the plant is young. since you protected your tree, you did fine.

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you will find that every year that the top doesn;t die back, figs will set n ripen earlier.

i notice my mount etnas ripen a full month earlier in their forth summer inground

Thanks for your encouragement susieqz. You noted that your older trees ripened 'a full month earlier'. I of course don't know what will finally happen, but I want to report on even more potential improvement. In my original post above, my figlets must have started developing around the 10th-15th of August; they did get big but of course didn't have time to ripen. Today, (may 22nd) I just noticed that I have lots of figs just beginning to develop (all smaller than a pea) that must have become visible in the last few days. That is almost THREE months earlier than last year. Of course, last winter was very mild with only a couple days just below 20 °F. Most branches were spread out so I didn't protect them except to bury the whole central area in perhaps 8-12" of leaves and pine straw. No exposed branches were damaged.

What you have right now is known as the breba.... the figs you had grow last year in mid august is your main crop. I agree with the above poster, with age and size you'll get more, higher quality, quicker ripening figs.

Well Dave, while I admit that I am new to this, unless there is such a thing as three crops, I don't think so. This tree had perhaps three or four clearly formed figs a month ago. These figlets are all on various positions in the new growth.

The type of fig you have,is very late to ripe main crop,when in ground planted in zone 7 0r colder.

If you want ripe main crop figs,grow it in a big pot,like 15 gal,or bigger.

In Dec. you place plant inside in a place that will stay about 35F ,over the Winter.

If you can't do that,then get yourself an early ripening cultivar like Malta Black,or Improved Celeste. Negretta or Ronde de Bordeaux,Marseilles Black vs,or Gino's fig.