Fig Growing Guide

SITE SELECTION

Figs produce more fruit when their roots are constricted. Planting on rock walls or in parking strips can help emulate this environmental need. The combination of constricted roots, lower nitrogen, and limited water causes the figs to create short internodes. Internodes are the spaces between buds on the branch. Each one has the potential to create fruit, therefore the more nodes you have the larger your crops will be. Parking strips are particularly good for growing figs because the soil there is typically very coarse, allowing for drainage. If the tree is in full sun, it will also receive reflected heat from the pavement surrounding it. A perfect parking strip tree you say? We agree!

Sunlight Requirements

Sun, sun, sun is the first thing to consider. Figs prefer as much sunlight as possible. Planting along a south facing wall is an ideal spot due to the ambient heat it provides. Creating this microclimate will help the figs ripen early and protects the tree through the winter.

Soil Conditions

Figs need well-draining soil. Waterlogged soil can cause the fruit to taste watery and lead to root rot over winter. They prefer a slightly acidic pH, ideally between 6.0 and 6.5. Figs are are tolerant of a range of soil pH, just not overly alkaline. Figs prefer soils with a medium to high amount of organic matter.

PLANTING

Remove any weeds or grass in a circle 2-3 ft. in diameter. Dig a hole that is just as deep as the root ball and 2-3 times wider. Rough up the sides of the hole with your shovel so that your plants roots can easily spread.

A thick mulch around the base of your fig tree will help retain moisture and add organic matter over time.

WATERING & FERTILIZING

In the wild, figs grow in very low fertility soils. This may be hard to hear, but we suggest you set the fertilizers down. Rapid green growth that comes from fertilizing can be very satisfying to see on a young tree, BUT. It sets you up for a lanky tree that will be less resilient and have lower fruit production.

Fig don’t want overly wet soils, but an even amount of moisture will help the tree ripen large crops. During the first couple years figs need regular watering to establish their root system, but once established are drought tolerant. Supplemental watering in very dry climates is sometimes necessary, especially if leaves show signs of yellowing or dropping. Growers that receive significant warm season rainfall should not water their figs at all once they are established.

The drought tolerance and fertility needs of the fig is just another reason why we absolutely adore them! Especially for the urban gardener who ought to be wary of what kind of fertilizers they are using, the fig is an incredibly resilient and low maintenance tree.

PRUNING

Pruning fig trees is similar to pruning most other fruit trees. General rules include pruning out dead or diseased wood. Keeping an open center. Remove any redundant branches and branches with bad angles. Make heading cuts on overly lanky branches.

Suckers

Pruning out root suckers is also generally recommended as they receive little sunlight and typically don’t produce many figs.

Propagation: Figs are almost always self-rooted! so pruning these root suckers is a great way to get propagation material for making more fig plants!

Time of Year

Figs are generally pruned in late autumn after all fruit has been picked or late winter before it breaks dormancy. Pruning back old and unproductive branches, or making any large cuts should occur in winter. Summer pruning is possible if you want to reduce vigor on your plant.

Pruning With a Breba Crop

The unique thing about pruning figs is keeping in mind your breba crop! Be mindful that you don’t prune off all your breba wood. This is especially relevant for San Pedro type figs as you won’t get a fig harvest if you prune off all of the year-old wood. For this reason, many folks grow San Pedro figs as a multi-stemmed shrub rather than a traditional tree shape. This allows yearly harvest cycles and rejuvenated fruiting wood.

Espalier Training

Espalier training involves pruning and training your fruit tree to grow flat against a wall or support structure. This is a great option for figs as their young branches are very flexible and accepting of training. Many different shapes can be achieved on an espalier fig! There isn’t really a wrong way to do it, so long as you are maximizing your fruiting wood.

VARIETAL SELECTION

When selecting which variety to grow in your particular location, check to see what other folks in your area are growing. In more northern and coastal climates, we are somewhat limited by varieties that actually ripen a decent crop of figs. However, there are many options both tried and true as well as new and experimental for you to try.

Pacific Northwest

The One Green World catalog has mostly focused on fig varieties that do well here in the Pacific Northwest. We don’t always have enough heat to ripen good crops of late season main crops. Fig varieties that produce a large breba crop or a very early main crop are typically the varieties we choose. With hotter summers seemingly on their way every year, we are now able to experiment with more varieties. We’ll have more info soon on new cultivars we’re working with! Thanks in no small part to the help of fig collectors around the country, the USDA, as well as wild selections of seedlings from common figs.

The One Green World catalog has mostly focused on fig varieties that do well here in the Pacific Northwest where we don’t always have enough heat to ripen good crops of late season main crops. Fig varieties that produce a large breba crop or a very early main crop have typically been the varieties we’ve chosen. With hotter and hotter summers seemingly on their way every year, we are now experimenting with varieties that were once thought to be too late ripening for our area. We’ll have more info soon on new fig varieties we’re working on with the help of fig collectors around the country, the USDA, as well as wild selections of seedling common figs.

California, Southwest, & Texas

For growers in California, the Southwest and Texas, we envy your fig growing climate. Growers in this region can feel confident growing almost any variety of fig! Negronne, Peter’s Honey, Petite Negra, LSU Purple and Celeste are some of the tastiest varieties for growers in these warmer climates.

Southeast

Areas with warm seasonal rain such as the Southeast should tend towards varieties that tolerate wet summers without excessive splitting. Check out: LSU Purple, Hunt, LSU Champagne, Scott’s Black

Midwest & East Coast

For growers in the Midwest, East Coast or anywhere colder than USDA Zone 7, special consideration must be taken. Many growers in these climates are forced to grow in containers and bring them indoors for winter. However… many a creative figaholic has found ways of growing figs outdoors in these cold climates.

Strategies include:

Deep mulching (which is always recommended regardless of climate), surrounding the tree with chicken wire and filling it up with leafy debris to make an insulated blanket around the tree, and perhaps the most drastic: bending the plant all the way over and burying it in a trench filled with leafy debris and soil. The insulative layer of the soil and the ambient ground temperature make it so the fig trees usually survive the winter and can be resurrected come spring and allowed to grow and produce figs again for the warm season.

Depending on the amount of summer heat you get in these cold climates, many different figs can be grown.

Chicago Hardy is reportedly hardy all the way down to zone 6, but may frequently be killed back by winter frost and grow back from the roots. Short season figs are always a good idea given how long the frost persists in these areas so drawing from the list above of Pacific Northwest recommendations should provide you with reliable varieties. San Pedro type figs such as Desert King are generally not recommended for these climates if being grown outdoors because the overwintering breba crop is often killed by the severe cold. We’ve also heard of Olympian being especially cold hardy, some say even more so than Chicago Hardy.

Most importantly choose the type of fig that tastes the best to you and then find a variety that performs well in your area that can match that taste most closely. It may be difficult to taste a diversity of fig varieties in certain parts of the country, but rare fruit and garden groups across the country often have fig tastings and if you live in the Northwest you can always come down to the One Green World fig fest.

HARVESTING

Don’t let the grocery stores deceive you, figs should be almost to the point of falling apart when they are fully ripe. When a fig is ripe, the neck starts to elongate just a bit and if you tap on the branch next to the fruit, you’ll see the neck elongate slightly more. This is when figs are at their ripest and there are few fruits that can rival a perfectly ripe fig. Figs do not ripen much if at all off the tree so picking them at the peak of ripeness is essential to get the best flavor out of them. Because of this you will almost never see properly ripened figs in the grocery store as it is nearly impossible to transport perfectly ripe figs. Most folks who say they don’t like figs have likely never eaten a properly ripe one!

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THE MIGRATION OF FIGS

Native to West Asia and the “cradle of civilization” fig trees’ trek across the globe began thousands of years ago and continues as one of the most widely moved species on the planet. Due to its incredible ease of propagation through rooted cuttings and the versatility and nutritional content of its fruit, it is no wonder that humans have had such a long and intimate relationship with this plant.

In our part of the world, first figs were introduced mainly by European immigrants who brought cuttings of their favorite varieties to their new home in North America. Varietal names were often created based on origin, losing many original titles in the process. Many cultivars have been misidentified or renamed along the way, giving rise to a staggering number of synonyms for commonly found varieties. This can frustrate the modern fig collector to no end, but it’s part of game of figs! Fortunately for the beginner or novice fig grower there is at least some agreement on which varietals are which and through the collective work of many passionate fig collectors in this digital age we now have access to more fig varieties than ever before, making it easy to find a variety that will thrive in your climate and groove with your palate.

FIG VOCABULARY & POLLINATION

There is much to learn regarding the wonderful world of figs – here’s our guide to some of the popular vocabulary you’ll hear when discussing this miraculous plant:

Breba crop- The first crop of the season which ripens on previous year’s growth. Winters must be mild enough that the overwintering breba crop buds can survive. In areas like the Pacific Northwest with mild winters and cool summers we often focus on varieties with exceptionally large breba crops to accommodate for our lack of late summer heat.

Main crop- Figs that ripen on current year’s growth. Main crops are typically more flavorful and prolific than the breba crop.

Synconium- A complex inflorescence, or flower cluster, consisting of a semi-hollow and fleshy modified stem that contains inside it many little unisexual flowers. What most people call a fig “fruit” is botanically not actually a fruit but a synconium.

Types of figs

Common figs: These are the majority of figs that we grow here in the United States. Common figs ripen two parthenocarpic crops, (figs that set fruit without pollination but do not contain viable seeds). Typically the breba crop is rather small and the focus is on the main crop.

San Pedro figs: San Pedro figs ripen a breba crop without caprification but require pollination to ripen the second crop. Desert King is the classic example of a San Pedro fig.

Smyrna figs: figs that require caprification to ripen both the breba and main crop

Capri figs: male figs that contain pollen and host overwintering fig wasps that will pollinate Smyrna and San Pedro type figs.

Fig Pollination Further Explained

Caprification: A textbook example of biological symbiosis. First, the male fig, known as a caprifig, produces figs that are filled with pollen-bearing flowers.

Second is the fig wasp, a wasp that is specially adapted to living amongst figs and carries pollen between male and female figs. Most commonly this occurs with the Smyrna or San Pedro figs, which produce female figs that will only ripen a desirable fig if pollinated with pollen from the caprifig by the fig wasp.

The short story of how this all shakes out is that in areas where the fig wasp is able to survive the winter, typically in warmer climates that receive little to no frost, it will live as larvae inside the winter caprifig crop. In spring the male wasp impregnates the female while she is still inside her cozy caprifig winter home and soon after the now winged female wasp emerges from the caprifig and finds a new fig to go lay her eggs in thereby carrying the pollen from the caprifig into (hopefully) a delicious Smyrna or San Pedro fig. The process happens again for the pollination of the second crop.

This seemingly complicated pollination process is limited to areas where the caprifigs and wasps can overwinter in sufficient populations. Fig growers in these areas will go to great lengths to ensure that pollination by the fig wasp occurs by taking wasp-filled capri figs and placing them in or near the Smyrna fig trees.

By now you might be wondering why anyone would go to such great lengths to ensure pollination when they could instead just grow common figs that don’t require pollination.

The answer is in the flavor and quality of caprified Smyrna figs. Considered the best figs on earth, there is a simple biological reason for it. Fertilized flowers create a viable seed! The hormones released by the fertile seed causes the fig to grow larger and the oil content and texture of the fertile seed makes for a far superior figs than what we enjoy here in the Northwest.