Oh, yeah.. Been there, done that so many times. Is that what it's called?

The squirrels in my garden have a longer attention span than I do.

Keeping fruit from tasting watery or bland in hydroponic conditions usually requires keeping the total dissolved solids (TDS) up. I monitor and rebalance K, P, Mg, Ca, Fe, etc. as needed in the system, with high TDS and low carbonates. Yes, I have three ponds devoted to producing duckweed, and currently raise koi and tilapia. To prevent sidetracking this thread, we should probably move aquaponic discussion to
The thread "Aquaponics" in Permaculture forum

I will say that I've had great luck propagating figs in flood and drain beds and will probably do a lot more. The first thing I do whenever I get a fancy new plant is stabilize and quarantine it. The second thing is propagate it.

Figs seem to like dry weather, I have never watered my turkey figs and they do great and no rust. Halfway thru summer I plop a pile of hot compost around the base. In winter I prune to keep them short enough to pick by hand. Other than that they grow wild.

This was a Jolly Tiger fig which reverted to all green after propagation (more common than I'd like) and was placed in this garden bed with ~6 inches of soil (asphalt underneath). It freezes back to 6" of stump every year, but is now in its third year, and makes a nice display in a difficult spot. No figs, though.

Makes a very nice display, indeed!

It's quite a toughie to be able to survive in just 6" of soil! Good growing!

But Paul, I think you will need to protect it enough to let some trunks mature before you will get any fruit. Maybe put it in a big pot and roll it into shelter once it loses its leaves in winter?

Mine makes figs on the woody stems, and it did take a couple of years' growth before it started producing on the mature woody trunks.

It's lost the whole set of spring leaves already to the rusty fungus, but is growing new ones. I just don't know if I will ever get a fall crop of figs from it.

Actually, it's not mine. I donated it to the Mid-Columbia Market at the Hub (http://midcolumbiamarket.org) and it's planted right by their front door. I doubt they want it wrapped up in that location, and they have no where to store it. As I said, though, it makes a nice ornamental. Each year I check to see how much wood survives the cold, but I think they'll need a variety that is better able to produce figs on new wood to get fruit there.

No rusty fungus here, thankfully.

Made 20 little jam jars of fig Jane with lemon and peaches. Two trees and there's more to pick today. Mmm

SCButtercup...
Sounds god with the lemon and peaches! You can send me a few jars. My mailing address is....

GREENE, Thank you so much for starting this thread! I have not been here in a while but found this as soon as I logged in. I read through the entire thread completely excited to find a place for the Figgies of the world! THERE IS A LOT OF GREAT INFO HERE!!! I've also seen several varieties and techniques here I was previously unaware of. I look forward to trying a few pots in the spring as space is limited for now. Keep up the good work all and I look forward to everyone's updates, questions and photos! :smily:

See Y'all in the Forums

I have a San Pietro and a Petite Negri that I bought earlier in the summer. They both have one fig about ¾ inch big but now I see that they both are starting several new little figgies. I live in PA, the Bethlehem area, and would like to know if these figs will ripen before their leaves fall off.

It probably depends upon the weather. If it is a long, warm fall there's a good chance, but if not it's unlikely.

to garden.org aka NGA fawquinn. I would suspect your figs that have been on the plant will ripen but the new ones are iffy. There are many fig growers in your area. Bass owner of "Trees of Joy" resides in Bethlehem. He grows as much if not more varieties than me and some of his cultivars fetch upwards to $300 or more per 1 gallon size plant. Fig tree collecting is fun but once you have what us in the business call fig fever it can be a very costly venture but is still fun none the less. Fig tree collecting has been around for hundreds of years and was once a sign of how wealthy one was. Thomas Jefferson was a fig tree collector along with many other people throughout history.
Be sure to bring your fig tree into a sheltered location this winter before temp get too cold or you will loose them both. An unheated garage, shed, or basement works well. just be sure to keep the soil moist and when you bring them out in spring they should take off for you. If they are in ground be sure to wrap your plant with something to protect it. you can google "winterizing fig trees" or "how to wrap a fig tree" for more info on that.
FYI there are 2 fig trees going by San Pietro one is the same tree as Condit, and Dalmatie all are the same just under different names and is a green fig with a rich red interior. The other is the real San Pietro a dark purple fig with faint red stripes and an amber-pink interior. While the fig is immature the stripes are very visible. Both figs rate highly on taste test so both are winners either way you cut it.
Good luck with your fig trees and I hope you stick around garden.org there are many things to learn and friends to meet.

We have two types of Figs - Brown Turkey and Celeste. Both are performing well this season. My dog snarfed down one of the Brown Turkey fruits (and I ran to the internet to see if it was an okay food snack for dogs!! Yes, it's okay). The Celeste is more than 7 feet tall; the Brown Turkey is shorter at only 5 feet. Last year there was no sign of rust but this year there is a bit of rust showing. I will be thinning each of the plants and rooting the cuttings.

Greene not only are figs safe for dogs they actually love them. I give my dogs the ones the birds pecked or yellow jackets got a hold of all the time. Dormant cuttings are the easiest to root and during dormancy is the best time to do any major branch removals on fig trees and any other trees for that matter. Once pruned in winter you can do some light early summer pruning in following years to control height. Too much pruning during the growing season will encourage new growth that is easily winter killed even in zone 8b.
If you are thinning your plants branches to allow air circulation in hopes to control the rust just know it won't cure it but air circulation is good for the tree regardless so by all means do open it up a little to allow not only air but light to penetrate also. This will help dry any damp leaves and help control the spread of rust but again won't fix the problem. I'm sorry to hear about your rust issues, in the humid south there's no escaping it unless you are willing to use a spray regimen on a regular basis. Trees can go 5, 10, or even 30 years without rust and then boom one year there it is. It' much more than just an eye sore it will defoliate your tree and the remaining figs will not ripen. Not only that but defoliation will also encourage new growth that is not winter hardy resulting in winter die back also. Even temps of only 28F can damage new growth resulting in a loss of your breba crop aka early crop "the figs grown on the previous years growth". You can still get a main crop BUT and it's a big but if the rust is not controlled those main crop figs will not ripen before leaf drop happens next fall and the process just continues to repeat it's self year after year.
If spraying is not an option for you LSU purple is often referred to as rust resistant and varieties like LSU gold & Desert King often ripen before leaf drop occurs so these may be good options for you. I'm not a fan of LSU purple it's flavor is kind of blah even more so than brown turkey but LSU gold is one of my favorite yellow figs.

I had a handle on the rust this year until just the last two weeks when we had a run of very wet weather. Used a biologic fungicide called Actinovate, but I should have re-sprayed. Oh well, the squirrels were getting all my 'Celeste' figs anyway.

The tree is in the process of losing the last of its leaves. Thankfully, it puts on new growth next month and we don't usually get cold enough to kill it, here.

I might have to give up on this tree pretty soon, and try an LSU Gold instead. I'm sure my squirrels will love them, too.

Elaine sorry to hear you are still battling rust also, August is by far the worst month for it. If you plan on defeating it you are going to have to spray almost weekly from just prior to budbreak in spring until leaf fall in winter. Living in zone 9b your season may be long enough for the new growth to harden off before cold temps set in but I have had friends in FL experience winter die back also. Of course other factors like FMV "fig mosaic virus" may have also contributed to the die back but rust is always going to be an issue in places like FL, GA, SC, AL, LA, and MS.
More breeding work should be done for rust resistant but because of figs short shelf life most breeding work on figs in general has but put on the back burner for more marketable fruits. Very few hobbyist venture into fig breeding because of the extremely hard work of hand pollinating figs when the fig wasp is not present and the low percentage of common figs produced from seed. A common fig is just a name for a fig that does not require pollination or the use of the fig wasp to set figs and these make up about 99% of the figs we grow on the east coast. I would say all the figs we grow on the East but some growers including myself grow Gillette and other edible caprifigs like Maslyn Edible Variant. I think UC Davis still works on fig breeding but last I heard LSU has stopped it's breeding program.
It'a funny that this time of year is a common one for figs to become a hot topic. Most of us are just now harvesting bumper crops of figs and at the same time pests and other problems like rust tend to come around. while the figs are still green on the tree the topic of figs is rarely brought up unless it's a new fig growers excited about seeing the baby figs on his or her first trees. I talk about figs all year long and even though I'm not in the fig community as much as I once was I still have a bunch of friends that email me somewhat keeping me in the loop.

Thanks for the encouragement, Daniel. I thought the Actinovate was working pretty well against the rust, and the next application is due this week (it recommends monthly, to every 6 weeks and I'm using it on my orchids, daylilies and cannas as well) but when that wet weather was forecast I should have moved the treatment up. But usually by this time of year the tree has long since lost all its leaves so I did make some gains.

I do think if I'm going to engage in a fight with rust and critters to eat my own figs, I should be growing a variety that ripens its crop better than 'Celeste' does.

Could you recommend where I can get a new tree of LSU Gold, and what is the best time of year to plant? When the weather cools, I'd hope?

check your tree mail

This is a follow up to last year's post of this same fig. After three years in the (6" of dirt) ground starting from a cutting, the trunk of this tree didn't die back last year, and the result was this monster, loaded with figs all summer, though it seems to be done now. 6-8 feet tall, 15 feet wide, all visible branches new this year. I didn't get to taste any of the fruit, so I don't know how they turned out, but this vigor is one of things I really love about figs.