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Should I pick off main crop?

I bought this brown turkey about a month ago but it hasn't really grown much since I got it so I'm wondering if I should pick off the figs (as they are nit a breba crop) so it might put more energy into overall girth? What do u reckon?

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  • pino
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Its up to you of course.
IMO Figs and plants in general need to learn to produce fruit.  
Some learn after 1yr some 5 years or longer.  
So unless it is a tiny rooted cutting I let nature take its course rather than interrupt the learning process.  If you think it doesn't have the energy to ripen all the figs you could thin a few to get better quality for the remaining.

Also the end of the growing season is nearing and many stop feeding nitrogen to figs so they focus on ripening their figs and hardening for the winter.

What Pino has said is sound,you probably don't want to start putting on masses of new growth now this close to the end of the season,otherwise you risk having lots of fresh green growth going into winter and depending on your winter frosts that might result in the softest new growth dieing.

This tree has already grown a lot in 1 season by the looks of that new wood as its lignifying and also it has produced figs which takes a lot of energy.

The way nurseries treat their trees is different from the home grower,they have an idea of what they want to sell you,and in this case they want to sell a tree brimming with fruit irrespective of where they are in the season because they sell well and because they have the resources/fertilisers/cover to do that.

That being said the fruit are quite far along,id just water consistently to promote the figs to ripen steadily(bloom boosting fertiliser with high PK) and try to give the plant as much sun and warmth as you can and you might get ripe figs,depends a lot on what our unpredictable summer does in August/September.

If size is what you want then you need to up-pot it and hit it with heavy nitrogen fertiliser next season and keep that up throughout the season,pick of the figs when much smaller than this as this tree has already put a lot of energy into those now,and if you want height rather than breadth maybe trim to 1 main stem(in winter,then you can root that and you have 2 trees for the price of 1) until it's at the height you want and then encourage that stem to branch.





Thanks guy's,

I picked off the smaller figs and let the more robust looking ones. I also potted up and I'll be feeding her a bloom fertilizer. Lets hope they ripen!!!

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