Fig tree

[Rainsdropskeepfalling]

Following on from a thread earlier in the year about olive trees having hated winter this year (opinion split between 'olives live thousand of years in mountains and never die' and 'yeah, time for the compost heap') I left my dead looking fig tree alone, fed it and hoped it would also come back to life (ps the olive tree is now an ornamental stick arrangement) and there are three leaves now. Should I prune it hard ? It's more of a tree than the normal bush so I don't have much leeway in the normal cut 1/3 to the ground, 1/3 mid way and leave 1/3 alone which is my approach to most things in the garden

Any thoughts?

If it only has 3 leaves, don't cut them.off!

It's the wrong time of year to prune a fig, anyway. Feed, and water it and keep it in a warm.sheltered place, then prune it next January/February if it's still alive then.

@BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn do you think it's worth cutting off the three branches that are dead and leaving the two branches that have the three small leaves? It sits against a south facing wall, I just didn't wrap it up in fleece for the winter like I had in previous years (I live in Cambridgeshire - too bloody cold for me!)

I'd leave them for now. They might not be quite as dead as they look.

No, leave it. According to my DH fig trees are only pruned February time. Plus its not dead.

@Mistymornin you're right, it's not dead, it's just resting. I'll leave the branches which are dead (no signs of life, small side branches brittle and snap off) and take them off next year I guess (wasn't sure if leaving dead bits in would hamper recovery of the rest of the plant).

If truly dead, no problem with cutting it off. Make sure it’s really dead - bark looks shrivelled, lifeless, branch is brittle.

Don’t prune live branches at this time of year, the cut branches will leak copious amounts of milky sap.

It’s going to be a long haul getting that back into vigorous bearing

@MereDintofPandiculation it's never been a vigorous fruiter but in the couple.of years I had got more from it. I hate giving up on plants so I may just move it out of view, remove the dead branches and see what happens.. I'd love a fig tree/bush but I think this has taught me my.garden isn't warm enough for one

It might be better in the ground, simply because the ground stays warmer than soil in pots. Mine does well in Yorkshire, probably warmer than you but not by much. Of course, in a pot you can always bring it indoors for winter.

If it were me, I'd buy another to get on with the job of fruiting while I nurse that one back to life.

Update: I pruned it a bit and that seems to have spurred it back into life (no sap to be seen anywhere). I might prune it a bit more to try and get a better shape.....

I have a fig given to me as a cutting from a friend in S Portugal. After 10 years or more of masses of fruit but none developing to maturity, I came to the conclusion it’s a variety that actually needs the fig wasp. So last autumn I heaved the pot down the garden towards the compost heap. We then had the coldest winter, and come spring it looked pretty well dead, and I spent time snapping dead branches off.

Then last week it produced leaf buds.

I suppose the moral is that figs are damned hard to kill

They are hard to kill completely, but in all honesty even if that survives is it going to be worth keeping a one armed gangly fig that will take years to reshape when you can get a new one with a lovely shape for £30?

@LadyGardenersQuestionTime my local nursery didn't have any figs bigger than 30cm, and I couldn't find a decent sized one online - do you have a recommendation? I thought I'd have to pay a lot more than £30.

Have you reported/moved it! Mine blossomed ;metaphorically speaking) when I planted it in the ground after it had slant 6-8 years in a pot

It was repotted last year after the winter when I bothered to fleece it. It's not root bound yet. I could try putting it in the ground - the garden maybe too windy and exposed for it.

Fig trees do seem more robust than we give them credit for. I’ve seen them growing out of stone walls, high in mountains in Spain. It must get quite cold there in winter.
My book club recently read The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak, after which those who didn’t already have one went out and bought a fig tree.

I was in b&m and b&q today looking for a large but inexpensive pot. One of them had some fig tree saplings....but I can't remember which! They were about 5ft, no idea of the price. But I doubt they were particularly dear.

@IcakethereforeIam thank you. I'll look at the b&q website (no idea where our nearest b&m is and I don't plan to go shopping anytime soon unless I absolutely have to ..)

Reads Nursery used to be the go-to place for figs, but I can only find their blog

Chris Bowers has Brown Turkey (the best for cold UK gardens) for £19. I’ve had trees from them, and they’ve arrived in beautiful condition packed in masses of straw.

you could also try Pomona, Ashridge, Jacksons. Go for a specialist fruit grower, not a general garden centre.

My Brown Turkey was £5 from Lidl (14 years and 3 house moves ago). Think it needs repotting because last year and this it's only had a handful of figs, form and just 1 make it to maturity, but I've easily had my money's worth from it. Peak was 72 figs in 1 year.

I'm trying a Little Miss Figgy as my next one.

My current lame one is a brown turkey so I'm tempted to try a different vaiety next time

I'll report back on fig bush prices in a bit - intermittent signal on the train

Mine came from Wilko. One went in recently and the other one hasn't produced fruit yet, but is getting big.