Frozen Figs

David - Despite the gloomy prognostications of the climatically spoilt
Californians <VBG> it's perfectly possible to grow and fruit figs in
much colder parts of the UK than either Devon or even the arctic Avon!
We used to have one which flourished and fruited well on a Derbyshire
hillside, despite regular bitterly cold winters and cool cloudy wet
summers. OK, I accept that you have to be growing one of the more cold
hardy (and less 'interesting' - aka 'delicious'?) ones, such as Brown
Turkey, but I'd guess something of that sort's what your brother has?
In which case, the secrets, as I understand them, are: (1) plant at
the foot of a wall (for dryness); (2) restrain the brute's roots (so
that it starves and in desperation fruits - otherwise it expends all
its considerable energy on making foliage). The traditional method
(which we followed by default, having inherited said method along with
house and fig) was to sink something substantial and vertical into the
soil on all the sides via which the roots might escape - only three
of'em if you follow the by-a-wall recommendation! In the case of our
Derbyshire fig, the substantial verticals were massive old stone
roofing 'slates,' each about 4ft square. I did sometimes wonder how
far the roots were prepared to go *down* in the hunt for food... but
that wasn't my problem and the method certainly did the trick,
reliably, year after year.

Hope that helps.

Cheers
Tim
fig-less by the Solway Firth


Tim Longville
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