Lovely update!! I had heard all about the importance of restricting the roots to get the trees to fruit better, but it is very curious that it is only UK growers that seem to do this. I don't think I'll be growing any in ground here anyhow, due to lack of space (as ever), but I look forward to seeing how yours does.
Thanks, Dani! Yeah, I've been sceptical of the root restriction that many UK growers say to do. Even growers in similar climates as ours don't seem to restrict them. I guess I'll eventually get to see if it was a good or bad idea lol 😂. Yeah, space is always an issue. That's why I decided I was going to attempt to graft a few varieties onto this tree to save on space, but still benefit from having an inground tree 👍
I have to say those breba figs look doubtful Peter, they seem to be drying out on the plant, i would say its been water stressed at some time. I don't believe in restricting the roots. All it really does is reduce the vigour that figs can show in ground which means they can rapidly outgrow their location with too much vegetative growth at the cost of fruiting however correct controlled pruning can stop this having. Obviously pot growing massively restricts growth however I'm getting no edible fruits from my pot grown plants, i guess I've neither watered nor fed them enough this year 🙄
Yep, once again it looks like I will fail to get an edible fig lol 🙄. I guess as this tree gets more established it might have a better chance of developing some fruits. I still have a couple of main crop in the greenhouse that might make it, if we have a decent September and possibly early October. But I'm still quite doubtful of them ripening too, based on my experience in previous years. I think the nighttime temperatures will soon start dropping into single digits by the end of next month and that will start to send all the figs into dormancy 🙄. My potted figs are a disaster as well lol. I've seen people on the UK fig Facebook group do well with some in pots even outdoors and in the North, but I guess they are focusing just on the figs, whereas I'm growing loads of other things so don't always give them the attention they need lol 😂
@@lyonheart84 maybe they dried out too much? I had that with one of mine back in June or July after giving it a good water it came back into growth again.
Hi Peter How often you get hot summer days, +30c? We get at least 60 days of hot summer days. I have now issue getting main crop figs to ripen. This summer, my VDB had over 120 main crop figs!!. We already harvested over 75% of them.
Hey Sam, we’ve had 0 days over 30°C this summer lol 🤣. Even in a good year we rarely reach over 28°C in my area. The only way I can get over 30°C reliably is by growing them in my greenhouse, although with the amount of cloud lately it’s been much cooler in there too. Great to hear you had lots of main crop on your VDB! That’s one I have, but am growing for brebas. I’m wondering if I might be able to get RDB to produce main crop as that’s meant to be a very early variety. Even then I might still struggle without growing it in the greenhouse. The only good thing about my climate for fig growing is my winters are mild enough to not have to worry about them getting damaged.
@@PeterEntwistle now I understand the issue you are facing. Hot temp makes a big difference in ripening figs. I live in two extreme weather seasons. More than 90 days of temp below 0c, lowest -30c, and 2 months of hot temp, highest temp this summer was +35c.
@@samMTL514 even in the South of the UK this year I've only had I think one or two days that reached 30c, June struggled to get over 20c which resulted in all of the brebas dropping, exceptionally cool for June, but I had a reasonable amount of days on the mid to high 20s through July and August. My maincrop figs are further ahead than Peter's. Of course we get milder winters
@@samMTL514 Yeah, the problem we have here is we don't have much heat in summer at all. The average high for my area is around 19/20°C in summer lol. In winter it averages between 2°C and 7°C. We just have mild temperatures most of the time. Of course, we do get cold spells and heat waves, but they generally don't last more than a week or two.
@@lyonheart84 Yes, this summer has been terrible weather-wise. We've struggled even more than last year to get above 20°C and last year was a damp squib as well lol 😂. Of course, 2022 was much warmer, but that was more of an exception than the rule and then we got that lovely cold spell in December, we just can't win lol 🤣
