I have been picking figs as well, and they have been going right into my belly! I do so love this time of year. I only have 4 trees, but know of other people with a very strange variety which grows more like a fruit tree, and the figs are smaller. I hope to pick enough to make a decent batch of wine off of them this year. :)

Even though last year's branches didn't get frozen back to the ground, the first crop of figs got frosted so we don't have any ripe yet. Do have several late ones and have watered the bush so hope for some later.

A belly is a great place for figs! It is their destiny, so to speak.

As quickly as they ferment on their own, I bet they'll be great for winemaking.

Dorothy, Y'all had a frost that late? Wow. You are having all my weather this year (in the worst possible way...late frosts and no rain). Our last frost was early for once--March 4th or 5th instead of the May 3rd-4th ones we'd had for 4 years prior.

I hope your late crop sizes up and ripens well. Our late crop is still small, but there's plenty of them. All we need is for the fall weather to cooperate.

My figs are in pots. They were just twigs last year and I mostly kept them on the covered patio to keep them alive throughout the drought. I may put them in the ground this dormant season or next spring. They are a nice size now--about 8' tall and spreading pretty wide. I am surprised how happy they've remained in their large pots, but I don't want them there forever. I want them in the ground so they can get really big in the ground. I don't have a lot of area with well-drained soil but I've been saving a place for them in an area where the drainage is about as good as it gets here.

Dawn

Dawn, the fig like everything else came out very early and the frost that got it was very spotty--Didn't hurt anything in the garden on only slightly higher elevation.

I have two new figs that I ordered last fall and a brown turkey that I've had for a couple years and kept them all in pots in the greenhouse over the winter. I am considering keeping them in pots forever and overwintering them in the unheated portion of the greenhouse. How big are your pots? I'm using 18 gal rubber totes, but am thinking about moving up to bigger pots, maybe 50 gallon barrels, now that we have a hand truck to move them around.

I also have two young brown turkeys that I separated from the mother plant and put in the ground last fall. They did freeze to the ground, but put back out and are doing well. I set them on the south side of the greenhouse about 15 ft away so hope they get some reflected heat. We love figs and I would like to eventually get enough to preserve some.

Dorothy, I've considered keeping them in pots too. Maybe I'll keep one in a pot and put one in the ground and see which one performs best over the long term.

Mine are only in 15-gallon pots right now. I have them up against a fence which so far has kept them from blowing over in a thunderstorm. Well, there haven't been too many thunderstorms lately. Back in April when there were thunderstorms,I'd pull the potted figs up underneath the patio cover and right up against a wall to protect them from wind and hail. I've been really careful with them because my last in-ground fig tree died in the drought of 2008-09, although it actually died in the winter part of the drought and not the summer part. I guess I didn't water it enough that winter.

I might move mine up to molasses tubs. Though their size varies, most of them are in the 20-25 gallon range. I cannot imagine a 50-gallon container. Even with a hand truck, it seems like it would be hard to move. (Maybe I'm just a big wimp.)

I'm just so happy to have figs to eat. No one else in my family seems to appreciate them like I do, so I will eat them all by myself if I have to. Fruit this yummy shouldn't be wasted. Last night Tim turned down figs and ate Bluebell Ice Cream instead. So, I ate two figs instead of one.

Dawn

My 3 Chicago Hardy figs are doing well, and I ate the first 2 ripe figs the other day. I am shocked at how they are surviving in this drought with no water from me. I have a ton more green ones coming in, and neighbors and husband are all clamoring for a turn, because they have *never* tasted a fig (other than Fig Newtons)!!!!

Jo

BTW I grow mine in the ground. Year one I covered them with straw, blankets, and bags for the winter. Year two (last winter) I had too much going on to cover, but they did just fine (it was so mild). I will likely cover them again this winter.

Jo

You know, I always hear you are supposed to dig a ditch, take out your fig trees and lay them down for the winter. I never do anything to mine, and I got these from an lady who has had her tree for 40+ years and never done anything over the winter to them.

In Fort Worth the figs never froze, but here they often freeze back to the ground. They need well-drained soil, which I have precious little of, so that's the big issue. It often is persistently wet and cold soil that gets them in winter, not the winter temps alone. I'm building a raised berm where I hope to plant some more figs next spring, and it will be on the south side of the house to protect them from the worst of the north winds.

There is no plant I want to grow badly enough that I'd trench it like that but people in colder climates than ours probably do trench them in some locations. A fig like Chicago Hardy is supposed to be winter hardy to zone 5, so I know it is possible to grow them pretty far north. I'm not sure how much extra work it takes or if they do freeze back to the ground in zone 5 no matter what you do.

Jo, If the only fig I'd ever tasted was fig newtons, I wouldn't think figs were so special, and I like fig newtons, but how they take the wonderful flavor of figs and turn them into fig newtons is beyond me. I don't taste a similarity. I suppose is it similar to the difference between the flavor of fresh tomatoes versus processed tomatoes.

Figs are Mediterranean so don't need a lot of water. They love heat too, up to a point.
Are y'all back home?

Dawn

I have had a banner season with my fig tree this year. I didn't know whether it had finally reached that stage of maturity (about 5 years) or whether it was the warmer winter that let them produce. Always before the figs started ripening just as the fall frost hit so we got a dozen or so and that was it. My tree is raised by about 3 layers of pave stone and right against the South wall of a metal building and pretty much "shaded" from the North and west winds. As of today, the harvest is down significantly from the past several days. I have watered it about once per week by watering really deep and heavy. I think next spring, I will give it a dose of 5/20/20 fertilizer that I got for my tomatoes. That is supposed to make anything "fruit and root" so sayeth my Mississippi Tomato growing expert.
Wonder if I need to prune the fig tree next spring to hold down the number of shoots that come up from the roots?

Bob (in Goldsby)

Bob,

I am happy for you that it has been such a great fig year. I kinda think it was the mild winter that gave us the great production, especially the absence of very late freezes or frosts.

My two trees have just ripened their last figs from the breba crop this week. I think there's one left. I don't know if the little green figs from the second crop will mature or not. Time will tell.

I don't know about pruning. It is their nature to grow and get real wide like that if left to their own devices and the only people who I watched raise one when I was a kid (it was right next door) didn't prune theirs, so that is the only real example I have to go by. It got as wide as it was tall and it was beautiful, lush, and highly productive. Of course, that was in zone 8 Fort Worth and it rarely had to deal with many truly cold nights. I think that you have to do whatever fits the space your tree is in.

Dawn

We have been back home for a month now! It feels surreal. We are in this big beautiful house and I have no idea how we got here.

The figs are producing despite the drought and no water. They are losing almost all their leaves, but hanging in there. My strawberry patches are burned to a crisp. My blueberries and blackberries look terrible.

I kind of hate Oklahoma. No rain for two months???? REALLY???

Jo