Hi Everyone

First post here. I must say, this forum is a wealth of information. Thank you to members young and old for contributing, and to the moderators and owners for the upkeep. AWESOME concentration of fig experience here.

So, my question. I love plants, and have been getting into figs lately. I have two small Chicago Hardy plants that are outside, and a small (8'' height, trunk 0.4'' diameter) LSU Purple fig I just planted in a large pot indoors. 

But, I really like the idea of having the LSU Purple indoors exclusively. I am around 75-80F consistently, it gets a solid 6 hours of bright sun through a glass door, and humidity averages about 40-60% in Spring/Summer and 10-20% in fall/winter.

I am not too concerned about hitting "chill hours" because from my reading on this site it appears that this is not required for fig tree growth or fruit production (correct me if I'm wrong). It seems dormancy is nice, but may not be required for warm weather varieties.

But I am concerned about pests and general tree health. I know the tree may be a little less resistant to various mites, scale, and other things I don't know about because it will be indoors 24/7. From a Fig tree perspective, what are some ways to proactively keep an indoor fig tree healthy and pest-free ? And if you think growing indoors exclusively is a terrible idea, I'd love to hear your thoughts why.

Thank you!
Kevin

Welcome to the forum, Kevin. I am still working on pest control myself.  

Hi Figeater

Thanks for the welcome :-) I have heard good things about Neem Oil kind of being a jack of all trades for plant health and pest control, so I decided to do a diluted neem oil spray every now and then.

It seems like a good multi-purpose treatment for both proactive and reactive pest control.

Hey Kevin, you may want to just take the tree outside every once in a while and hose it off, that will work for things like spider mites. But it also might help keep you safe, the leaves make dust that might cause you to be sensitized over time. There is research about other ficus species commonly kept as houseplants, and sensitization to them also causes an allergy to fig fruits, yikes!

Hi Hoosierbanana

I think that's a good idea, I'll probably do that occasionally. I will have to get creative as I live in a high rise apartment, and my neighbors below me might not appreciate the river running off my balcony ! haha

And the excerpt is interesting. Can you provide the full link where you got that? I would like to read it. I had known that the Weeping Fig (Ficus Benjamina) was a common problem, but I wasn't sure if common figs had the same issue. I know to be careful around the fig "sap" (basically a latex sap), but I didn't know that the allergens had the potential to be airborn in dust.

http://www.eurannallergyimm.com/cont/journals-articles/155/volume-rare-indoor-allergens-411allasp1.pdf

I guess some sort of filter on your shower drain to keep potting mix from clogging it might be best then. The neem should help keep dust from forming also.

Hoosierbanana

True! The shower is always an option. I actually like the smell of neem (reminds me of sesame oil haha) so assuming my figs are fine with it, that will probably be a semi-regular thing. I may use it on some other house plants as well.

Thanks for the link. I did some quick research myself, and it sounds like Ficus B. can sensitize your body to be allergic to tropical, latex containing fruits (like figs). Fortunately, the Common Fig (Ficus Carica) doesn't seem to be a "cause" of the allergy, but once one is sensitized by Ficus B. it seems that strong Ficus C. allergies are likely. The few studies I saw estimated 2-6% of the population are sensitized by Ficus B. - that's pretty high. Interesting stuff. I will be aware of the potential for issues.

Treat it like you would any other larger indoor plant/tree.

Hey hoosierbanana

You have no idea how right you were with that Fig Allergy reference!!

For the past 2-3 weeks I have been dealing with SEVERE hay fever symptoms (sinus headaches, congestion, runny nose, sore throat...) and I just figured it was a bad year for my seasonal allergies down here in MD. I switched from Claritin to Allegra, and that helped a little bit, but my sore throat kept getting increasingly bad. I was considering going to the doctor to get checked for Strep throat, it was super painful even after salt water gargling.

Well, it hit me a couple days ago that the symptoms appeared about 2 days after bringing home a new 8inch LSU Purple Fig. So I put the fig outside (have a small balcony),and the symptoms were 60% cleared OVERNIGHT. Now, a few days later, I feel about 90% better.

It's pretty incredible to me that such a small Fig tree could be producing so much air-borne allergen (I never handled the plant stems or leaves at all). I don't have any known latex allergies, and have eaten dried figs often before. But it appears something that fresh figs give off triggers severe allergy symptoms in me, and I will need to stay away from them.

I'm in the process of getting rid of my 4in Chicago Hardy (already outside) and giving the LSU Purple away to a local friend. Just goes to show you - some people may have bad allergies to this plant outside of the contact allergies that I see so frequently discussed on this forum. The "fig dust" can be problematic for some, and its effects are concentrated with indoor growing. 

Enjoy your figs ! I won't be growing them unfortunately, but I look forward to eating dried ones in the future :-)

Bummer you won't be staying but glad you are doing better! If you decide to grow other stuff check out growingfruit.org its a great group.