Thank you so much for your input. Our fig tree was split in half to the ground by a fallen oak branch years ago and has come back from the roots to be a multi trunk bush/tree. We prune it back quite a bit every year to keep it from getting too big for its spot. We get a lot of new growth every year. These tiny buds and small figs have appeared on almost all of the branches. They look like Bebas to me because when this tree has had brebas in the past they were a different shape than the ones we get in the late summer/fall. When they mature they have been sort of bronzy, hard, and not good figs. They also have looked like brebas in pictures. However, I am getting nervous about snapping all of them off the tree even though it is still June. Never before have we had so many. With climate change few things are behaving as usual. The figs we get in the fall are divine - dark skin and red strawberry flavored flesh. It would be a shame to miss out on the true figs. It seems to be hard to get much specific info about all this. Do you think the fall crop could actually be forming as early as this? They are at the junction of the leaf. I would include a picture if I knew how.

What EBoone said is how you tell if those figs are breba or main crop figs. I will repeat the statement, rephrased a bit....

If the fig is forming right at the base of a green leaf where the leaf's stem is attached to a branch, it is a main crop fig. If the fig is forming on a last year's stem, on its own, no green leaf stem right up against it, touching it, it is a breba fig.

Correct identification of a fig, whether it is a breba or main crop fig, is that simple.

Moses

Thanks. I'd better stop removing them.

if they are at the junction of a leaf, they are unquestionably main crop.

I am in a colder climate than you and my main crop are well underway on both potted and in ground trees. Well - on the inground trees that did not freeze back completely to the ground due to better protection, but even the ones re-growing from the ground are starting to put out figs over the last week.

Figs take usually 80-90 days(some varieties even longer) to mature once they show up. So figs starting this month will be ripe end-August thru Sept, probably.

Thank you again. We have had figs form late summer and ripen in fall. Maybe because.....? No clue. It is good to get some reliable information. Wish I had asked earlier.

If the figs you had previously were 'sort of bronzy, hard, and not good figs', I suspect they were not fully ripe yet. If they were falling off, unripened, maybe there was something wrong with the tree?

Ripe figs should be drooping at the neck and soft. And Petit Negra should be a dark purple. And good :)

Let us know in a few months about your results!