Whilst eating a fig back in November I suddenly decided to plant some of
the seeds. I stuck them in a freezer bag of seed compost, put them on a
window sill and forgot about them. I now have about 20 to 30 seedlings.
What do I do now? Are they worth growing on, or are figs like many other
fruits and best left to experts in their earlier stages?

I did the same thing with dates at Christmas. I now have some stones
with sort of tap roots - these I have planted into small pots, some in
plastic bags, some not. Are they worth carrying on with?

Thank you in advance

Deborah

"Deborah P." wrote in message
...
Whilst eating a fig back in November I suddenly decided to plant some of
the seeds. I stuck them in a freezer bag of seed compost, put them on a
window sill and forgot about them. I now have about 20 to 30 seedlings.
What do I do now? Are they worth growing on, or are figs like many other
fruits and best left to experts in their earlier stages?

I did the same thing with dates at Christmas. I now have some stones
with sort of tap roots - these I have planted into small pots, some in
plastic bags, some not. Are they worth carrying on with?

Thank you in advance

Deborah

The figs will make good foliage plants but unless you are lucky the fruit
size will be small.

The dates make lovely palms, there are several outdoors down here as well as
the hardier Phoenix canariensis both eventually make huge trees, but they
are attractive container plants.

--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collection of Clematis viticella (cvs)

"Deborah P." wrote in message
...
Whilst eating a fig back in November I suddenly decided to plant some of
the seeds. I stuck them in a freezer bag of seed compost, put them on a
window sill and forgot about them. I now have about 20 to 30 seedlings.
What do I do now? Are they worth growing on, or are figs like many other
fruits and best left to experts in their earlier stages?

I did the same thing with dates at Christmas. I now have some stones
with sort of tap roots - these I have planted into small pots, some in
plastic bags, some not. Are they worth carrying on with?


Unless you allow them to grow to maturity, and compare the results with
those of clones of established varieties, you'll never know, will you?

Debs, dont listen to the negative crap from some posters.

Plant the seeds in a pot and keep moist. In april you can plant them out in
the garden. let them grow each year and dont prune them back or you will not
get any fruit but I warn you that the leaves can grow to 12" in diameter and
the plant can grow to 20 foot high after 5 years. I have lots of fruit here
in the midlands but when they are nearly ripe you need to rub olive oil on
the ends then cover the frits with netting.

Django


"Deborah P." wrote in message
...
Whilst eating a fig back in November I suddenly decided to plant some of
the seeds. I stuck them in a freezer bag of seed compost, put them on a
window sill and forgot about them. I now have about 20 to 30 seedlings.
What do I do now? Are they worth growing on, or are figs like many other
fruits and best left to experts in their earlier stages?

I did the same thing with dates at Christmas. I now have some stones
with sort of tap roots - these I have planted into small pots, some in
plastic bags, some not. Are they worth carrying on with?

Thank you in advance

Deborah

On Thu, 03 Feb 2005 22:47:26 GMT, "sawney bean"
wrote:

when they are nearly ripe you need to rub olive oil on
the ends then cover the frits with netting.

Can you expand on this point please?

Pam in Bristol

On 4/2/05 12:59, in article , "Pam
Moore" wrote:

On Thu, 03 Feb 2005 22:47:26 GMT, "sawney bean"
wrote:

when they are nearly ripe you need to rub olive oil on
the ends then cover the frits with netting.

Can you expand on this point please?

Pam in Bristol

Pre-prepared salad? ;-)
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

To somebody who has actual experience with a particular plant Its very
simple so If you know nothing about figs or have just got the information
from a book then learn from an expert like me who has grown these for 30
years in England and Italy..

I dont need to know the farty " real scientific name " or other boring
trivial information about it, I know from experience but all that matters at
the end of the day is for you to have a go


Pam, what exactly do you need expanding?


"Deborah P." wrote in message
...
Whilst eating a fig back in November I suddenly decided to plant some of
the seeds. I stuck them in a freezer bag of seed compost, put them on a
window sill and forgot about them. I now have about 20 to 30 seedlings.
What do I do now? Are they worth growing on, or are figs like many other
fruits and best left to experts in their earlier stages?

I did the same thing with dates at Christmas. I now have some stones
with sort of tap roots - these I have planted into small pots, some in
plastic bags, some not. Are they worth carrying on with?

Thank you in advance

Deborah

sawney bean wrote:
To somebody who has actual experience with a particular plant Its
very
simple so If you know nothing about figs or have just got the
information from a book then learn from an expert like me who has
grown these for 30 years in England and Italy..

I dont need to know the farty " real scientific name " or other
boring
trivial information about it, I know from experience but all that
matters at the end of the day is for you to have a go


Pam, what exactly do you need expanding?
[...]

Oooh, Sawney! You're _so_ masterful!

I haven't got thirty years, so can you tell me if fig seeds come true
to type?

Mike.

On Fri, 04 Feb 2005 20:53:20 GMT, "sawney bean"
wrote:


Pam, what exactly do you need expanding?

As I asked in my first query, this.....
when they are nearly ripe you need to rub olive oil on
the ends then cover the frits with netting.

Why the olive oil?
I bought my first fig last year and still have it in a pot, so have
not got to the fruiting stage yet!
I assume the net is to keep off the birds?

Pam in Bristol

On Sat, 5 Feb 2005, Pam Moore wrote:

when they are nearly ripe you need to rub olive oil on
the ends then cover the frits with netting.

Why the olive oil?
I bought my first fig last year and still have it in a pot, so have
not got to the fruiting stage yet!
I assume the net is to keep off the birds?

And the squirrels!

David
--
David Rance http://www.mesnil.demon.co.uk
Fido Address: 2:252/110 writing from Caversham, Reading, UK

"Deborah P." wrote in message
...
Whilst eating a fig back in November I suddenly decided to plant some of
the seeds. I stuck them in a freezer bag of seed compost, put them on a
window sill and forgot about them. I now have about 20 to 30 seedlings.
What do I do now? Are they worth growing on, or are figs like many other
fruits and best left to experts in their earlier stages?
snip

Always worth planting up and growing on just for the interest.

Be aware that the fig trees you get will depend on the variety of the tree
which grew the fruit and the variety which pollinated the fruit (assuming
they were not self-fertile).

The resulting variety may not be a good cropper in the UK.

The down side is that if you want to see if they produce decent fruit you
may have to wait several years to find out.

AFAIK most figs are pretty hardy so you should be able to grow them on
easily.

You do have a potential problem in what to do with the 19-29 seedlings you
don't want as mature trees (unless you have a very large garden).

Just pot them on as you would with any other seedling.

They should grow outside O.K. - my Brown Turkey stays out all year in a pot
and seeems to thrive on it.
I am in coastal Suffolk so people further north may not have as much luck,
but ISTR the tree I had in Derbyshire grew O.K. (but didn't fruit).

Can you remember what kind of fig it was (perhaps just a supermarket fig of
unnamed brand)?

Best of luck
Dave R

I have both the Brown Turkey and Brunswick varieties and both of them are very happy. I live in West Sussex about 1/4 mile from the sea and they are placed in a corner in pots near a wall. My garden is south facing and where they are positioned means that they get sun from early morning until about midday. I also have a fig cutting from the "Brunswick" coming along nicely too - the parent plant was getting a little tall so my husband cut the top of, popped one end into rooting powder and its taken.

"Anietta" wrote in message
...

David W.E. Roberts Wrote:


They should grow outside O.K. - my Brown Turkey stays out all year in a
pot
and seeems to thrive on it.
I am in coastal Suffolk so people further north may not have as much
luck,
but ISTR the tree I had in Derbyshire grew O.K. (but didn't fruit).

Dave R


I have both the Brown Turkey and Brunswick varieties and both of them
are very happy. I live in West Sussex about 1/4 mile from the sea and
they are placed in a corner in pots near a wall. My garden is south
facing and where they are positioned means that they get sun from early
morning until about midday. I also have a fig cutting from the
"Brunswick" coming along nicely too - the parent plant was getting a
little tall so my husband cut the top of, popped one end into rooting
powder and its taken.

I have brown turkey, planted straight into the ground. Heavy clay, north
facing about 5 miles from the Wash.Fruits well every year.

In message , w.g.s.hamm
writes


I have brown turkey, planted straight into the ground. Heavy clay, north
facing about 5 miles from the Wash.Fruits well every year.


We had a discussion about figs last autumn and I was advised to plant my
tree outside but surrounded by the drum of an old washing machine to
prevent the roots spreading. In the end, I left the tree in its huge
pot. I is coming along nicely.
--
June Hughes