My baby figs have fallen off!

Hi everyone

About two weeks ago my small fig tree was covered with tiny figs and I was looking forward to a bumper harvest!

Today, to my horror, noticed only a couple left and several on the ground, shrivelled.

I'm not exactly sure when they fell off, but why has this happened? Presumably I'm not going to have that harvest I was looking forward to (assume it's too late for more to grow), but how can I prevent this happening next year?

Thanks

Debbie Took

 

Hi there

Forgive me if I'm telling you what you already know here ... but how big were the figs on your tree? Were they very tiny? Figs take two seasons to ripen in England, so they have to survive the winter and mature the following summer. Therefore you should pick off all but the very small embryo figs as those are the only ones which have a chance of ripening successfully. The others just fall off. I think you're supposed to remove anything which is bigger than a pea.

My tree sheds quite a lot of fruit anyway - there seems to be a natural 'thinning' process. Hopefully you'll still have a few figs left to enjoy.

 

In short you cant stop it happening, it happens every year with figs, you lose one crop.

Most figs try to grow more than one crop per season but our summers are not long enough, so the figs that form in late summer overwinter but fall off the following spring.

You should have some very small ones developing now that, with luck, will ripen in August.

That said, I'm now wondering if yours were the small ones and maybe the plant has got dry or disturbed.

A photo would be good.

 

ClaraLou - the figs that fell off were between the size of a pea and a marble. So are you saying that it was fine that they fell off? (And, if so, why do you say they should be removed if they're going to fall off anyway?)

And, since I only have three figs on there now (between size of marble and golfball), are you saying that these will not be ready till summer of 2011?!

Pete, perhaps mine did start forming late last summer (I didn't notice) and the fall-off is natural?

I'll keep my fingers crossed for some more!

The plant hasn't been disturbed, but it certainly could have been dry.

Thank you both very much for your replies. Perhaps all is not lost...

 

Hi there debbie

I imagine gardeners are advised to get rid of the larger unripened figs at the end of the growing season simply because they won't survive and will go nasty when what you really want to do is to give the tiny figs the best chance of doing well. My mum, however, doesn't bother with any of this but simply waits to see what looks edible. I suppose it depends what kind of gardener you are - the tidy-minded sort or let-it-all-happen variety.

As for your remaining figs, to judge from the size, it sounds as if they should be ready this summer assuming they go on developing successfully. It's very easy to miss the tiny fruits if you don't look carefully, so perhaps yours started forming last year. It also sounds from what Pete has written as though it is possible for figs to ripen in one English season, if we have an exceptionally good summer. Personally I've never managed it yet.

I have my fig planted in a hot, fairly dry place and I seldom water it. It seems to cope quite well with dry conditions. But if yours is still getting its roots down, it could be that lack of water caused your figs to fail.

I'm sure all is not lost. Even if you don't get a decent crop this year, you'll still have the nice leaves to look at (I grow my tree more for the leaves than the fruit) and can hopefully look forward to lots of figs next year.

PS If you decide to prune your fig at any point, beware. The milky sap can really irritate your skin, so make sure you wear gloves.

 

Thanks for the info, Claire.

(Although I'm definitely growing mine for the fruit rather than the leaves...)

Love,
Debbie (www.rawforlife.co.uk)

 

On my tree the overwintered fruit fell off in March, the figs that are there now in the picture were nothing more than tiny buds then.
These ones will go on to produce ripe fruit late July August time, at the same time a new crop will be forming and these will "look" quite promising, unfortunately they will be the ones that fall off next March.



The only way to get the second crop in the UK, apparently is to grow in a greenhouse.

 

Thanks, Pete.

So...looks as if I'll have three ripe figs in the Autumn then. :-(

 

Don't eat them all at once!

 

Mines not bothered to even put out leaves this year, think its peed off with being neglected on our building site for the past 3 years.

 

We had a large fig tree in our back garden. The milk from tree where you took off the fig was used to remove warts and was very successful. I still love fig jam but y0u don't see it on the shelves over here. We also had a quince and a pomegranate tree growing and ever year they were full of fruit. The apple tree never had nice fruit on it to eat off the tree however was okay in apple pie. the grape vine occasionally gave us some nice big bunches plus loads of granadillas of the grandilla vine.