Musa: Fig Tree - November

My fig tree has now lost nearly all of its leaves and the bare branches just carry the fruit that failed to ripen during the summer. The branches and figs look a little sad silhouetted against the November sky.

Above (Fig 1) Fig Tree in November

I grow the variety Ficus carica ‘Brown Turkey’ planted up against the wall of the garage. It is said that to get a productive fig tree that you should restrict the roots by lining the planting hole with some sort of impervious product. Mine is planted into virtual rubble and I hope / think that this achieves the same objective. In this country, planted outdoors, figs will only produce one crop a year unlike if grown under glass or in warmer countries where 2 crops are achievable. This is why, as you will see in the above photo, my tree has a lot of figs that will now not ripen. These should ideally be removed leaving only the very small pea-sized embryonic figs that will produce next year’s crop if they survive the winter.

Our crop varies from year to year, the number of figs harvested depends on whether the birds or maybe squirrels get there first. I could protect the crop from birds with netting but then . . . . I don’t much like figs"!

Above (Fig 2): A nearly ripe fig produced on the Musa Estate

A Bit More Information . . .

The Fig is not exactly a fruit, the so-called fruit is, in fact, a cluster of flowers held within its skin. The flowers are pollinated by small wasps, each species of fig has a specific species of wasp able to enter the ‘fruit’ through the small opening at the end of the fruiting body. I believe some species of fig are also pollinated by ants. By the way, cultivated figs such as Brown Turkey are able to produce ripe ‘fruits’ without pollination, which is useful as the required species of pollinating wasps are not present in the UK.

So, Ficus carica is not able to set seed in the UK. However, there are wild fig trees growing along some of our river banks in England! It seems that these wild fig trees are the result of germination from seeds contained within sewage pumped into the rivers. The seeds must originate from imported dried and fresh figs and have passed through human digestive tracts. It is also likely that germination had been aided by higher water temperatures caused by the outflow of industrial cooling waters as these wild fig trees tend to be found along the banks of rivers passing through former industrial areas. Most of these wild trees are now very old and I hope this signifies that we are no longer pumping sewage into our rivers or industrial cooling water.

I believe that California has a problem with the invasiveness of Ficus carica introduced to that country but but that is not caused by the above reasons as I understand they are trying to eradicate the relevant pollinating wasp to control the spread.

I find the subject of the cultivated fig interesting as it has many historical connections to the ancient civilizations of Greece, Rome and Egypt, an interesting botany and, of course, several biblical references. I don’t think there is a book currently in print on the subject but I will have a browse on eBay.

As an aside . . . . I used to notice tomato plants growing on the high spring tide mark of a bay nearby. These plants also germinated as a result of sewage being pumped into the sea. I’m pleased to say that this no longer occurs . . . . . or perhaps I just haven't looked lately!