# Fig trees



## TimV (Oct 31, 2008)

Just topped off a nice breakfast with some fresh figs. If you've ever had any fresh from the tree, you will see why Christ sought them out.

This post is for those who live in areas where figs can grow, and have a bit of extra space.

When the Spanish Padres came to California, they planted what we now call the black Mission variety. They have two crops per year, one early in the season, so you have fresh fruit when there's not much else, and one later, which is ripens over a month or so, there's fresh fruit before winter. They dry VERY easily as well, so one tree can go a long way to keep a family healthy during the whole year. Home dried figs are as nice as candy.

I took a cutting from a tree that was started as a cutting from the original Mission fig at the San Luis Obispo Mission. It's a straight cutting, as with figs, unlike most fruit trees, you don't need to graft. Just take about a foot and a half from a year old branch, and plant it three quarters of the length into the ground and keep it moist.

Since it's a cutting, I'm literally eating from the same tree as the original Spanish missionaries. The cutting will produce fruit in three years. Pull off all the figs produced in the first and second year so the energy can go into the development of the tree rather than the fruit.

With figs pruning is easy, you just prune it to fit the space you have for it, take out everything that grows up from the roots, and any crossing branches. They only bear on wood one year old, not like an apple or pear that can bear on the same branches for years, so don't cut off too many of the darker shoots.

They don't need much water, which is a plus, and very little fertilizer, although they do respond to plenty of water and fertilizing once per month in the growing season.

Gophers are a problem, but very little else. You never need to spray them for bugs, although you may have to fight birds for the figs.

All in all one of the very easiest of fruit trees, and one singled out as pleasant and useful by God Himself.


----------



## turmeric (Oct 31, 2008)

Once when I lived in San Francisco a friend visited from Oregon. So we went around the corner to the bodega and bought a ripe mango. When we opened it, the seed was sprouting, so I planted it, wrong end up of course! I called a greenhouse and they set me (and the mango) straight! This was in August, I believe, and by October it had two leaves. So I called the greenhouse again and they said I didn't have anything to worry about b/c it wouldn't grow leaves until Spring! I had to leave it when I moved, as well as my lemon tree. There are things about California that I definitely miss!


----------



## VictorBravo (Oct 31, 2008)

TimV said:


> Just topped off a nice breakfast with some fresh figs. If you've ever had any fresh from the tree, you will see why Christ sought them out.
> 
> This post is for those who live in areas where figs can grow, and have a bit of extra space.
> 
> ...



I've got a couple of fig trees, Brown Turkeys. The older one I planted about 6 years ago and was ready to give it the Luke 13 treatment. I had dug it and dung it a few times, and it just didn't grow or bear. But, finally, this year, we got figs. Oh what a blessed tree that had been wrongly cursed!

I took a cutting from it a few years ago and started another in the greenhouse. It's doing well.

So Meg, even if you can't have your mango, you can grow figs in the Pacific NW.


----------



## turmeric (Oct 31, 2008)

Good to know!


----------



## TimV (Oct 31, 2008)

The mango wouldn't have worked anyway in San Fran, so you really haven't given up much (except the lemon, and who can eat them anyway? ;-)).


----------



## TimV (Oct 31, 2008)

Fresh fruit throughout November


----------



## Mushroom (Oct 31, 2008)

Thanks, Tim. I have spent time hanging out under the very tree you speak of, the parent of your cutting, and it is a beautiful tree. One of the few things I miss about living in CA. Is the one at Santa Barbara still alive? It was some kind of record size back in the early '80's when last I saw it, and was held together by cables to prevent it falling apart, so I'm thinking it might have met it's demise in all this time.


----------



## TimV (Oct 31, 2008)

Interesting! I don't really know if the SB mission fig is still there. There's another kind of historic fig in SB and it's huge, but it's a non edible type.


----------



## Mushroom (Oct 31, 2008)

TimV said:


> Interesting! I don't really know if the SB mission fig is still there. There's another kind of historic fig in SB and it's huge, but it's a non edible type.


No, the one I saw at Santa Barbara was not at the mission, it was near the beach, and was not an edible variety, but was really huge. It was a landmark, but was so old and oversized that I wouldn't have expected it to still be standing, but maybe it is.

Funny thing, all the time I spent in San Luis Obispo County, about 3 years, I never ate a fig. The only figs I've ever eaten were inside Fig Newtons. But they are beautiful trees.


----------



## Tim (Nov 3, 2008)

We used to have a fig tree in the backyard when I lived in Victoria, BC, the mildest place in Canada. The leaves are so big and I realized how it was possible for Adam and Eve to sew them together for clothing. In fact, I once took a fig leaf to church for the children to see and to relate it to the incident in the Garden of Eden.


----------

