Reducing fig fruits (brown turkey ) in Spring to increase crop ?

[Buzzo]

Hi,
normally maybe 1/3 of the fruit actually mature -is there any benefit in reducing the number of young figs in Spring to trigger
quicker growth in those left on the branches ?


Thanks.

B.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

makes sense to thin out any fruit tree - the remaining fruit grow better and you reduce the chances of years of plenty followed by a dearth

 

[Amari]

Hi,
normally maybe 1/3 of the fruit actually mature -is there any benefit in reducing the number of young figs in Spring to trigger
quicker growth in those left on the branches ?


Thanks.

B.

I have a Brown Turkey fig tree planted c. 15 years ago in the open garden. Best crop ever this hot, dry year - c. 50-60 fruits cf. the customary 25. Tree is now c. 3m x 2m.

The tree is still laden with small fruits that will not mature but I never pick them off, nor do I fruit-prune in early summer. [I do fruit prune apples (good pollination this year but nearly all perished in the drought) and pears (still picking good crop)]

It's taken me ages to realise that the figs only come to maturity on branches not shortened in the winter pruning. Therefore I prune about half the branches and leave the others to fruit. Come winter I'll prune the fruiting branches.

On recent visit to NT Erddig in Clwyd I noticed no fruits on their hard-pruned wall-trained fig.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I have tried for tests to grow figs with spectacular failure. There is a house just outside Bushy Park at Teddington gate that has an enormous fig tree as tall as the old Victorian three story villa. Every year it has hundreds of figs which are left to drop and rot on the ground. 🥲

 

[rossbyjove]

Hi,
normally maybe 1/3 of the fruit actually mature -is there any benefit in reducing the number of young figs in Spring to trigger
quicker growth in those left on the branches ?


Thanks.

B.

I usually just knock off any that are blemished or deformed in the winter.
My partner seriously pruned 'my' fig trees this spring.
Don't tell her she did a really good job and lots more fruit on this time!

 

[enrico]

Got rid of our fig tree. It was right by the lounge window and all you can smell is fig leaves which smell just like cat spray to me!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Got rid of our fig tree

god job - it's the devil's vegetable anyway - unless it's in a fig roll

 

[Amari]

I usually just knock off any that are blemished or deformed in the winter.
My partner seriously pruned 'my' fig trees this spring.
Don't tell her she did a really good job and lots more fruit on this time!

Ah, she hard pruned and you've got a good crop? - contrary to post 3 that advises leave several branches unpruned?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

according to H Frazer in 'The gardener's guide to pruning' regular pruning is essential to good cropping, with older wood being unproductive, you get the better yield from the previous and current year's shoot growth, so the gardener should aim for as much one and two year old growth as possible. The first crop of the year coming from the previous year's growth, the second coming from shoots of the current year's growth, and if you're lucky, a third crop from the laterals of the growth that yielded crop 2

 

[drex]

My fig gives one crop a year. That is standard for the UK. I get bumper crops and love fresh figs, as do my neighbours.
The fruits that ripen are formed as embryo buds in the previous autumn. Buds formed in spring do not have time to ripen and eventually fall off in the coming winter.
I do my radical pruning late winter and shorten new growth in june .
Get it right and you get a good crop. Pruning at wrong time will lessen that.