Pruning regime (years 1- 4)
for training the fig for fresh
fruit prduction
Bud-wood for propagation by
striking is collected in winter.
The figs would be removed to
prevent the wood being
exhausted
Remember to plant cuttings
the right way up!
Unripe Capri figs which
contain the pupae of the fig
wasp for its overwintering
phase
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Known as ‘The tree of life’ by the ancient Egyptians
and much enjoyed by Cleopatra and Ulysses, the fig is a wonderful and delicious
species.
There are several fact sheets on figs (Ficus carica)
available from Departments of Agriculture around Australia and many entries
in books on fruit growing. This sheet merely summarises information I have
had as personal communication from various sources and is not, to my knowledge,
available elsewhere.
If you have a fig which never produces a crop
it may be a Capri, a San Pedro or Smyrna fig without a nearby pollinator
(see 'caprification') or a poorly adapted
Common Fig. Whilst Smyrna used to be the main drying variety grown in South
Australia, its management is somewhat tricky and I have not seen one for
sale in any nursery. One presumes that there are still a lot of old Smyrnas
and their pollinators (Capri) on old fruit blocks in the Riverland in South
Australia.
Despite the fact that figs have been in cultivation
for over 3000 years they remain somewhat of a mystery crop. They are extraordinary
producers of high energy food.
No responsibility is taken
for the accuracy of information which follows as much of it is from other
people.
Glace figs: Virtually all figs can be
successfully glaced.
Dried figs: Varieties favoured for drying
are generally those that have high levels of sugar and usually make good
jam too.
Dessert or fresh-eating figs: Those with
an agreeable flavour and texture… sometimes good for drying too.
At the time of writing we have a collection of
all varieties listed below and stock of some of them for sale in our nursery
at affordable prices as well as making budwood available in winter for
others to strike.
Varieties
(unless otherwise noted the
figs below are self fertile)
Adam
A large San Pedro type tree usually producing
a useful Breba crop around Christmas time in SA and a major crop (which
requires cross pollination with a Capri fig) in Feb. Skin is red to purple
and pulp champagne to pink coloured
White Adriatic
An early fig suited to cooler areas like the
Adelaide Hills, one crop which ripens February, medium to large fruit,
brownish-green skin and pink flesh, excellent fresh and very good for jam.
A spreading tree.
Deanna
A large fig suited to the fresh market, green
to golden skin with pink pulp, very popular in the USA.
Archipal
A large greenish-yellow fig with a very thin,
edible skin and honey-coloured flesh. Early to mid season. One of our best
and most reliable bearers at The Food Forest, but splits catastrophically
in strong summer rains.
Flanders
A shy bearer, but good quality green skinned
fruit with pink flesh.
Black Genoa (San Piero)
A medium sized, pear-shaped fruit, purplish skin
and red flesh, good for fresh eating but not suitable for drying. Vigorous
tree, ripens Dec-Feb.
White Genoa
Mid season and good in cool areas with large
greenish-yellow fruit with amber flesh, good fresh eating variety and favoured
for jam making. Light crop in Dec and more in Feb-Mar, unique flavour.
Preston
Seems to have trouble maturing Dec-April, somewhat
hairy, large green-brown fruit, white flesh, vigorous grower, high quality
fruit resistant to splitting.
Brown Turkey
Medium sized, late season (March), brownish striped
fruit with pinkish flesh. Excellent for jam. Second crop is main crop.
Hardy tree.
Spanish Dessert
Late maturing, spectacular dark purple skin and
dark red flesh. It has an initially distressing habit of dropping large
numbers of figlets on the ground, to the point that you think the tree
will lose its whole crop, but as the tree settles down it bears good crops.
It has rather luxurious dark green leaves, making it a lovely landscape
feature
Yellow Ischia
Small, possibly useable for jam.
Excel
Small, early season, light yellow skin, amber
flesh, limited value for commercial market because of yields but good flavour
for fresh eating.
Celeste
Commercial variety in USA, violet skin, pink
coloured, firm flesh, fairly cold-hardy. Very reliable cropper at The Food
Forest
Persian Prolific
Strong grower, mid season fruit, light purple
skin and honey coloured flesh.
Cape White
Early maturing, ripens Jan, medium-sized fruit,
green skin, cream coloured flesh. Great for jam, compact tree.
Smyrna
Golden yellow skin and red pulp characterise
this special drying, glazing, jam-making fig. It requires cross pollination
(caprification) with the Capri fig
Sugar Fig
Is it another name for White Adriatic, the White
Genoa or a separate variety? There is much confusion and misnaming of figs.
Our Sugar fig is great for jam and drying and is a medium-sized, sweet,
green-skinned variety obtained from a local nursery!
An Australian collector with an extensive collection
of figs and a remarkable data-base on figs was Tony Stevens. Here is a
link to a list of his varieties.
Growing Figs
The fig is a deciduous, sub-tropical tree producing
its best fruit in hot, fairly dry areas with extra water provided to the
root system. The Riverland in South Australia provides an ideal climate.
Too high summer temperatures can result in pulpless fruit and cool, damp
conditions during ripening give rise to splitting and fungal attack. It
doesn’t like cold but can survive temperatures of minus 10 degrees C when
dormant. Late frosts (after the new spring shoots have emerged) hurt it
badly.
It is tolerant of alkaline soils of many textures
but will not put up with wet feet or very acid soils (under pH 6). It is
somewhat forgiving with respect to salinity accepting water of up to 1000
ppm salts.
Figs are not nearly as tough as many people
would have you believe, so kid-glove treatment is in order for the first
year in the ground particularly but even beyond that time they need a steady
supply of water and fertilizer to be productive. Mulching around the trees
helps to keep the shallow root system cool and moist.
The fig dislikes wind but loves creekside locations
and high fertility sites (and is adept at cracking its way into underground
sewer pipe systems).
However too much Nitrogen can cause excess leaf
production and slower ripening of fruit. Its spreading root system is quite
shallow and competitive, giving nearby trees a fairly hard time. It doesn’t
appreciate having its roots torn up by cultivation.
The trees are generally planted about 4.5m apart
in rows 6m apart
Inter-row cultivation should be avaided where
possible to prevent damage to the shallow root system (which also causes
suckering)
Prune the tree up on a single trunk of at least
75cm and don’t allow sucker growth or you’ll end up with an unpickable
thicket. Generally annual pruning for form is all that is required. Bear
in mind that the fruit is mainly borne new wood. The Californians have
some new-generation orchards which look almost like vineyards with the
trees trained to just a couple of metres in height in a hedgerow.
This helps with picking and with netting the trees.
Fig Leaf Mosaic is a common disease in figs and
reduces vigour but does not lead to the death of trees.
On current prices you would not grow rich growing
figs for the dried market and if you decided to chase the fresh market
your bird netting arrangements would need to be of a high standard. Birds
are enormous fig-lovers. We net whole hedgerows of figs rather than netting
individual trees.
Figs often produce two crops annually; the early
picking, often in about Dec, is known as the Breba crop (these are frequently
big fruit) and the later picking is the Higos or main crop.
Traditionally figs for drying were allowed to
drop on the ground to ensure absolute ripeness and maximum sugar. We tend
to pick when the fig softens and droops. Judging ripeness in the Common
fig is a bit of an art. The milky sap which oozes from the stem of unripe
or not-quite-ripe figs when picked can be irritating to the skin, so you
may want to wear cotton gloves.
Drying is an efficient way of storing these very
perishable fruit but you lose about 40% of the Vitamin C and B group by
so doing. In his great book ‘The complete book of growing fruit in
Australia’ Dr Louis Glowinski notes that, like dates, dried figs have so
much sugar in them that diabetics are warned not to eat them.
Propagating Figs - its easy
In the winter, when the fig trees have lost their
leaves, take cuttings about 25cm long from the trees you want to multiply.
This can be conveniently done when you are pruning trees. Make sure you
label the bundle of cuttings from each variety.
To make sure your cuttings have their requirement
for winter cold satisfied it is not a bad idea to put them in the fridge
for 2 or 3 weeks (this doesn't seem completely necessary but helps set
the wood's biological clock). This is also a way of temporary storage while
you get propagation materials organised. To do this wrap the bundle of
cuttings in damp newspaper and then put in a plastic bag in the fridge.
Don't forget that it is there!
Striking the cuttings should be done in coarse
sand or similar - plasterers sand or the commercially available propagation
mixes work well - and the cuttings should be planted at least 2 or
3 buds deep (you only need a couple of buds above ground). Ensure that
the cuttings are planted the right way up! You can do this in pots, bags
or in the ground itself but I prefer to do it in containers so you can
keep them all in one spot in the nursery for watering etc.
Before planting the bud sticks are dipped in
one of the hormone powders or liquids that encourage root development (with
indolebutyric acid - available through nurseries) and planted in the propagation
material. Keep moist but not wet in a shady place until leaf shoots emerge
and as the plant develops full leaves feed regularly with a fairly
dilute liquid fertiizer. When it has a lot of leaves (maybe after a month
or 2) carefully transplant (avoiding root damage) into a bigger container
with potting mix. Keep in a shady spot for a week or 2 to avoid transplant
shock. Grow on and plant the tree in the field the next winter.
We have a small range of bagged trees available
and can supply cuttings of a larger range in mid-late winter
Caprification
- essential for the production of figs of some varieties
Whilst most fig varities are self fertile the
San Pedro or Smyrna figs need to be pollinated by a Capri type fig. This
is done by a tiny wasp which lays its eggs in the Capri fig and, when moving
around inside the fig, ends up covered in its pollen. When the wasp flies
around the orchard checking out other figs for laying sites it goes into
other types of fig but finds them unsiutable for her purposes and leaves...but
not before she has spread pollen from the Capri fig onto the female parts
of the Smyrna or San Pedro type, so pollinating it.
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The fig is a peculiar fruit which is in fact
a pretty much vegatative
receptacle with thousands of tiny flowers
inside it, each of
which grows into a tiny fruit (but they are very
small and all
assembled together so we don't notice their separateness)
A fig wasp entering the 'eye' of a Capri fig
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The pupae of the fig wasp inside the Capri fig.
The male wasp
emerges first,fertilizes the female wasp through
the pupa case
and then cuts a hole in the pupa case for the
young
(pre-fertilized) female wasp to emerge from
The wasp covered in Capri pollen fertilizes
the Smyrna type fig
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Caprifigs
Unlike common figs the caprifig produces three
crops of synconia. These are known by their Italian terms, profichi,
mammoni and mamme.
Profichi synconia form on buds just above
the scars of fallen leaves on the previous season's wood (like the breba
crop). They develop from October through to December. At this time new
shoots and leaves are forming on the tree.The synconia develop rapidly,
and within three weeks the female flowers are ready for fertilisation.
The male flowers do not produce pollen until early December. This pollen
fertilises the edible fig varieties.
Mammoni form on the new growth each year
(like the main edible crop). Mammoni start to develop in early December
when the profichi crop is almost over, and continue to grow through until
late March - early April. Mammoni caprifigs do not shed pollen.
Mamme start to develop in May, when the
mammoni crop is almost over and the tree has started to become dormant.
They form near the tips of the branch. They stay on the tree during winter,
and develop fully in September when the female flowers of the profichi
crop are receptive. The male flowers do not shed pollen.
The main varieties used to pollinate Smyrna and
San Pedro figs in California are Roeding, Samson and Stanford. It is best
that the correct variety of caprifig is chosen to ensure that pollen from
the profichi crop is available at the right time.At this stage The Food
Forest has only one variety, known as Caprifig.
FINE DETAILS of CAPRIFICATION
The process of caprification is complex. It involves
the presence of both the fig wasp and the correct stage of fig on the caprifig
tree.
Commercial Smyrna-type figs are pollinated in
early summer with pollen from the profichi caprifig. If the female flowers
are receptive, the wasp will also pollinate the female flowers of the mammoni
caprifig at this time. The flowers will then form seeds, completing the
reproductive cycle of both the caprifig and commercial trees. The female
wasp lays eggs in all the female flowers, pollinating at the same time.
The larvae hatch and develop in flowers with short styles. The long-styled
flowers develop seeds.
Generally one caprifig tree is needed for every
15 to 20 Smyrna trees. Planting the caprifig trees within the block is
not recommended, as pollination is not even: the trees closest to the caprifigs
can be over-fertilised and split, and more distant trees may not be pollinated.Caprifig
trees should be planted in a separate block. The profichi caprifigs (with
wasps) are picked and placed in wire baskets around the Profichi caprifigs
on the previous season's wood when the first wasps start to emerge. Each
basket needs to contain six or seven figs. The profichi need to be replaced
every three days for about three weeks, as not all the synconia of the
Smyrna figs are receptive at the same time. It is useful to have more than
one variety of caprifig so that the pollination period is extended. |
Acknowledgement is made for images drawn from the
Fruit Gardener vol 23 6 1991
The World’s best fig recipe
This is the most amazing and delicious way of
keeping figs I’ve come across and was collected by my grandfather Tom Bowen
who worked with dried fruit growers in the Riverland when figs were a significant
crop up there.
Grandfather Bowen’s Figs
6 lbs figs, 4lbs sugar, 2ozs ginger (half that
will do), 6 wineglasses vinegar,
1 wineglass water
Boil figs in the above ingredients until clear
(about 2 hours)
Drain dry and press-roll in castor sugar
Bake in hot oven for 5 minutes and allow to cool
Store in an airtight container
Feedback
If you have any experiences or further useful
information about fig varieties, recipes, cultivation etc please let me
know so we can continue to improve this fact sheet for everyone’s benefit.
Links
The best site on figs that I have found is Ray
Givan's homepage (California) http://www.raysfiginfo.com/index.html
Other links may well be available through the
California Rare Fruit Growers website at http://www.crfg.org/
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