Pots of Fruit

Fig - Limb Blight

Sounds awful doesn't it?  Well I think our fig got it as I watched two of the stems go blackish and withered before deciding to cut them off.  I wasn't sure what it was for ages but I looked it up on the Texas Plant Disease Handbook and what they describe as limb blight sounds like what we've got.  It says this..."The fungus enters at a spot along the main or secondary limbs, and all leaves die beyond that point. The fungus enters at a dead fruiting spore or at some other injured spot. All dead twigs and limbs should be removed by pruning so that they will not serve as infection sites."

On the left you can see the limb of the fig going black at the top (this was in the start of April just as it was waking up after winter).  It's in close up on the right and you can see that the bud at the top never developed it just stayed a pasty shade of greeny brown. 

You can see the general shape of our little fig below with its one healthy branch, on the right, and two branches that are doing very little in the way of growing, on the left.  These two branches are the oldest ones so that may have something to do with why they have become infected.  One of the branches had started to grow some lovely new leaves and a little fig. But unfortunately it took a sudden turn for the worse and just started to die.  At this stage I decided that action needed to be taken and I cut the whole branch off.  I found it quite hard to actually cut the whole thing off (psychologically) but I knew it had to be done.  The fungus should not be allowed to spread to the other branch which has 8 lovely figs on it.  Also I read that if  you prune a fig branch low to the ground that it encourages growth from the base of the plant.  This means you get a multi stemmed bush eventually which is one good way of maintaining a fig in a containers.  In other words, lots of stems grow up from the ground rather that just one or two.  We'll see if this actually happens.  It's a little hard to see where I cut the branch in the photo below but you'll get the idea. I didn't have the heart to cut it right to the ground so I left about 4 inches intact. 

At the moment the fig looks relatively healthy but overall it seems like a complete mystery to me.  I'm still confused about the fruiting, but over the next few years I will just have to watch it carefully and try and get my head around it.  If anyone out there has any experience of growing figs please pass on any tips that you have.  For now I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping that the eight remaining figs don't drop off.  They did last year :(

 

Planting a Fig Tree

Figs are ideal fruits for growing in containers as they actually benefit from having their roots restricted.  The little figs grow at each branch node and therefore if the tree is more compact then there will be more figs per branch.  Having the roots restricted helps this compact growth to occur.  Also, as they are frost tender they can be brought inside during the winter, to either a greenhouse or porch for protection.

HARDINESS

Figs can be damaged by the frost, though probably not killed.  If an entire tree is killed above ground level it may still regrow from its roots in spring.  When they are fully dormant in the winter they are able to cope with lower temperatures but when they are actively growing they can be damaged at temperatures below 10 degrees Centigrade.  Apparently they get more resistant to frost as they get older.

This is our fig last year, about 3 months after we bought it.

POT AND SOIL

Figs need to be potted into a 12" to 15" pot.  The one above is about 11" but I will be repotting it in a year or two as I didn't have the right size when we got it.  There needs to be plenty of drainage material at the bottom.  I put in about 2 inches (5cms) of small stones at the bottom before I put the soil in.  This is because figs don't actually like too much water and need to be able to get rid of the excess easily. 

The soil should be a mixture of a soil based compost a little bone meal and a little seaweed meal.  If you had a little bit of grit handy to add to the soil this would improve the drainage, but is not vital.

PLANTING

When actually planting the fig make sure that it is planted nice and deep.  In other words, the new level of soil in the container should be higher than the old soil level of the fig.  This encourages stooling, which means that more stems will grow from the soil level.  Apparently this is good although I have not yet established why!

Give the fig a good water to get it settled in.  A mulch (gravel, wood chips etc) on the top could be a good idea in order to prevent weeds from growing around the base of the tree.  Weeds may encourage mice to come and nibble at the tree.  In general I just pick out the weeds whenever I'm passing by the fig and that seems to do the trick.

BEGINNING TO FRUIT

This is our fig waking up after the winter.  All the leaves fell off, which I presume is normal, and just the little buds at the top of each branch hung on.  I had left the figs outside until I saw that the these buds looked slightly black after some frost so I brought them into the greenhouse.  Once they started to open in March I breathed a sigh of relief.

As soon as the buds started to open two little figs started to grow as well.  Figs appear not to flower before they fruit, however the tiny flowers of the fig are out of sight, clustered inside the green "fruits".  In warmer climates a wasp will crawl into the fruit and fertilise the flowers.  However in order to produce fruit, fertilisation is not necessary.  They will not produce seed but the fruit will still be as nice, apparently.  I do not fully understand the fruiting schedule yet but as far as I know these figs are growing on last years growth.  As more wood matures further up the stem then another crop of figs will be produced.  Up to 3 crops of fruit a year can be obtained from a fig tree but this places a lot of strain on the plant and sometimes only one crop is allowed to ripen.  At the moment I can see the signs of little figs starting in other places on the plant but they have not changed in weeks so I think they are waiting for something.....

Here are the two figs today.  At the junction between the brown and the green wood you can see a tiny triangle of yellowish growth.  This is the start of a new fig.  They seem to stay like this for a while before taking on a growth spurt.

Below, you can see the fig tree today with all its beautiful big leaves.  They can be up to 1ft in length so you can see how Adam and Eve managed to preserve their modesty with them once they realised they were naked! 

Further posts on fruiting, pruning and general fig care will be added to my blog as I learn more so keep an eye out and if anyone happens to be an expert on fig then please pass on some tips to me so I can put them up here.