking(correct me if im wrong )....the lime you need is called dolmite lime which you can buy at home depot or lowes. It's in a small bag. I too am in Toronto. Not to brag but with this great weather we have had here I have lots of figs on most trees and you should have too. Don't give up as eventually (with the great help from this forum) you will get it. But yes I recommend you add the right lime. Hopefully it's not to late. Otherwise now you know for next year.

Thanks. Would you think I still need the lime though if my ph is 6.5 to 7?