Fig Trees

Edible Fig Trees for Florida

Note: This page has information on fig cultivars and growing tips. For growing information scroll down.

There are more than 700 named cultivars of fig trees (Ficus carica) that develop and set edible figs without pollination. The term parthenocarpic is used to describe these figs since they don't require pollination. They are also referred to as Common Figs. All of the figs we offer are common types. These common figs bear a first crop, called the breba crop, in the spring on the last season's growth. The second crop is borne in the fall on the new growth and is considered the main crop. Figs can be confusing and difficult to identify. Many fig trees have multiple cultivar names. For example Beers Black is the same fig as Violet de Bordeaux.

Figs, dormancy chill hours and all that jazz!

A chill hour is air temperature at or below 45 degrees.
fig trees are often described as needing some 100 to 400 hours of (chill hours) in order to set fruit. Here in Florida, our varieties do just fine without much if any chill requirements. The leaves often do not fall off completely and they often end up in a semi dormant state. What does seem to influence them to sense a change and go semi dormant is the photo period. When the day length is reduced the trees sense it and that seems sufficient to assure fruit set.

Have you seen my fig trees loaded with figs? Many of my customers and friends have. For more than five years now my trees have been loaded with figs! People from Arizona, Texas, Louisiana and other Southern States grow figs and enjoy the fruit each year. How about you? Are you ready to eat some awesome figs?

Don't worry be happy and go plant a Fig tree!

New Florida Figs

We now have some new fig trees obtained from a local fig lover in Fort Lauderdale. Our friend describes them as just amazing and well adapted for Florida. He said they are from his grandfather's orchard in Israel. We named them "Avi" in his honor. We have been growing them now for six months and they are medium green figs. Almost ready to eat. Can't wait to bring you more information. So far it looks like it will do well here in our hot humid South Florida. Beautiful huge lobed leaves.

Kadota Fig Trees, and White Genoa Fig Trees are growing strong and have produced some amazing tasty fruit. We are propagating as fast as we can. Now over one year and they grow great!

Note: Your fig tree will do much better if grown in a container.
This is especially important when soils are sandy.
Grow one in a container and watch it grow and produce like mad!

Your fig tree can bear two crops: an early breba crop during the summer that develops on older wood and a main crop ripening in the fall that develops on the new growth. The main crop figs are typically more numerous, but the fruit is not as large as those of the breba crop.

Ripening takes place over an extended period of time. When you finish the fall harvest, prune your tree but leave some branches un pruned to maintain a balance between old and new wood. Be certain to always prune any dead or diseased branches and use sterile tools.

Alma

This heavy bearing, very sweet fig was released from Texas A & M University's breeding program in 1975. It has golden brown skin and very tasty, amber-tan flesh. It has an open small eye that is sealed with a drop of gum. This self sealed eye prevents spoilage during adverse weather conditions.

The plant is a hardy, small tree with a heavy main crop that ripens very late. The medium sized fruit are delicious. Good fresh or dried. Highly resistant to fruit rots.

Alma is well adapted to the Southeast but tolerates cooler temperatures.

Avi (Israeli Cultivar)

Appears to be a fast growing fig tree with medium green figs. Very attractive leaves and produces well.

Brown Turkey

A medium to large sized, bell shaped, purplish brown fig with a small eye and pinkish amber flesh that is very sweet and tender. It is a good, cold hardy cultivar for the South and up the East Coast. It bears heavily and ripens from the middle of the season up until late in the season. Excellent for jams, canning, drying or eating fresh.

A handsome, low, bushy plant that is practically everbearing in South Florida.
Excellent for jams and reserves.

Celeste

A widely planted, sweet, light brown to violet-brown, very cold hardy fig when dormant and is excellent for eating fresh, dried or in preserves. This is the most popular cultivar in southern Louisiana and grows well in Florida. It is a very dependable producer of high quality, small to medium sized figs even in unfavorable weather due to its small, tightly closed eye. The very sweet flesh has a rich, honey like flavor and is reddish amber in color. Well adapted to the South and East Coast. Excellent for container growing. The eye remains green until the fig is almost ripe (unlike Brown Turkey)

Conadria Fig

Conadria is a large yellow fig with high sugar content. This variety can be used for dried figs and fresh fruit. The Conadria fig was Introduced in 1955 by Ira Condit USDA Riverside, CA. The fruit resists spoilage in rainy weather and has a small eye so is excellent for growing in Florida. A small eye helps deter insect damage and spoilage from humidity. Conadria produces 2 crops. The first crop is called a breba crop and it is good! The main crop is very good. You can and should grow this fig in a container. You can maintain it growing well in a 15 gal pot for many years. Enjoy large excellent figs in summer from this beautiful vigorous, precocious fig tree.

Excel
Origin Riverside California, 1975. Large, skin is yellow, flesh light amber. Fruits practically neck less. A very sweet excellent, all-purpose fig. Similar to Kadota but more productive. Tree is vigorous.

Flanders
is a highly productive, medium long neck violet-striped fig with white flecks that is resistant to splitting. It has a rich flavored amber flesh. We are experimenting with this fig and because it requires a hot summer climate we hope it will be an excellent choice for Florida. Excellent all-purpose fruit. Ripens late. Tree vigorous but requires no great pruning.

Green Ischia

An excellent, medium sized, sweet, green to greenish yellow, thin skinned fig with red flesh that resembles a strawberry when peeled. Originally from Spain, this clone is good for planting along the East Coast.The tree is well adapted to container growing. These figs are especially attractive when used in a fruit salad. This cultivar offers much to the home gardener. It is small in ultimate size, so even small yards can contain one without difficulty. It bears from mid-season till late in the season to extend the harvest and the quality is excellent. The figs possess a fine, excellent flavor either fresh or dried. Due to its fairly well closed, small eye, they are resistant to spoilage by either weather or insects. This is one the birds don't notice due to its green color.

Texas Everbearing & White Texas Everbearing

An excellent large, sweet, brownish yellow, bell shaped fig with a long fruiting season and multiple crops in the South. The flesh is strawberry colored and delicious.

The second crop matures early and is even heavier than the first. This fig tree is very similar to 'Brown Turkey' but not quite the same. The fruit appear larger and leaf has a differerntly lobed appeareance. Closed eye.

White Texas Everbearing has a golden colored flesh.

Texas Blue Giant

This variety produces large figs with attractive purplish blue skin. These are delicious figs with a cream like flesh. The fig tree is a prolific producer with an everbearing habit in the south. As with all figs they enjoy plenty of sunlight and can be grown in containers. This is one great fig to grow in South Florida. Semi closed eye.

LSU Purple

This fig was part of a 15 year breeding and evaluation program at Louisiana State University. Bred by Dr. Ed O'Rourke and released in 1991. The fig is red to dark purple and is one of the Doctors most outstanding figs. The flavor is excellent with a high sugar content. It has a closed eye and resists spoilage. The flesh is light amber to light, strawberry red. The tree is a very vigorous, upright grower and hardier than most other figs trees. Five year old trees may produce 3 distinct crops each year. 'LSU Purple' is highly resistant to leaf diseases and nematodes. LSU Purple features handsome, large, dark green, glossy leaves. The fig fruit are about 2 inches long and average 20 fruit per pound. Very reliable and excellent for use in containers. A great fig tree for the Gulf Coast and South East.

Violete De Bordeaux

This dwarf and prolific cultivar is reported to be originally from Spain and is very cold hardy. It is also considered by some to be the very best tasting fig around. Easy for container growing. This cultivar produces large, almost black fruit with very deep red pulp. The flavor is rich and tasty. This tree produces two crops. The eye is medium sized. Excellent fresh or dried. Well adapted to the South and Southwest.
Amazing flavorful, rich fruit. The only problem is the rust that develops heavily on the leaves. Seems to have poor resistance to nematodes also.

White Genoa & Kadota
California figs that are growing great here in the Sunshine State!

Videos

Fig Classifications

COMMON FIG TYPES:

Common figs are the most distributed types of figs in North America. Their development is parthenocarpic which means they do not require pollination by the fig wasp. They are most ideal for home gardeners as the fig wasp is not naturally present in North America. Common figs can produce two crops but some only produce one crop.

SAN PEDRO FIG TYPES:

San Pero fig types bear two crops of fig flowers. The first crop develops on the previous year branches and is pathenocarpic. However, unlike bifara common figs, the second crop requires pollination by fig wasps. A good example of a San Pedro is the Desert King cultivar.

SMYRNA FIG TYPES:

Smyrna fig varieties have fig flowers requiring pollination by fig wasps. Without pollination figs are not produced.

CAPRIFIG TYPES:

The Caprifigs are the male flowers and they are an important element in pollination of female fig flowers. Most importantly, Caprifigs contain pollen that is carried by fig wasps into the female fig flowers.

Texas Bllue Giant

Keep the birds away from your delicious figs!

Wrap foil around the branches and trunk to save the majority of your fruit. No matter how clever you think you are, the birds will get some.

Trouble with ants on your fig tree?
Wrap aluminum foil about six inches up the trunk base and smear petroleum jelly all around the foil. Ants wont climb up! Be sure to use foil or you will damage the bark.

Figs in Japan

Ichijiku means fig Japanese and they are usually peeled and eaten raw, but they are also popular in their dried form or are processed into jams.

Figs made their way to Japan from the Mediterranean in the early 1600s via China, when the fruit was also known as "foreigner's kaki". The vast majority of figs in Japan are of a variety called Masui Dauphine, which is a relatively large fig and is named after Mr. Masui who cultivated these figs in the early 1900s.

Figs are cultivated in the cities of Anjo and Hekinan as well as in other parts. Japan's foremost producer is the Aichi region. Since the introduction of refrigerated distribution systems in 1985, growers have been able to ship fresh, ripe, juicy figs right to the tables of consumers.

Growing and planting fig trees in containers:

Planting a fig tree in a pot offers several advantages. One of the advantages of pot grown figs is the fact that they can be kept free of nematode damage. Here in Florida and in some other regions, sandy soil is infested with nematodes. Nematodes are divided into both good guys and bad guys. Bad guys cause severe root damage to figs and cause root knots that starve the fig of nutrients and cause poor growth. Good nematodes play an important role in the soil and may actually protect plants from other bad soil organisms.When growing in sandy soil you can plant your fig in a plastic pot with the bottom cut out. Plant the fig in the ground with the pot. Keep the pot approximately 18 inches out of the soil and the rest in the planting hole. This will reduce nematode damage. Also use plenty of rich organic material all around your fig tree. Nematodes that damage fig roots don't like moist soil with plenty of organic material. These nematodes also live in the first 18 inches of soil. The pot when 18 inches above the planting hole protects the roots.

For our northern friends just grow in the container above ground and this will make it easy for you to easily store the tree during winter. Also, you have to take into account that your tree will require a pot of a proper size. Ideally you can use any kind of container you find suitable. One drawback of container growing is the root restriction The growth of the tree will be affected as the fig becomes more root bound and dries out faster. It's important to prune the roots every couple of years and freshen up the container with fresh potting soil. This method provides new root growth so they can continue to expand. If root pruning is not performed fruit yields will decrease. Be sure to prune the roots during the cooler months to minimize any possible shock to the tree.Trees will go dormant in winter and bounce back in the spring. Here in Florida they are often constantly growing with minimal dormancy depending on your zone.

Watering:

Figs are Mediterranean trees and can survive drought without irrigation when grown in ground and have been established for a while. Trees provided with good drained organic soil and plenty of water will grow rapidly. Keep your fig moist but not wet and provide plenty of sunshine!

Tree size and pruning:

A fig tree can grow and produce fruit without pruning. Your best practice is to prune in winter. Prune at a 45 degree angle with a clean sharp pruner. Make your cut above an eye facing outward from the branches. Cut close to the line of the eye. Don't cut and leave a stub or that area will not heal properly and may cause disease to spread. Figs fruit on old and new wood so don't prune all branches at once.

Feeding the soil:

Fig trees will grow much faster if provided with a soil rich in organic matter and plenty of sun. Be sure to feed the soil compost teas, green manure, mushroom compost etc.

Not into organic growing? Okay then use a balanced 10-10-10 time release fertilizer or a 13-13-13 fertilizer. Make sure it has minor elements also. Some growers use a 10-20-25 formulation.

Tips:
Control nematodes in sandy soils
Always add compost to your soil and keep your tree mulched. Figs benefit from the mulch greatly. The mulch should be spread beneath trees from 4-6 inches out from the trunk to the drip line of their branches.This improves the soil and helps to control possible root damage by nematodes.

Now hear this! It really is smart to grow your fig tree in a container if you have really sandy soil. When growing in containers be sure to use a potting mix and place the container on a large stone paver or on a concrete surface, wooden deck or consider burying the pot in the ground.

Control Fig Rust
Fig leaf rust is a common problem on fig leaves in our humid South Florida climate. It is caused by a specific fungi. Fig leaf rust first appears as small, yellow-orange specs on the leaves. These specs enlarge slightly and may become very numerous as the season progresses. Rust may cause complete defoliation of fig trees. One other smart practice is to gather all the rust-infected leaves that drop at the base of the tree. Collect these leaves and place them in a plastic bag and toss them in the trash to contol the spread of the rust to other fig trees. Avoid spraying the leaves with water so the fungi is not spread to other fig leaves. Always wash your hands after collecting infected leaves.

Many people control fig rust by using copper sprays. Spray when the first leaves on the tree have reached full size. The second spray should follow in 3 to 4 weeks. Be certain to get good leaf coverage under the leaves with the spray so you can control this rust and keep your leaves looking nice and green. We recommend Copper Soap from Natural Guard.

Fertilizer?
People often ask what is the best fertilizer for figs? We feel that a 10 - 20- 25 or 13 -13 - 13, fertilizer works very well or any combination that is lower in nitrogen and higher in P and K at similar ratios. Slow release fertilizers make it easy to keep essential elements and nutrients in the soil for several months. A well drained soil and maintaining moist conditions is very important for best growth and production.

When is my fig ready to eat?
Your fig is ripe when it droops on the stem from its own weight. Some are light colored from green to light yelow and others are shades of brown violet, black etc.

​New Florida Figs