4 Reasons Your Fig Trees WON'T FRUIT [And How To FIX It!]

What's growing on, gardeners? Are you growing fig trees and struggling with little to no productivity? Or maybe you're just looking to up your fig game so your trees are as productive as possible? Well, this video is for you. I'm going to show you four reasons your fig trees are not producing fruit and how to fix it. And make sure you stay tuned until the end because I'm going to show you a full pruning tutorial to make your figs as productive as possible. If you're new to the channel, please subscribe, hit the bell for notifications, and check out my Amazon store and Spreadshop links in the video description for everything I use in my garden and awesome custom apparel and gear. Over the years, so many of my viewers have told me that they are struggling to grow figs. They have had trees growing in their yard for years and they never produce any fruit. And on today's video, I am going to try and fix that. I am making this video just for you. Now, all of the things that I'm telling you in this video should be done while the trees are still in their dormant state. Today is February 1st and where I live in Zone 8, North Carolina on the southeastern coast, we're about 60 days away from our last frost date. So, we need to get a move on. So, it's a good idea that we do all of these things in mid to late winter after the worst of the cold has passed, but well before our trees break dormancy and you're starting to see sap flow and bud swell return to the trees. The first reason why your fig trees are not producing fruit is because you are selecting the wrong varieties for your climate. This is going to speak mostly to growers out there that their fig trees do produce figs, but they don't ripen in time and they have a poor harvest because of that. Fig trees are native to the Mediterranean and the latitudes mostly in the 30s and the Mediterranean is extremely mild for their degree latitude. Because of the Gulf Stream that comes up from the southwest and the influence of the big Mediterranean Sea itself, they are some of the most temperate regions per latitude in the entire world. Here in North America, we have a much harsher climate. I live at 34 degrees north latitude and I get way more frost and freezes than Mediterranean regions in the low 40s latitude. It is much colder here than the Mediterranean and because of that, the Mediterranean regions that these fig trees come from, they usually only see a handful of frost and freeze events every year. So, they get a very long growing season to produce the figlets and ripen the fruit and we don't have that luxury here in North America unless you live at a very far south latitude or you're immediately on the west coast. Fig trees produce their main crop of figs on the new wood that is grown in the spring for the new season. So, in order to actually produce ripe figs, you need 60 days roughly for the fig tree to produce the new spring wood, another 30 days for that wood to actually produce figlets along the nodes, and then another 60 to 90 days to ripen those figs depending on the variety that you're growing. So, that means you're going to need somewhere between a 150 to 180 day warm period, not just a frost free period, but a nice warm period to ripen your first figs and probably 180 to 210 days in order to ripen a significant crop. So, you can actually have enough time to ripen them up the wood. So, does your climate have enough warm frost free days to do that? If you don't, this is probably why you're not getting a good harvest. If you live in a climate and your springs and summers are just too short to ripen most figs naturally planted in the ground, luckily there are ways you can get around this and the first way is to actually select very short season varieties of figs. Some very early varieties that grow quickly are varieties like Celeste, Improved Celeste, Ronde Bordeaux, Floria, Olympian, and Smith. I'm sure there are plenty others, but those are the earliest ones that I grow here in my garden. Choosing those early varieties will give you the best chance for success. Once you have early figs, the other thing you can do is you can play the fig shuffle, and that is when you grow your figs in big black containers and then you drag them outside from your garage or your basement about 30 days before your last chance of frost. Because although your last frost date may not have passed yet, chances are most nights are not going to be cold enough to frost or freeze. So you can give your plants a head start on those mild nights and days where you can drag them out early, leave them out in the sun, and if it's going to get too cold and it's going to frost and freeze at night, just carry them back in. I know it's a little bit more work, but you'll probably only have to bring them in a few days over the 30-day period before your last frost date, so it's not as big of a deal as you think unless you're crazy like me and have a hundred figs in containers. If you're a normal person with just a handful of figs, it's pretty easy to do this and you'll get a very big jump start on the season and you will be more likely to have a big crop by getting things done early. Another thing you can do is put down black weed barrier all around your container garden area. That is what I have done here. This black weed barrier attracts a lot of heat during the day. I've tested this with a wireless thermometer and I consistently get three to five degrees of additional warmth when the sun is out just on this black weed barrier. So doing that will add so many growing degree days to your figs that over the course of an entire season it will make them grow more quickly and you will get ripe figs more quickly. And finally, another thing you can do is at the end of the season if your trees are still full of figs and you haven't picked many of them yet, you can get one of those pop-up tent greenhouses or a little hobby greenhouse and you can simply finish your figs in there. This is going to be the most work but a lot of people in zones like zone five and zone six do this with great success. These things can all help you get more figs off of your tree. The second reason why your fig trees are not producing figs is because they are not getting enough sunlight. Remember I told you that the Mediterranean climate has a very long growing season per degree latitude and they are from very temperate, nearly subtropical 30 latitude areas of the Mediterranean? Well the other interesting thing about the Mediterranean is their summers are virtually rainless and cloudless. So they are getting bathed in golden sunlight for months at a time, barely interrupted by clouds and rain. These trees are well adapted to get a ton of sun. So if you're growing figs here in North America and you're in the mid-30s latitude or further north, well we aren't getting as much sun as they get in the Mediterranean. So if you are not planting your trees out in full sun, they probably have a sunlight deficiency. These trees are not going to produce well if they are grown in a shady location at 35 degrees latitude and further north. They really need that full golden sunlight because that is what they adapted to in their native habitat. Now I will say there is a law of diminishing returns when you start getting into the subtropics. When you start getting into the low 30s latitude or the 20s, like you live in southern California, the desert southwest, Florida, areas of the deep coastal south, well at that point the sun can get too strong. So here where I live in Wilmington, North Carolina, I'm about right on the edge where I have noticed that in July and August my trees do do better if I drape a little bit of shade cloth over them. So once you start getting south of the figs native latitudes, it does help to have a little bit of shade cloth or a little bit of afternoon shade when you're at the absolute peak sun intensity in the middle of summer. But if that's not you, if you live in the Midwest or the Northeast or if you live in the Pacific Northwest or other areas where you are at or north of the figs native range, well you definitely want to make sure that your trees are planted in full sun. Reason number three that your fig trees are not producing figs is because they are starving. Hear me when I say this, fig trees are freaks of nature when it comes to vigor and they are one of the heaviest feeding trees that you will ever grow. In fact a few years ago my trees got bored into by a boring beetle and I had to cut them all the way down to the base and they grew back 10 feet tall in one single season. Growers that are in zone seven or colder that see their fig trees getting killed down to the ground when grown in ground know that every single year they grow back up into giant thickets. These trees that you see right here are five or six years old and the root structure in these trees are so big that if I were to cut it down to nothing they would easily grow this tall in a single year. In fact this is an eight foot firing strip right here so you can see this tree right here is about nine feet tall. That is how vigorous they are and all of that vigor comes at a cost. If you don't feed the trees they will not perform because they are voraciously hungry. I would venture a guess that most people growing fig trees are underfeeding them and they don't realize just how voracious of an appetite these trees have and here is how I would recommend you fertilize your fig trees. Now if you just planted your fig trees and they're still in the establishment period, say they've been in ground for less than three years, it is a good idea to spread a cup of a granulated organic fertilizer something around a 5-5-5 around the base of the tree about a month before your last frost date. Giving them fertilizer when they're young are important to get it in your in-ground trees established because they don't have that deep root system where they can hunt all around the earth for the nutrients that they need. So adding that supplemental fertilizer is really important to get the trees strong and growing and established. After about three years you probably won't have to give your fig trees fertilizer anymore if you are growing them in ground but you will have to give them a ton of compost and organic matter. I no longer feed these fig trees because they are six years old and the root structures that they have are immense. So what I do is every single spring I dump one bag of compost at the base of each tree and then throughout the year I add a four-inch thick layer of mulch. I like using things like wheat straw. I also make sure that when my fig trees drop their leaves in the fall I rake them up and I place them around the base of all of the trees. So what's actually feeding these trees is the decaying organic matter in the mulch themselves, in the leaves themselves, and in the bag of compost I give each tree every single spring. But regardless of your tree's age you always have to maintain at least a four-inch thick layer of mulch around all of your trees whether they're young or old. You have to emulate that forest floor. What a forest floor is is it is eons of falling leaves and pine needles and pieces of bark and branches and things like that that land on the floor and decay and that is what keeps a forest fed and sustainable. So you need to emulate that system in your yard. So it's really important that no matter what the age of your trees are, any fruit tree for that matter, always maintain a four-inch thick layer of mulch year-round and that usually has me adding mulch to these trees two or three times every year depending on the year that we're having. If you are growing your fig trees in containers you are going to have to fertilize them literally every 7 to 14 days and the reason why is because container gardens are not sustainable systems. We don't have the benefit of a forest floor and a root system tapping into feet of the earth trying to seek out nutrients. Everything that these trees have to grow is contained in this little container and every single time you accidentally over water the trees or you get a heavy rainstorm that flushes out those containers you are losing all of that fertilizer. Now like I said I fertilize my fig trees in containers every 7 to 14 days. I usually do it every other Sunday in the peak of the summer and that keeps me on track. Now it's very important that you maintain a consistent schedule when fertilizing your figs because of the extreme requirement that they have for nutrients. I have made many videos of this over the years. I will link both above and down in the video description below a playlist where I show you everything you need to know about fertilizing your fig trees in containers. If you are not getting fruit out of your container grown fig trees I can almost guarantee you are underfeeding them. Reason number four why your fig trees are not producing fruit is because you are not pruning your trees. If your fig trees are producing no figs at all no figlets no nothing this is almost certainly the reason why you are not getting any fruit production. Fig trees produce all of their main crop figs on the new wood produced in the spring. So all of this old wood that you see on this tree this is not going to bear any main crop figs. The only figs I'm going to get off this tree are going to be from the new wood that branches out at the nodes and then keeps growing and then they will eventually produce figs usually about 60 days or so after my last frost date when the new wood on the trees starts getting thicker and filling out more. Now here's the problem if you are not pruning your fig trees you are probably not getting much new seasons wood and that is because remember I told you how insanely vigorous fig trees are? Well the more you cut a fig tree back the more new wood you will get for the season. When it comes to how far a fig tree can grow and this goes for any fruit tree it is based on the size of their roots. A fruit tree can't outgrow its roots just like you can't build a house bigger than the foundation can support. So because a fig tree could easily grow eight to ten feet in one season the more you cut your fig trees back every single year the more they will grow back and the more they grow back the more new wood they will produce. The more new wood they produce the more fruit wood they will have and the more figs will form. If you are not pruning your fig trees back your fig trees probably aren't growing much in the season so you are going to have very limited fruit wood and you're not going to get many figs. The worst thing you can do when it comes to growing figs is not prune your trees when they are dormant in the mid to late winter. Now that you know the reasons why your fig trees are not producing figs I'm going to show you how to prune the fig trees and in order to do that I'm going to use two different pieces of equipment. A pair of bypass pruning shears that you see right here. These will be used to cut any wood that is one half inch in diameter or less. For anything larger I will use one of these fine Japanese pool saws because these will tear into the wood too much. So both of these tools are really important when it comes to pruning any fruit tree. If you're curious where to get them I'll place links down in the video description for your convenience. So I'm going to give you a quick little walk through as to what all of my fig trees look like before I prune them and then at the end of the video we will do a before and after panning shot where I show you before and after the pruning because I want to illustrate to you just how much I'm going to prune these fig trees. When it comes to pruning most fruit trees something like 25 to a third of the volume is what you want to prune. With fig trees it's more because of their insane vigor. I'm going to cut these back at least by half maybe more. The other thing I want you to see is that I'm growing these fig trees all in a form called espalier which is when you trellis them along cables to give them a very clean and compact look that you see right here. Most people are not doing this they will just be pruning their figs to some type of open center. If that is you it doesn't really matter because all of these tips are going to remain the same regardless but if you're curious how to grow your trees espalier I'll link to a playlist both above and down in the video description. The first step whenever pruning a tree is going to be to remove any dead or dying or damaged wood that you see on the tree. This is regardless of how you are growing the tree what species of tree you're growing you always want to cut off the dead and dying wood and because we had an absolutely horrific winter here on the southeastern coasts North Carolina loaded with temperatures in the teens ice and snow I think there's a lot of cold damage on these trees. So the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to go through and remove all of the dead dying and damaged wood that I find. That smith tree that I picked as my example pruning tree doesn't have much dieback on it but this one next to it does so not all your fig trees are going to exhibit the same amount of dieback. Always make sure to check them over you can see by how shriveled up it is all of that wood is damaged. The second step we always follow when pruning trees is that we remove any wood that is growing into the center of the tree and you can see right here this branch right here it's growing into the center of the tree and it's actually rubbing against this which is one of my central cordons and I don't want that to happen. So I'm going to take my fine pruning saw and I'm actually going to cut off that conflicting branch. We will check the whole tree over and continue to remove any conflicting growth that is growing into the center of the tree. I also don't want all of these branches that are growing out into my walking path and covering my lawn. Not only does it make this patch of grass hard to mow but the whole point of the espalier is to keep the trees compact and they're growing out of control. So it might be painful for you to imagine but I'm going to take all of this outward growth off and I'm also going to clean up all of these branches that are growing into my fence. And the third and final step I'm going to do is tip the plants. Now tipping is simply the cutting back of wood to a specific node to encourage the formation of new wood at a certain point. So if you look at the branches you'll notice that there is a line about every inch or two. There's one here, one here, one here. These are all called nodes and at each node there will be a bud and if you cut right above the bud that will force the hormone in the tree that stimulates growth to basically flow into that bud and the bud right below it. You'll also notice that buds form at different directions. So this bud for example is coming out this way. So if I made a cut right here I'd have a branch growing that way. If I made the cut right here I'd have a branch growing that way. If I made a cut right here I'd have a branch at the node underneath that is growing down. I definitely don't want that. So the place I'm going to make the cut is actually right here because this bud is the closest one that I have to facing up. I want my fruiting wood to curl up like that. Same thing here if I made a cut right here I'd have this node shoot out this way. If I made a cut right here I'd have a branch come out that way. I don't want that. I have a nice little bud right here on top. So I'm going to cut one inch above that and then that is going to make the growth hormone collect here and that bud is going to swell and make a branch grow straight up. So for me because I'm growing espalier that is very advantageous. If you were growing your figs to an open center you'd probably want them to grow out. You definitely don't want them to grow in or straight down. So when you make your cuts make sure that you make them at a location where you won't have a bud pointing down or pointing inward. Make sure that you make your cuts so the bud is facing the direction you want the new growth. So now I'm going to go through this tree and make all of my tipping cuts so I have the buds facing all the right ways that I want the new wood to grow. And here is my smith fig tree pruned to perfection. Remember right next to it is what it basically used to look like. You can see my Caldeadom Noir fig right here. This was almost identical to the smith. So that is basically the before and that is the after. And that is how much cutting wood I have removed. Now I know that this is quite shocking for the novice but the honest reason why your figs probably aren't producing is because you are not doing this. This is key to keeping the fig tree vigorous and producing lots of new season wood that your main crop figs will form on. So now I'm going to go ahead and do this to all of the fig trees here. All of the pruning has been complete and this is the before pruning panning shot where you can see just how large and vigorous these fig trees were. Well now they have all been cut down to size. They have been cut down to the espalier cordons and this is going to give the trees a tremendous ceiling that they can grow to. So I'm going to get a ton of new wood this season. This was how much wood was removed from each tree. You can see every tree has a pile of wood next to it. And folks this is entirely normal. This is what things should look like when you are done pruning your fig trees. This is effectively the core of the tree, the heart, and all of the new wood is going to come out of the nodes that I cut the tree back to and this is what will ensure a fantastic harvest for next year. Every single one of my in-ground fig trees were treated the exact same way. Even the younger fig trees in my rear property. These trees are not as old as the ones in the front. As you can see they're quite a bit smaller. So please don't be afraid to prune your fig trees. Remember there are countless growers out there that are figs in ground in zone six and seven where every single winter they die all the way back to the ground. That's effectively nature pruning them back to the roots every single year and they still grow back and produce lots of new figs. So the real problem when it comes to growing figs is usually under pruning them not over pruning them. Don't avoid pruning your fig trees because you're afraid of making a mistake. Remember these grow back rapidly from total dieback. They'll grow back eight to ten feet in a single year. So if you make some kind of mistake it's no big deal. It will grow back. It took me years to figure this stuff out. I wasn't born with this knowledge. I picked it up as I went along. So just go outside get your hands dirty make a few cuts and before you know it you'll be an expert at doing this. And that right there are four reasons why your fig trees aren't producing and how to fix it so you have the most productive fig trees that you've ever had. So everybody I sure hope you found this video helpful. If you did please make sure to hit that like button subscribe to the channel and please ring that notification bell so you're notified when I release more videos like these. Again for all of the tools that I used in this video I'll place direct links to them down in the video description. For everything I use in real life in my garden they are all linked in my Amazon storefront in the video description. So expand the video description click on the Amazon storefront link you'll see everything I use in real life and while you're down there please check out my spreadsheet for custom merch if you want to support the channel. Thank you all so much for watching and I hope to see all of you again on the next video. Dale is so excited to go on his walk that I told him to stay and he is taking it very seriously. Buddy you have two apron straps just sitting on your head you crazy boy look at it. All right Dale that is very good that is a very good stay you are such a good boy. Are you ready to go for your walk? You want to go for your walk? Okay buddy all right my little good boy we will go for a nice walk on this freezing cold but sunny day. Look at that tail wag look at that that's how you know someone's excited.