Key is to regularly water newly-planted trees, at least bimonthly for two months. It is also important to ensure you choose a location where your tree has enough space, which you can calculate from a variety's eventual height and spread.
Dig a hole twice the radius of the rootball. Before planting, drench the rootball. Place the pot in the hole, ensuring it sits no lower than an inch below ground.
Fill the hole with a mix of compost and garden soil, and add fertiliser and mycorrhizal fungi. Do not compress the soil. Give your tree a good watering. Add mulch on top whether bark and wood chippings, compost, manure, leaf-mould and stones. Make sure mulch doesn't touch the stem.
Apply fertiliser and replace decomposed mulch come spring.
Fig trees are easy to grow, but producing a good crop is challenging. Below we address some common queries:
- Hardiness: figs are native to Western Asia, the Middle East and the Mediterranean and are best grown in full sun, ideally against a self-facing wall that radiates heat. Figs need to be wrapped in frost protection come winter. Potted plants can be moved into any unheated outbuilding once they are dormant.
- Position: to produce a decent crop, figs need to be grown in a greenhouse or against a south facing wall. Planting your tree in a sheltered spot will help prevent uprooting in strong winds.
- Soil Types: soil types are best ignored and remain an unwelcome confusion. Every plant will adapt to its conditions. Having said that, less than ideal conditions will reduce growth. Waterlogged soils will starve your tree of oxygen, which plays a key role in photosynthesis, cause its roots to rot and create the perfect environment for many diseases. Similarly, compressed soils can starve a tree of oxygen and water, so do not compress the soil when planting. Aeration can be improved further with mulching.
- Planting In Pots: figs grow well in pots as restrictions on growth stimulate fruit set. Figs are suited to marginally acidic soil, so any compost except ericaceous and mushroom is fine. Choosing a black pot is recommended as it absorbs heat. White mulch will reflect light back towards the tree.
Fig trees are parthenocarpic, which means they still produce fruit in the absence of pollinators.
As parthenocarpic fruits aren't pollinated, they don't produce seeds, and can only be propagated vegetatively through cuttings. These cuttings are grown on their own roots and as such figs don't have rootstocks.
Primrose