Fruits and Nuts: Figs not ripening, 1 by pbyrley

pbyrley wrote:
Hey Clementine, Since I am 20 miles from you, I thought I would chime in. My figs all froze this Spring so I got no breva crop (the June crop). I am pretty sure, since the main growth was also delayed, all the main growth figs were delayed too. I've gotten t eat 3 brown turkey, 2 Celeste and 2 LSU purples figs. (All trees are small since they were rotted in 2007 and planted in Fall 2008. I never had this trouble when I lived just N. of Charlotte until 2007 when we also had a late freeze. I have my black mission fig planted near the house on the S. side and the brown turkey is on the S. side of the garage. Celeste is out in the middle of the yard and probably won't be protected. If there is a freeze predicted after they green out next year, I am going to cover black mission with a large painters cloth and the brown turkey with anything my wife will let me have. I probably will run extension cords with 100 watt light bulbs to heat under the "tents". That has worked before down to 15 deg. nights with no damage at all.

I agree with oldude about putting no more manure and probably no fertilizer of any kind next year. However figs love to run their roots in mulch so try to give them 2 to 4 inches out as far as you can. My little Celeste is 2 1/2 feet high and about 2' diameter. When I moved the mulch away, the roots were out to 3' from the center of the tree. The mulch can be almost any kind I think but I like to run the lawn mower over a lot of leaves and catch them. The chopped leaves don't blow away so bad as leaves do.

Paul

We hope this has helped. Feel free to add more questions below or by Dmail. I think Oldude is close to the fig expert on DG and I'm learning from a lot of experience.