Fig trees in Italy

Hi, I have recently introduced myself as a new member from Abruzzo in Italy as a complete novice gardener trying to look after our garden and then hopefully grow something.

I thought I would start with the two fig trees we have, both weren't very successful with different problems.

The first tree is very tall and growing up the side of a garage, the garage is on the south side of the tree. It is about 15-20 ft tall and growing in a bit of cramped space. It's first fruit was ripe about July and the second in August. Both lots were rotten on the inside though (although looked fine on the outside). There is now fruit growing again and has lots of green leaves still.



The second tree is growing in a field. Appears to have been previously tended to. The first fruit was fine but in the peak of the summer the leaves turned and dropped and no new fruit came though. Now this tree has new buds on most branches but still no leaves.

I am desperate for any advice as to why this happened and how we should go about looking after these trees.

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner Italiarsenal. Figs in general don't mind growing in cramped spaces and survive with very little water. So that probably isn't the problem with the first tree, however if the fruits are rotting it suggests to me it's being attacked by something, either a disease or pest. Did you check the fruit inside to see if there were any signs of these, and does the tree itself show any signs of disease?

The second tree.......even though I said they need very little water, if the tree has been in drought conditions for a long time it will shed it's leaves. You say this tree has new buds, watch it for a while and see whether they are new leaf buds developing. Also, could it be that you have had more rain recently, which has helped it's situation?

 

I have fig "Brown Turkey", but I'm assuming growing conditions in the UK are very different from Italy.

Are these plants/trees know varieties or possibly wild figs?

Sounds to me like the second tree just got too dry and went dormant for the summer.
I see you are in central Italy.
Do you get much if any frost in that region?

As I understand it, figs tend to take advantage of whatever growing time they get. So they tend to do their growing whenever the weather suits them best.
Cant help more as I'm only really familiar with growing figs in the UK.

 

Hi

We had the same problem with our figs this year in Abruzzo. The Italian neighbours said it is the weather that has caused this, as last year they were fine, in fact too many to eat and we had fig jam galore.

If i remember correctly this year it was a very wet spring, (or was that the uk?) which may have been the problem, and it followed with a long period of dry weather. Anyway, the weather has been up and down so, you are not alone on this one. My OH who is living in Italy to deal with project work etc. has been disappointed with a lot of the fruit this year.

We are also learning year by year.

 

Yes, basically it was a long wet spring followed by probably 8-10 weeks with no rain at all. We assumed it was the dryness that affected the second tree. Apart from being bare of leaves it looks ok, all the shoots look healthy, has lots of dried up half grown fruit on it still. Should I remove the dead fruit, should we prune it this winter. The figs were green if that helps.

The first tree is very tall, can they get too tall and cause the fruit to go off? There was no sign of any disease that we could see, the rest of the tree looked healthy (and still does) and the fruit looked fine on the outside. For want of knowing any technical terms the fruit was just mushy on the inside rather than 'off' if that makes sense. The fruit that is growing on the tree now, should we leave it. And should we drop the height of this tree?

As for frost, no ground frost that we saw last year but a few spells of snow

 

Hi Italiarsenal

http://www.lifeinitaly.com/garden/fruit-trees.asp

See this link, it gives a little useful information on figs. We are leaving our figs until after the winter to prune. We have only cut trees that are dead up to now, but will be doing a hard prune on all trees in March.
We are very new at managing trees and learning from local people when we can, it is worth getting to know your neighbours. Also, when you drive around, see what others are doing with their trees close to where you live.

 

Hi Italiarsenal , I totally agree with pixie , I`m from Italy myself but living in England , went in Italy last june and they had many fruit tree failing because of the rain , figs are getting acid very quicly so too much water it not ideal , apparently appen to laquet fruit as well ....
the other one need to be pruned , it sound like understress .
ps try sharon fruit , pomegranate , kiwi and grapes , all autumn crop ....

 

Understress, does that mean the tall tree? I'm afraid these terms mean nothing to me

 

It`s just an excess of water , i think it`s the soil retain too much water , usually will have fruit (and lots of them ) but the old leaves will foll like in Autumn (when it raining a lot)....a pruning at the right time will be a good idea , the tree will use more water to regrown the branches.
ps the branches are very easy to root.

 

A wet spring followed by a dry summer sounds like a recipe to sucsess to me.
Figs like dry enviroments, the main problem in the UK is damp cool summers.
They lose their leaves here in winter with small figs attached to the stems, the medium sized ones fall off next spring, but the really small ones go on to grow and ripen next year.

The height of a tree will have no bearing on how it will fruit, and pruning will obviously bring it down to size, but have no real effect on fruit production.
The "Mushy inside" fruit, is why I was wondering if it might be a wild fig rather than a cultivated variety.

 

I would say it is a wild fruit, it wouldn't have been planted in that position, would that make it in edible then?

And to the other tree that lost all its leaves and it now budding again, should I remove the dead fruit?

 

Out on a limb here but I think wild figs need pollinating and usually contain seeds.
Not sure you get a decent fruit without pollination.

I never remove the dead fruit on mine, it fall off the following spring, or earlier.
Common fig - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Scroll down regarding cultivation

 

Hello
Fig trees are found in Italy in a huge quantity and is more beneficent for the sugar patient especially for cancer patient ,so during the winter season it must be eaten continuously for the betterment of the health.

 

If It`s a wild figs will be edible but not taste , it`s required for pollination , the calling the male fig or Caprifig it`s got small leaves then the cultivated fig , every cultivated figs are originated from it , sort of an F1 so will not be surprised if comes from fig seed ........as perhaps the caprifig/o it way much faster to grow and will grow in every position or wall , rock.
Actually that would be a really nice decorative tree in UK , the roots reminding of the strangle fig .

 

I so love figs wish I could have a dwarf fig shrub in my garden .