I’m excited to introduce the very first guest post on Life on the Balcony, written by Claire Brown. Claire–Plantpassion on Twitter–is a gardener and garden enhancer working in Surrey England. She loves plants of all types and especially those you can eat. Find out more about Claire at www.plant-passion.co.uk.
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Imagine sitting on your balcony or patio in August, the early morning sun is just starting to warm and you’re breakfasting on a bowl of home grown, fresh figs with yogurt and honey. I was lucky enough to have this dream become a reality this summer when my fan trained Brown Turkey fig fruited for the first time.
Ficus Carica are among the oldest fruits in cultivation. They thrive on a long hot growing season, and because they don’t need a long winter chilling period (only 100-300 hours) they were great for hot Mediterranean climate. If a short winter and long hot summer doesn’t match with what you get where you are, don’t panic – you can still have figs, and growing them in a container against a wall on a patio or balcony is great way to shelter them and warm them up.
If left to grow in the ground, figs produce large leaves, which provide excellent shade. But these trees are deciduous so will add to your autumn clear up. With this in mind, growing a fig in a container which restricts it’s leaf growth and encourages fruiting is a really great idea.
My plant was bought (as a birthday present) fan trained. Last winter was the coldest in southern England for a long time as we had three weeks of freezing temperatures in January, and snowfall at the beginning of February. My fig was still in its nursery pot throughout that period. When spring came I relented and potted it up to a large black plastic container about 55 litres (about 15 gallons) in size in a mixture of John Innes soil-based compost and multipurpose compost. It was near to my waterbutt, so along with my Blueberries, it got a reasonable amount of water throughout the summer until July, when we had a long dry spell here, and I started rationing the water when it came off the mains. The first fruits ripened in early August, and over a period of 2 weeks, I had 12 figs, – no where near my initial investment of £49 (about $90) but as 4 figs were selling at £2.50 (about $4) in August, and they’d been flown in from Turkey, I felt pretty good about my contribution.
There was a 2nd set of fruits which started to grow, but the summer didn’t last for long enough, so I’ve rubbed off all the fruit larger than a pea, as it will likely go mouldy over the winter.
My tree doesn’t need a prune this year, but in the future, I’ll take out any old wood that is frost damaged or badly placed in spring when the risk of frost has passed and tie in new shoots as this is where the figs will be produced from.
The good news is that I’m the only one in my family that likes figs, – so here’s hoping for next year’s crop and several weeks of sunny breakfast ambrosia.
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I love fresh figs! I wish I was living in a climate where I could grow them. You are so fortunate.
Yum Fresh figs, I wish I could grow them but I live where it is much to cold. Nonetheless I fully enjoy reading your fantastic descriptions of your harvest.
I love figs too!! I first had fresh ones in Greece in 2004, and have been in love ever since. But I’m rather illiterate about growing fruit trees. What does “fan trained” mean? Is it important? Do you know if a zone 6 is too cold for a fig tree? (We just had our first dusting of snow today)
There are 3 homes in my neighborhood (zone 6) that grow figs outdoors. The leaves on the plants are immense and shiny. Every autumn the trees get wrapped up in blue tarp with generous amounts of straw piled around the bottom. They seem to winter well that way, since every spring (late spring) they are unwrapped to enjoy the sun.
oh, and thank you for the great post, Claire!
It sounds lovely. My summers aren’t long enough or hot enough to grow figs either. I can get them fresh, flown in, very unsustainably from Mexico or California, at my local supermarket in early September.
my first guest post, so glad you like it, – last winter we got down to -10C for about 4 days, which is a lot colder than normal, – I guess having them in pots makes them easier to cover, but yes i’ve seen tropical plants with straw and fleece wrapped up like Bob describes here, so would have thought figs would be fine, – you will only get one crop like me.
Fan trained means trained so that the branches all go out in one direction (axis), usually on a frame, rather than a tree shape
I never thought of that for my balcony; I wonder if my full morning sun would be enough? Looove figs!
We are fortunate to have an ancient fig tree.
Did you know that the milky sap from where a fig stem joins the branch will cure poison ivy?
Thanks for a *great* idea, Claire! I am lucky to live in the San Francisco area where we can grow figs (a Mediterranean type climate) and this is an idea I am definitely going to try.
never tried a fig, but if we can find them at store to taste and they’re good maybe I’ll talk mom into trying one out..
for Abigail, and any others that are having difficulty visualizing what fan trained is, – i’ve found a photo of mine in it’s trained “glory” at the end of my original post about these figs.
http://plant-passion.typepad.com/plant_passion/2009/08/fresh-figs-how-to-grow-and-enjoy-them.html
(it will get bigger, and i’ll have to replace the bamboo with something slightly stronger in a couple of years)
Claire–It looks like it would be pretty easy to create a trellis similar to what is being used to train your fig tree into a fan shape. The shape looks perfect for balcony and patio gardeners since it sits flush up against a wall, or could even be used to screen out the neighbors…
I love figs! Great tips! I wonder if we’d manage this okay up in the Lake District with colder temperatures and our position next to the wettest valley in the UK? Anyway, you’ve inspired us to give it a try.
Jorrit–I’m not familiar with the conditions of your area, but when in doubt, you could always bring the fig indoors for the winter, or if that’s not possible, place it against a south facing wall or other warm(er) spot.
Here in the US there is a fig cultivar (Imported and worked upon by some nice greek families in the Chicago area) It’s, heh, called the Hardy Chicago Fig. US zone 4 with sufficient protection.
I don’t see how a fig would provide any kind of shade tho, not without major surgery. It is a short multi-trunked tree that sprawls out across the ground, wider than it is large and so commonly attracts wasps to nest within it’s bushy limbs that anyone who dares to climb within the shade may also be making a rapid retreat towards home and 1st aid. Growing a closed-eye fig, in a pot on a sceened patio seems the safest way to enjoy a fig in the shade
I just ordered my first fig tree this winter. I can’t wait until it’s delivered!
Timely article for me. I just relented after all these years, and bought my first fig to grow in a container…hope it works! (and like you I get to have them all to myself!)
Janie–Check out the article I linked to, the advice in that article has been pretty helpful to me.
Thanks for the tip… I think we probably have perfect weather conditions in Oklahoma to grow them… I am going to try.
Hi!
I’m growing a hardy chicago tree in my sunroom this winter and hope to plant it in my backyard next season. So far it is barely growing, but I know it needs to adjust to the new weather, soil, fertilizer and being shipped funny.
Good luck with yours everyone!
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