figs

[MousyMouse]

have discovered that the enourmous fig tree in my new garden is full of light green mouse-crayon size figs.
will they ripen? will they go as big as supermarket figs?
how do I know they are ripe?

This is going to sound weird, but you need to remove all of the figs that are bigger than a cherry and throw 'em away. Leave on the little diddly ones, they will be your next year's ripe figs.

The thing is that our growing season isn't long enough in this country so your figs need two sunny seasons to ripen. The bigger ones will just get killed by the frost and your tree will have wasted its energy in trying to grow them.

So be brave and get thinning them out.

Oh thanks! My fig tree is now three meters tall, and I was keen to find out if there will ever be fruit, so will investigate and thin accordingly!

You will know they are ripe when the birds rip them open and their red guts spill out.

Or when they drop onto your path and explode making it look like a cat has killed a small animal.

I ate figs from my little tree this year. It also grew hugely. I LOVE figs.