Unusual & Old Fashioned Fruit Trees |
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Fig - Ficus Carica Several varieties of Fig are grown commercially, but in the UK the Brown Turkey fig is the hardiest and usually the only one seen on sale in Garden Centres. They are not grafted, unlike many more traditional fruit trees such as apples and cherries, and they rarely develop any health problems as they are very resistant to all pests and diseases.
Fig trees are self
fertile and naturally crop continuously in warmer climates, but they
will only produce a Summer/Autumn crop outside in the UK. If figs are
grown in a greenhouse that is warm enough over winter they may give
later cropping. In the Autumn the figs will change colour, darken and when
fully ripe they will soften a little so that they give a little when
squeezed gently. Our tree crops regularly and the last good crop gave over
40 ripe fruits, although it does vary from one year to the next. This
may not sound like a After the leaves have dropped in the late autumn it is advisable to remove all the small undeveloped fruits by simply twisting and snapping them off as they will not develop outside and if left on the plant will prevent a good crop for the following Summer. If removed cleanly no harm will come to the plant, although a little milky sap may ooze out of the break. Most
trees are difficult to root compared to other garden plants and as most
fruit trees are grafted anyway it is not normally even worth trying to
root cuttings. However, fig trees are not grafted and do root relatively
easily, although they do take several months and need the correct
conditions or else they will rot. An 18 inch cutting taken in Another useful way of rooting Fig tree cuttings is to ground layer the stems. This method of propagation is not used much commercially these days except in Coffee Plantations (see Coffee) as it requires much space and effort. However, as fig trees tend to droop it is an easy matter to bend small branches, that are growing low down, even further and peg them down into the ground with small wire hoops. The branches should be lightly scratched at a leaf bud before being buried in soil. They will continue growing as normal, but after some months if you carefully scrape back the soil you should see roots forming on the buried shoots. The rooted branches can then be cut off and potted, but you must keep them shaded for a while, because their new roots will not be able to provide all the moisture they had from their parent tree, until they develop properly. |
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