Fig Tree

We have a fig tree which has grown quite successfully in a pot for about five years. We have had a reasonable crop most years, however just lately the figs are dropping before they are ripe and are going bad on the tree. Should we put it into a bigger pot and is there anything I cantreat it with to stop the rot.

 

Dan,if you've had a lot of wet weather I would guess it could be something to do with that.
It could be pot bound and starved, I hope you feed it well.
How big is the pot its growing in?
Are the fruit actually going rotten and mushy or shrivelling and falling off?

 

Hello, Old Dan, and welcome to GC.

I had a fig tree in a pot here ... very unusual but I don't have ground space ... I got a dozen or so figs after a year or two and gave up and donated it to my friend with lots of land to plant it in the ground.

Sorry, don't think it's the type of plant you grow in the UK to expect fruit from because you don't have the heat that is needed to develop the fruit.

Enjoy the forum.

 

I bought a fig and was told by the (very) respectable nursery that they like to be pot bound. Unfortunately I never found out. It gave up the ghost after a month. Perhaps I am just too far north, but my oranges and lemon are doing fine.

John.

 

Hello John

That made me laugh, potbound ... they certainly ae not potbound in the ground here! :D But, who knows, maybe to be successful there ?????

They do fruit further south as they had them on the IoW where I lived. I am thinking your location is possibly not the best unless you have a conservatory/greenhouse.

I still don't think the English summers are long and hot enough to give a decent crop of edible fruit.

 

I picked six today and gave them away.
Some people say they are great, and they are really sweet, but I think tasteless.
Mines "brown turkey", still trying to find someone growing another variety.

I have a theory, (probably wrong) that the pot bound approach goes back to Victorian days when they were grown in large greenhouses, and it was a good way to keep the tree compact under glass.
They do grow like the clappers if you let them, especially under glass.

 

Evening, pete. I think mine was a brown turkey ... my friend who I gave it to has some other variety/ies ... do you want some seeds in the Autumn?

A smile ... the locals here, tie one sort of fig on a rope like a necklace and tie it around another tree to fertilise it. Interesting ... :rolleyes: My friend has tried it without result. :D

 

Dont think they come true from seed LOL, thanks all the same.
Very strange customs they have there. :D
Cant think why it didn't work.