Is fig tree fruiting?

[Maggiethecat]

This is a tiny fig tree bought a few months ago and was surprised that it seems to be in fruit!

is this fruit and should I remove them to allow the tree to grow?

That looks like a dandelion, My fig tree has never flowered I just get figs, I thought that was normal.

On your pic, the bottom bigger leaves are the fig tree but the top ones are a different stalk and not part of the tree.

Sadly, that is a weed.

It's a weed op growing through the fig tree

yes, that's a weed and not part of the fig tree. I'd pull it out tbh

I can see your little fig tree, but yes, I'm afraid that flower is from a weed!

Fig trees do fruit in England, at least where I am (SE). Brown Turkey is a popular variety that seems to do quite well around here.

To encourage fruiting, you are supposed to resrict the roots, eg by digging a large hole but lining it with paving slabs. Apparently that will make it fruit, although you will probably have to wait a while for your tree to do so, being so small.

Agree. That's actually a sow thistle growing in the same pot. Pull it out before it goes to seed and the seeds blow everywhere.

As pps say,figs can fruit in the uk though the flowers must be invisibly small: I have fruit developing on mine but not expecting it to be ready for a month or longer.

For a fig to produce fig fruits, it needs for wasps - look it up, fascinating if a little 🤢. I have a tiny fig tree & no sign of fruit yet, so I guess it's either too young or the fig wasps haven't found it yet.

Fig wasps not for wasps!

Sonchus asper/oleraceus. Sow thistle.

@ZeroFuchsGiven your figs have flowered - the flowers are inside the fig.

Figs do have flowers. The flowers are inside what then develops into the fruit. This means that they can keep out unwanted pollinators and make sure they are visited only by insects that have recently visited another fig. The dark purple fibrous bits inside the fig have developed from the flowers.

They are pollinated by a female fig wasp, who enters and lays eggs in some of the flowers, pollinating as she goes. The eggs develop into larvae and then into male and female wasps. The male wasps fertilise the females, dig exit tunnels and die. The females escape, carrying pollen, and the cycle continues .

Fortunately, some varieties of figs still develop the ripe fruits even without pollination, and these are the varieties usually eaten. Doubly fortunate for us in the UK as we don’t have fig wasps here, so you’d be waiting a long time for fig wasps to find your fig @APurpleSquirrel

So it’s a weed 😂

@MereDintofPandiculation - I’ve been educated today!

Oh @MereDintofPandiculation that's really interesting! So the varieties available here don't need fig wasps to pollinate? That's encouraging - maybe my tree is too young; it's very small.

I can’t remember how old my fig tree is, but it’s been fruiting for the last few years. It looks as if this is going to be one of its less good years. It produced so many figs in 2020 that I left baskets of them by the front gate for passing walkers to take.

my friend told me you have to pant fig trees in a barrel to get the most fruit.

that looks like a dandelion but it is lovely

It looks superficially like a dandelion in flower as do so many of that family but, as has been said above it's a sow thistle. Dandelions have all their leaves in a rosette on the ground. They don't have leaves clasping the flower stem.

As a matter of curiosity, how many? Mine gets about 200, but I don't think it's particularly prolific.

I’ve never counted! It was certainly in the 100s in 2020,