I have heard of it before, but I never used it.
From what I hear, it works (earlier ripening), but I
also heard that figs, like wine, need their own TIME
to reach the full potential (aka., a good-taste/flavour).

hi, i just did this with a black jack fig tree. i used it to quickly ripen my figs that were way behind schedule and would never make it otherwise. All i did was dip a round toothpick in extra virgin olive oil, and touch the eye of the figs with not even a full drop. the fig will sort of suck it in, as to seal the eye kinda. that's it. in 2 days i saw my black jack go from green to dark red to almost purple. it swelled up and i ate the first one today. it was delicious. IMO. no harm done to the fig(at least in my case) you're talking about a half a drop of oil if that. anyway, good luck and keep everyone posted on your oiling adventure.

Thanks Ryne for your info about oil treatment of figs. It sounds like you just discovered this technique. Where did you pick it up. I will give it a try as soon as this rain is gone and keep you posted.
Best
Janoyan

i picked it up here somewhere. as i said, it worked a miracle for me. i can only speak from my experience.i should be able to harvest a few more figs instead of trashing them. our summer in CT was not good. messed up a lot of people's plants. good luck.

Take a look at this thread - http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/fig/msg081622532157.html I posted a couple of references to the technique. It does work, but only works if applied at the proper stage of development. Unripe figs that are not far enough along will not ripen properly. Also, as others have said, figs ripened this way will very likely not be as good as those that would have been ripened under good natural conditions.

Ingevald

Here is a link that might be useful: oiling link

I have tried it successfully. My grandfather used to do it in the old country where they did it to get the crop earlier than july/August. This practice is common in the Middle east fig growers who want to have the first figs in the market.
Simply apply olive oil with a cotton and rub the fig with it. The fig has to be almost full size for it to work. The weather has to be warm enough otherwise it will not work.
Be prepared to harvest a big crop all at once..

Here's a picture I took of my Brooklyn White figs a week after rubbing the figs with a little olive oil.

Bass

Bass. Great picture and interesting process in oiling of the figs. How old is this tree that you show in the photo ? Yesterday, Ryne as you may have read advised using a tooth pick and just touching the eye of the fig with vigin olive oil. Any comments on that, have you heard it boing done so. I just did a few unripe figs with his method this morning. However it has been raining some. Hope it will not erase the effort.
Best,
Janoyan

I was using a Q-tip to do the oiling. Well, it did ripen some variants. I observed some of the ripen figs seems to:

* have a tougher skin
* some area oiled seems to exhibit damage
* quite a few figs taste somewhat off, lacking sweetness & flavour
* higher incidence of figs drop. This could be coincidence.

Oil used was olive virgin. Also, I may have applied too much oil using the Q-tip. Timing of application may be inappropriate during mid day. It was at least 24*C(75*F)when this was done. I read somewhere that it is best to oil during evenings/night.

Given the challenging weather conditions I sometimes encounter, I may do it again to get some figs in the open to ripen earlier. Its hard not to do it especially given a tree that is loaded with figs & the chances of hardly getting any.

Hi Paully :-)

A man (or woman)gotta do what a man gotta do to TRy to get ripe figs, We sure do understand that!

I have some VdB that are not looking like they will ripen this year, I just asked Dorcas(wife) if she wanted me to go out there & oil them figs, her answer was short & not very sweet(kinda like our oiled figs)HEHE...(hint the word only has two letters in it(another hint first letter is "N"

Regards
Cecil

I will be harvesting(and eating)at least 3-4 more of my black jacks within the next 5-7 days, maybe less.Seems pretty cut and dry to me. If at all like the one I've already eaten, it will be delicious. It was either oil the eye, or get zero fruits. No brainer to me. That's just my opinion. I would much rather eat them, then have to wait for next year. Good luck to all that try it. Hopefully next season, the weather here in the NE will be a bit more condusive to fig tree growing.