Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi everyone,

I would appriciate some advice on a problem with my fig trees.

They are about 4 foot high and wide and live in half barrels against a south facing house wall.

Each formed up about 100 figs each this spring. (There were none on the trees from last year) This last few weeks most of them have gradually turned brown from the base a dropped off. About 5 per plant are growing and looking healthy. This happens every year and those that stay on at this stage turn into big juicy ripe figs later in the year.

I know the problem isn't climate as one of the trees is from a cutting from a nearby house. The parent plant produced loads of figs each year without any tending.

Can anyone tell me it's likely to be too much or too little water? Or perhaps a nuitriant deficency?

thanks in advance
Glenda

GLENDA
Its something called the June drop same thing happened to me last year nice lot of figs then bang I was left with four, dont know what causes it must do some more research.

Isn't it to do with how many the tree can cope with? A hundred figs sounds like an awful lot for a four foot tree to deal with.

I've got a tree in a pot in the ground which had about 17 on it but now has (I think!) about 8. It was mostly the 'extras' in clusters that dropped, leaving a pair of fruits either side of a fruiting spur. My tree's about 3 feet tall, and I wouldn't expect it to bear any more really considering its size.
A possibility is that your trees may have got a little dry in their barrels. An established tree in the ground can withstand drought far better than a young tree in a pot, and often all it takes is a very short period of drought for a young tree to 'panic' and drop its fruit.