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The great enemy of fig quality is not drought but swings. A tree that dries hard and is then flooded splits its fruit down the side within a day or two, and split figs sour before they ripen. Restricted roots make the problem worse, because a small volume of soil dries out fast, so the tree that fruits best is also the tree that punishes you for irregular watering.
Aim to keep the root zone evenly moist from the moment the fruit starts swelling until the last figs are picked. Push a finger two inches (5 cm) into the soil: if it is dry at that depth, water. Water deeply and less often rather than sprinkling every day, so the moisture reaches the whole restricted root ball rather than just the surface.
| Stage | Water | Signs you got it wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Dormant, winter | Rain only in the ground; barely any in pots | Sour, waterlogged compost by spring |
| Bud break to first fruit | Moderate, every few days in dry weather | Small leaves and stalled shoots if too dry |
| Fruit swelling | Steady and generous, never allowed to dry | Fruit splits, or drops while pea sized |
| Ripening | Ease off slightly | Bland, watery figs if flooded now |
| After the last pick | Reduce sharply | Soft late growth that winter kills |
Mulch two to three inches (5 to 8 cm) deep over the root area with bark, straw or gravel, keeping it clear of the trunk. On a restricted root run, mulch does more to even out soil moisture than any change to watering frequency.
Feed for fruit, not for leaves
A fig needs far less feeding than most fruit trees, and nitrogen is the thing to be careful with. High nitrogen gives you long shoots, huge soft leaves, and figs that stay green. Potassium is what supports fruiting and helps the wood ripen before winter, so the useful feed for a fig looks like a tomato feed rather than a lawn feed.
Trees in restricted ground usually need nothing beyond a spring dressing. Containers are different: the volume is small, watering leaches nutrients continuously, and a potted fig fed nothing will make eight inches (20 cm) of growth and a handful of small fruit.
| Grown in | Feed | When |
|---|---|---|
| Restricted ground | Low-nitrogen slow release, about 3 oz (100 g) | Once, at bud break |
| Restricted ground, weak tree | Add a potassium-rich liquid feed fortnightly | From fruit set to first ripe fruit |
| Container | High-potassium liquid feed at label strength | Every 10 to 14 days through the growing season |
| Any tree | Stop all feeding | From late summer onward |
Stopping feed in late summer is not neglect. Growth still running when the cold arrives has not hardened, and it is the first thing to die back. A fig should be visibly slowing down before autumn.
Reading the growth to know what to change
The tree tells you what it needs through the length of its shoots and the spacing of its leaves, and reading that is more reliable than any fixed feeding schedule. Measure the longest new shoot in late summer and look at the distance between leaf joints on it.
Shoots between twelve and twenty inches (30 to 50 cm) with short joints and figs sitting close to the base are exactly right. Anything much longer, with wide gaps between leaves and no fruit until the far end, means too much nitrogen or too much root run. Anything much shorter with small pale leaves means the tree is starved, pot bound, or dry.
| What you see | What it means | What to change |
|---|---|---|
| Shoots over 3 ft (90 cm), leaves huge | Too much vigor | Stop feeding; check for escaped roots in winter |
| Shoots 12 to 20 in (30 to 50 cm), fruit low on the shoot | Balanced | Change nothing |
| Shoots under 8 in (20 cm), leaves small and pale | Starved or pot bound | Feed, and repot in the coming dormant season |
| Leaves yellowing between the veins | Iron or magnesium shortage on alkaline soil | Foliar feed with a chelated trace element mix |
| Leaves wilting at midday, firm by evening | Normal heat response | Nothing, provided the soil is moist |
Looking after a fig in a container
A container does the job of a root restriction pit and does it more precisely, which is why so many good fig crops come off patio trees. The trade-off is that you take over the entire water supply, and a fig in full leaf in a pot on a hot day can empty its compost in a single afternoon.
- Use 15 to 20 gallons (60 to 80 L) as a final size That is roughly a 20 inch (50 cm) diameter pot. It supports a tree of five to eight feet (1.5 to 2.5 m) with plenty of fruit, and does not dry out unmanageably fast.
- Use a soil-based compost, not a peat-free multipurpose A loam-based mix holds water more evenly, resists drying to dust, and gives the weight a top-heavy fig needs. Add one part grit in five for drainage.
- Water once in the morning through summer Water until it runs from the drainage holes. In hot spells check again in the evening and water a second time if the top two inches (5 cm) are dry.
- Top dress every year, repot every three or four Each spring scrape off the top two inches (5 cm) of compost and replace it. Every third or fourth dormant season, tip the tree out, trim the outer inch (2 to 3 cm) of roots all round, and return it to the same pot with fresh compost.
- Do not go up a pot size to fix poor growth A bigger pot restores vigor and loses you fruit. Root prune and feed instead; the small pot is doing the work you want it to do.
Through the cold months
Fig wood is hardy to about 15F (minus 9C), but the embryonic breba figs on last year's shoots are damaged well before that, from around 20F (minus 7C). That gap explains why a tree can come through winter apparently fine and produce nothing early: the wood lived, the fruit did not.
In marginal climates, wrap the branch framework in row cover or hessian once the leaves have dropped, and pack straw around the base. A potted tree is easier: move it against a wall, under an overhang or into an unheated shed or garage. Dormant figs need no light at all, only enough water to keep the compost from becoming bone dry, roughly once a month.
Uncover in stages as the worst cold passes. Leaving row cover on into warm spring weather forces soft early growth that the next frost destroys, which is a worse outcome than not wrapping at all.
What to record through the season
Three notes a year are enough to make each following season easier. Record the date the buds broke, the date you saw the first fruit begin to swell, and the length of the longest shoot at the end of summer. Add the winter low temperature if you know it, and whether the breba figs were still on the branches in spring.
Those five items answer nearly every question you will ask later: whether a poor crop was cold damage or pruning, whether the tree is getting too vigorous, and whether your season is genuinely long enough for the main crop. Note the position of each tree too if you grow more than one, since a wall and an open bed a few yards apart can behave like different climates.