Native to western Asia and the eastern Mediterranean, figs (Ficus carica L.) function well in home gardens where you are able to enjoy their big leaves, gnarly trunks and sweet fruit. Fig trees perform best in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 7a through 11, along with well draining soil and long high temperatures. Overall, the trees are fast, letting you plant them in containers or in the ground.
Height
While figs can grow up to 50 feet tall, nearly grow between 10 to 30 feet wide and high. But in colder climates, the timber can freeze, causing the trees to be smaller. Planted in containers and maintained pruned, figs grow to just about ten feet tall. “Mission” grows into a large tree, “Improved Brown Turkey” provides a small garden tree, while “Black Jack,” provides an easily pruned container tree.
Development Habits
Big fig trees often spread wider than the height of this tree, thanks partly to their habit of growing with multiple branches in case you let them go without pruning. Branches are generally low-growing unless you prune them to be greater. As the trees age, their bark gets more and more gnarled, with big tumors forming where branches have fallen or been eliminated. Figs are deciduous and lose their big, 4- to 9-inch deeply-lobed leaves in the winter.
Fruit Growth
Most home-grown figs make two fruit crops per year, with the spring or early summer crop growing on the previous season’s branches and the second crop maturing in the fall on new growth. Fig trees that make figs for eating new don’t need pollinating to produce fruit, while trees that produce figs for drying, such as “Calimyrna” or “Smyrna,” need both male and female trees to produce figs. Commercial fig growers maintain trees to get 12 to 15 decades, but dwelling growers can keep on harvesting smaller crops once the trees are more than 50 years old.
Growing New Trees
You can develop a fig tree from the seed of a dried fig, but you’ll be more confident of success with a plant from your nursery. Figs make fruit within one year from planting. It’s also simple to begin new trees from cuttings or by notching low-growing branches and letting them form roots where the notch touches the ground, a process called ground-layering. Home growers often find “volunteer” fig trees sprouting up unexpectedly near to an existing tree.