Strange fig question

5 years ago

I have two fig trees in containers. This was the first year I got a good crop, but it has been so wet, most of the fruit has just split and been attacked by fruit flies or is tasteless. I'm disappointed, to say the least, but this is the weird thing that happened.

Today, i was taking some plants back out after Elsa passed, and found something that looked like a pink, fuzzy ball on the ground. On closer inspection, I saw that it was a fig! I've never seen anything like it, and tossed it before I thought to take a picture.

What can cause this? I'm sure it's one that I snipped off the tree because it had split open and I didn't want the fruit flies to get to the rest of the fruit. It almost looked like it had turned inside out - no sight of the skin at all.

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dirtygardener
Original Author

5 years ago

Sylvia, yes the Marseilles is my favorite too. It's so sweet and large! I did get a few yesterday off of it, and I'm going to cook all 10 of them up in a small pan with sugar and make some preserves for my bagels tomorrow.

I think mangos love to be drastically pruned. I had a friend who whacked hers back to almost nothing one year, and it grew and put out more fruit than when it was large. Sometimes plants need a shock. I had an orange that wouldn't bear once, and the owner of the garden center told me to cut all the top limbs off, just stump it, and it would come back and bear. It did, too! It's like the old tale about beating apple trees with a baseball bat to get them to bear.

It's fun to plan. I'm making so many drastic changes to my gardens, it's not funny, but it's the building them that is fun to me. Once they get large and sort of out of control, I get bored with them and want to start over. Then I get to give away so many plants to other grateful gardeners, which is my favorite thing to do.

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Comments (7)

carolb_w_fl_coastal_9/10
5 years ago
Insects?
CA Kate z9
5 years ago
Does this look familiar? I was told that the fruit splits like this to send out seed. This was on my Petit Negra last summer.
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dirtygardener
Original Author
5 years ago
Yes, but it went further, like it was turned inside out. Maybe that's what it looks like when it's already shot out its seeds.
whgille
5 years ago
Hi D

Sorry to hear about your figs, all the fruit trees in my garden had an incredible crop this year better than any other time. had so many figs than I could not give them away fast enough.

I welcomed any birds to help me with the abundance, before any rain I tried to pick any fruit that is ripe and I am planning to use, sometimes I leave them for a day or two on the counter to become sweeter.

Every day when in season I pick all the fallen fruit and the ones left in the trees eaten by birds, this way I try to avoid unwanted pests. I can usually smell on a fig when it turn sour by flies.

I am still very busy picking figs and mangoes...
dirtygardener
Original Author
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Hello Sylvia! Nice to see you! I hope you are well and happy.

You know how much I love these trees, and how I have babied them since they are the only two cuttings that survived my terrible propagation practices (basically, stick it in the soil, if it lives it lives, etc.). The black fig bears later than the Settler's Fig (very Celeste-like, very delicious), so now that we've had a few dry days, I'm definitely getting a few off of that. I don't mind the birds eating them, or the bees getting to the split ones, but I do cut the split ones off the tree and put them outside for the bees and bugs to feast on.

A lot of stuff in my yard seems to be doing better this year. Maybe it was the extra wet winter with more cold days, but who knows?

One day, maybe I'll have a yard and I can actually spread these out as far apart as they need to be. Here, I have no sunny space to put them far enough apart. I'm getting a 300 sf community garden space this September, and I'm thinking of taking one of them -- pot and all -- out there to live, probably the Settler's fig. I'm not ready to share the black fig quite yet. Just put it into a new, larger pot this year, and really want to just let it grow.
whgille
5 years ago
Deb, good to hear that you are doing fine , the community garden will keep you busy gardening, that is one good reason to keep active.

I don't know what is different this year but I had the best harvests, started with carrots, onions, tomatoes, peaches, lychees, figs, mangoes, avocados and soon persimmons are ripening

I have been sharing boxes of produce with friends and neighbors.

I am planning next for the fruit trees, cut down the Celeste type small to let the Marseilles grow bigger, I planted it in the ground last year and that variety is my favorite.

I am doing to do the same with the Fairchild mango, cut it as much as possible because is too close to the bananas, avocado and other mango Mallika.

I guess we will both have plans for the future of our gardening hobby .:)