Hi
just wondering how long will it take for a fig plant that was grown from a seed to fruit?
the local nursery has a bunch of small figs with very interesting fig leaf patterns that arent the usual common types ive seen. But dont really want to get a whole bunch if it takes 10 years for a seeded plant to fruit. Not 100% sure if they were grown by a seed but the trunk are so thin (2mm). The owner doesnt know as well.


thanks!

Hi..

Under the ideal conditions it will germinate very rapidly
But the result will not  probably be what your plan is-
The great majority of the the new plants will be non-edible caprifigs.

What is you location,  please ?

Francisco
Portugal

Is this a large nursery? Growing a fig from seed to sell as an edible tree is misleading at best and dishonest at worst. Perhaps though they are just getting their trees from tissue cultures? I believe that would produce tiny seedlings which are exact clones of the mother tree.

Lastly a tree grown from caprified seeds has a miniscule chance of producing edible fruit. So I would say most likely never.

I have some seedlings in Malaysia for rootstock.
They usually start to produce syconia after 6 months.

wow i really didnt know figs from seeds usually turn out to be a caprifigs. Which i dont mind as theres certain fig varieties which i would love to get that would need a caprifig to fertilise. Also i am only guessing it may be a seed. Im just thinking worst case scenario to see if it is worth getting the other one which have these single lobe heart shaped kind of leaves. It was only $2 so its not much of a loss. It could possibly be a sucker? its so thin i just wouldnt think someone would have used a bunch of these as cuttings as the rest are as thin as this in that lot. He does have others which you can tell are from cuttings. Not a big nursery. Really just a backyard nursery which sells a whole heap of everything. Also im from Melbourne Australia. Hopefully i updated my signature properly

 

That looks like a thin cutting propagated into a tree, not a seedling. I have 2 cuttings that look very similar to this currently. You should have something edible in 1-2 years!

hi all
thanks for all the reply

I checked out Willa Brand. Wish i lived a lot closer to that place.
I am not too sure about the wasps but i do think Melbourne has them. I remember reading an article online saying the wasps are throughout australia. My parents also has a fig tree which not all figs will ripen only some and others will stay small and shrivel up? does that mean we have wasps fertilising?? as you can see im still a total newbie haha

I just didnt think people would propagate cuttings this thin? When i re pot if the soil loosens around it ill get a better look to see if it looks like a cutting. Else ill just leave it alone if its tightly packed around the roots.
either way ill keep it and probably get the other lol its just 1 more fig tree :)

Have seen one that took 18 months, and many that never did. The rest were in between.

Thanks for all the information. This is very useful for me as a newcomer. I'm just going to buy plants online, and I will read all the necessary information from this forum

thanks for taking the time out and sharing your knowledge Lampo. The pic of your figs look amazing too.

Correct me if im wrong the first crop for san pedro would come on the old or last years growth? if so then thats probably why we had no edible fruit this year. My mum got sick of the fig trees growth as it was growing so high and also right through the concrete path so she chopped all the branches off and right to the base of the 4 thick trunks last winter. We only got figs from the new growth this year and majority of them stayed small, shrivelled and fell off. I saw maybe 3 that got a bit fatter and were ripening but the birds always got to them.

Ill def take pix as this one grows. Hopefully it will fruit edibles! anyways heres the leaf. Didnt look like a leaf of any varieties i had at home and he told me if i had came in summer i would have seen the others as well and they all had weird leaf patterns that were not like the usual ones we see here.

 

Is a good idea try to answer correctly the topic.
My personal experience is that after 10 years the single seedling (by me sown, of 2 by me conserved) is sprouting now the first fruits, but dropped.
Another seedling plant 15 years old has never fruited.
A my friend in a very more hot site declared that after three years the seedling fruited.
About possibility of have production of edible fruits:
There is 50% of have male pollenizer fig (caprifig=billigoat), NOT edible fruits.
50% of have female plant, edible fruits.
If the plant is really a seedling this means that around 2 kilometres the plant that produced the fruit (with seeds), there is a male plant colonized by the insect that pollenize.
As I know around Adelaide the insect exists in colonized male plants
The condition is not stabile but his presence can be diffused and extended year after year also away from Adelaide (*).
If the male plant that pollenized is "permanent", so meaning has permanent fruits, (that stay also if NOT colonized by the insect) this genetical condition will be transmitted by seeds to daughter female plant, having so a "permanent" edible fig tree, said commonly "parthenocarpic", that ripens fruits also if NOT pollenized, the American define this a "common fig".
If said male plant is "caducous" (fruits if NOT colonized by the insect drops), the produced seeds conserve this condition and daughter female plants produce fruits ONLY if there is around two km a colonized male (billygoat) plant.
The condition of transmission of permanent or caducous is so genetically male-determined in offspring, males and females.
Every seedling is at all a new variety (male or female), you have to attribute a name.
The quality of the new variety is unknown and depends from parernts (of course....).
Normally ther is no matter for create new varieties, without particular argument, but Australia is "out topic" because is quite impossible to introduce new varieties from external, for so "new" inside is precious.
(*) I will be happy to receive notices from Australia about speading of Blastophaga psenes, (the pollenizer insect) my attempt demonstrate that type of botanical informations are quite secluted there ..... 
I'm allowable to give clarifications
Regards,
Blastophaga, (Sergio), Italy       

Hi Sergio!
Nice to read your always great experience and advice.
However, do not feel sufficiently courageous to wait all those years for a seedling to sprout a fruit.
But, wife did plant a few orange seeds  around 30 yr ago... which germinated nicely and along these 'few' decades kept me busy looking after it... also attracting a good deal of pests I had to deal with  !!  and no flower neither fruit !!..A few times I suggested a stop to this.. to no avail.. Finally, this season got a number of flowers and fruit still too small .What will it be ?
Will tell sometime later.
Kind Regards
Francisco
Portugal

Hello Francisco! Your Inchario Preto is in good condition but do not have had fruit too.
My plants (waiting for fruiting) are from seeds of DFIC 23 [carica x palmata) and for so are ([carica x palmata] x carica).
Best hugs,
Sergio.

Some of my couple hundred seed grown figs started fruiting at 6 months after sprouting. About 50% of them had at least a few figs at 9 months from sprouting. The trees went dormant over winter so they dropped their fruit. But a new crop is setting and should be starting to ripen soon. This HD Capri X Vasilika Sika has been on the branch for almost 100 days. So far my non-persistent varieties usually drop in under 60 days.

Figgysid1
Does exists fig pollenizer insect (Blastophaga psenes)  in Hawaii islands?
Thanks for answers
Blastophaga

@blastophaga: No fig wasps in Hawaii.

Was registered some attempt, so seems not successfull.....

@ Figgysid1
In case you pollenize artificially: remember... the "permanence" (parthenocarpy), for have 'common fig' is carried by the male pollen; the male tree have to be permanent too.

Noticed the first figs on a few of my seedling today, so that is about 15 months for me (6 of them dormant). Compost socks seem to have won the competition, I know that sounds crazy but it is not. Need to check the ones planted in the ground still, but they have bushed so much I'm not hopeful. I have a bunch that I'm just keeping alive in small pots now because I don't have room for that many big containers, if things go well I guess I'll make a bunch more compost socks.
The socks
 

 

Hi hosierbanana
Thanks for the input. Can u explain what u mean by compost socks?
Thanks

They are cylindrical tubes of spun bonded landscape fabric, 8" in diameter, cut to length, one end tied, filled with compost, other end tied, hole cut and planted. They are based on the filter socks used around construction sites to control erosion and sediment from getting into streams, although those are a mesh which I worried would let weeds grow through, and short lengths are about $1 a foot here... so I made my own because there are weed seeds in the compost I get. Figs love compost, the only downside for me so far is that only small plants or cuttings can be transplanted into them, but they are perfect for seedling plugs. They are perfect for me because at the end of the year I can tip them on their sides and easily cover instead of dragging them someplace warmer for winter.