Growing, ripening and harvest

Figs are Mediterranean plants that like the same things Mediterranean people do: long hot days, a wall to lean on, and not too much fuss. Most of what goes wrong with a fig tree is someone loving it too hard.

Sun and site

Six to eight hours of direct sun, more if you can. Heat ripens figs, so a south- or west-facing wall that stores the day's warmth is the classic spot, and the reason fig trees in cold cities always seem to be growing against a house. Drainage matters more than soil quality — figs will grow in rubble, but not in a puddle.

Water

Deep and infrequent once established. A tree in the ground can go weeks in summer; a tree in a pot may need water daily in a heatwave. The one thing to avoid is a drought followed by a flood — a dry tree given a sudden soaking swells its ripening fruit faster than the skins can stretch, and the figs split.

Pots

Figs love containers. A slightly root-bound fig fruits earlier and harder than one with room to wander, and a pot lets you drag the tree into a garage when winter bites. Aim for 60–100 litres (15–25 gallons) eventually, and repot or root-prune every few years.

Pruning

• A fig needs very little. Remove dead wood, crossing branches and suckers from the base, and keep it a shape you can pick from.
• Hard winter pruning removes the breba crop. Prune lightly if you want it, or after it's ripened.
• For a bigger, earlier main crop, pinch the growing tip of each shoot once it has five or six leaves in early summer. The tree stops building shoot and starts building figs.
• Wear gloves. The sap burns.

How to tell a fig is ripe

A fig does not ripen after picking, so this is the skill. A ripe fig droops — the neck softens and the fruit hangs down instead of standing out from the branch. It's soft to a gentle squeeze, the colour has deepened all the way to the neck, and often there's a bead of syrup at the eye or a few fine cracks in the skin. Pick in the morning, with the stem, and eat it that day. If it needed a tug, it wasn't ready.

The short list of things that go wrong

• Birds find ripe figs about an hour before you do. Netting is the only real answer. Organza bags on individual figs work for a small tree.
• Ants walk in through the eye. A band of sticky barrier around the trunk, and no branches touching the fence.
• Fig beetles (Cotinis mutabilis, the big green ones) chew into ripe fruit across California. Pick promptly and knock them into a bucket of soapy water.
• Splitting and souring — rain or heavy watering while the fruit is ripening, especially in open-eyed varieties. See Water, above; choose closed-eye varieties in wet climates.
• Root-knot nematodes stunt trees in sandy soils. Pots avoid them entirely.
• Fig mosaic virus mottles the leaves yellow. Nearly every fig on Earth carries it, it's cosmetic, and there's no cure. Don't panic and don't throw out the tree.
• Rust speckles and drops leaves in humid summers. Rake and bin the fallen leaves; the tree shrugs it off.