Growing Figs

Figs (Ficus carica) are not naturally the dried, leathery things that come out at Christmas but are in fact some of the juiciest, sweetest and most fragrant fruits around. There are lots of different varieties of figs which have different characteristics.

Some have dark purple almost black skins with ruby red or garnet flesh, whilst others have yellow skin and pale pink flesh. All of them are delicious when grown fresh and are about as far away from the dried version as it is possible to get.

Historically, figs were pollinated by tiny wasps that spent part of their life cycle in a wild fig, called a caprifig, native to the Mediterranean region. Most fig trees sold in nurseries today, however, are self-pollinating, sometimes labeled self-fruiting, making it easier to grow figs in your garden, even with just one tree.

They are sun loving plants and are often seen around the Mediterranean countries, they are capable of producing up to three crops of their fruits per year but in cooler climes they usually just provide one crop unless you have a particularly early spring and late autumn in which case they will squeeze out two crops.

They are very strong growing trees and must be confined to a pot or a specially dug trench which has something in the bottom to prevent the damaging tap roots from escaping.

Types of Figs

The best varieties of fig to grow in Southern Canada and the US are Brown Turkey which is a large dark skinned variety and White Marseilles which is a pale skinned variety with very pale flesh. Both of them are relatively heavy cropping but the most common type grown is undoubtedly Brown Turkey.

This variety produces a bumper crop of large, pear shaped, dark purple skinned fruit which has a ruby red flesh that is very sweet and succulent. It is also one of the most vigorous growers and MUST be confined otherwise it will just grow bigger and bigger at the expense of fruit.

Also consider planting a dwarf variety in a large pot, which can be moved to a garage, greenhouse, or other protected space during winter months.  Petite Negri (Black Jack or Black Spanish in other nurseries), which sets more fruit for its size than other dwarf varieties. Violette de Bordeaux is a dwarf variety commonly grown in Europe in large pots; the figs are small but intense in flavor.

Fig Roots

Regardless of which type of fig you decide to grow they all need their strong roots confining in some way. The easiest way to achieve this is to grow the figs in large pots or tubs. A good sized pot for a 3 foot (1 m) high tree would be a 14 inch (35 cm) pot either plastic or terracotta.

This set up will require watering regularly during the summer, probably daily otherwise the fruits may drop off. If you are intending growing them outside in the ground then some preparation must be made before planting.

The best way to grow figs out doors is trained against a south facing wall and growing in a trench 2.5 to 3 feet (80 to 95 cm) deep x 5 feet (1.6 m) long and 3 feet (1 m) wide. This trench can either be lined in a 1.5 to 2 inch (7 to 10 cm) lining of concrete to form a large sunken pot or the trench should be dug deeper and 12 inches (25 cm) of rubble added to the base and the walls lined with overlapping paving slabs.

If using concrete remember to leave some drainage holes in the bottom, the easiest way to do this is to push some pieces of 1 inch (2.5 cm) diameter cane or other sticks in the the soil base before adding concrete, once the concrete is set you can simply pull out the canes to reveal the drainage holes.

Another important point to realise with fig roots is that they are very strong and if left to their own devices can destroy underground pipes and foundations, particularly when grown against a wall.

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