Growing figs in Canada

If you love figs, you might find it worth your while to try to grow them. And yes, you can in Canada. It will take a bit of effort, but … well, you get figs.

The difficulty with growing figs comes in winter. Figs are hardy to -3 degrees Celsius—or at least, that’s the minimum temperature they can get to before they stop growing figs. The problem is, they won’t go into dormancy above about +7 degrees Celsius. Fig trees need a period of dormancy. What’s more, if you keep them growing when they should be sleeping, they’ll get leggy and weak because the sun just isn’t strong enough in Canada to keep them going.

Here are three ways to overwinter figs:

1. Potted figs moved inside.

Now, you won’t get much out of figs if you move them into your living room for the winter. They go dormant and they need to go dormant, sleeping while the temperature dips to below 7 degrees Celsius. The trick is to find a spot between -3 and +7 degrees. An unheated garage might do the trick, attached to your house in downtown Toronto; an unattached garage on the lonesome prairie is unlikely to stay warm enough.

If you have a cold cellar, that might work.

2. Bury your fig.

Plant the tree in a pot (or half a pot) next to a south-facing wall of the house. This needs to be quite close to the wall, maybe 18 inches, and the wall needs to be in full sun all year long. In the fall, after the first frost when the tree goes dormant, tie the branches to the trunk, dig a trench alongside the house and lay the tree inside the trench. Cover it with a tarp then put soil over the tarp. Mound this up with leaves.

3. Create a cold space.

This one is from a balcony gardener in Toronto, detailed by Canada’s figgrowing champ, Steven Biggs. Get a Styrofoam cooler or other insulated container big enough to fit your fig tree. Add a jar of water and an aquarium heater. Plug this into a thermostatcontrolled plug switch (he uses ThermoCube TC-3, which turns the heater on between 1 and 7 degrees Celsius).

By shauna dobbie

It may take some extra work, but you can grow figs in Canada! This should work on a balcony or porch in any environment.

Depending on your climate, you may be able to build an insulated hut around your fig for the winter; it will probably need a bit of warmth through the coldest part of the winter.

Harvest

Figs will start producing fruit in their second to sixth year. Then they produce two flushes of fruit. The first crop is called the breba crop and grows on old wood. You’ll probably get this around July. The second crop, the main crop, will come in September or October on new wood.

Some people turn their noses up at the breba crop, but if your garden is in a short-season area, you’ll know to gobble these up because your “main” crop may never ripen.

The fruit is ripe when it droops or hangs down from the branch; you should wait for this moment because they won’t continue to ripen once picked. Cut it off with a sharp knife and wear gloves; there is latex in the stem, which can irritate your skin. Handle the fruit as little as possible because it bruises easily. Lay them gently in a single layer. They will keep in the fridge for about three days. Scan me

If you want to try growing figs, get the newsletter from Canada’s aficionado, Steven Biggs.

https://stevenbiggs.ca/newsletter

Diseases

Two problems you could encounter when growing figs are rust and mosaic virus. Rust starts as little yellow spots that get bigger as the season progresses, turning brown. You can spray them with nasty chemicals, but for the most part it won’t hurt the plant, so it’s best to ignore it.

Fig mosaic virus could get to your tree on a gardening implement or an insect, and once it’s there, it will kill the tree. You can’t do anything about it so it’s best not to worry about it. It appears as yellowing of the leaves in a mosaic-like pattern; eventually the yellow is surrounded by brown margins.

Other than these two diseases, your fig might be subject to animal gnawing on the bark and the usual host of insects after the fruit or leaves. Accept

what you cannot change.

Fig blossoms and wasps

Have you ever seen a fig blossom? No, you haven’t. Figs have inverted flowers, with all the reproductive parts inside.

Traditional figs are pollinated by tiny wasps, inside the bulbous fruitflower. The internet is full of breathless stories about these wasps that go something like this: male and female wasps hatch in male (inedible) figs. The male wasps impregnate the female wasps then dig tunnels outside the fig and die. The female wasps pick up pollen and leave the fig to find a new fig to lay their eggs. If the female goes into a male fig through the hole in the bottom, she lays her eggs and then dies. If she goes into a female fig, she brings the pollen, cannot lay her eggs, and dies. “So, every fig you eat has a dead wasp in it!” the internet says.

Well, it isn’t true.

There are three types of fruiting fig tree, and only one, the caducous, also known as the Smyrna fig, requires the wasp to make fruit. Unpollinated Smyrna figs will fall off the tree before becoming edible.

The other two types are intermediate, also known as San Pedro figs, and persistent or common figs. San Pedro figs set an unpollinated first crop but require the wasp for the second flush of fruit. Persistent figs do not require pollination; they are parthenocarpic and develop both flushes of fruit without pollination.

This is good news for us in Canada because the fig wasp doesn’t live here. d

There are some hobbyists who will sell or trade more exotic varieties, but for the beginner, check out a really good garden centre near you. If they don’t sell Ficus carica, ask if they know who does.

You will probably get one of the following varieties:

‘Brown Turkey’: Brown fruit tinged with purple.

‘Chicago Hardy’: Small red fruit with rosy pulp known for hardiness.

‘Celeste’: Small fruit, purple when ripe, with red pulp.

Fig varieties for Canadian gardeners

artin. Javier m by Photo

‘Brown Turkey’ fig.

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