Fig tree advice

BernieEarnie13 · February 2019

Hello,
I've just moved house and inherited three fig trees. They have been planted in the ground in a really inconvenient position (and in the shade!).

I would like to move them and have been told if I pot them it'll force them to fruit (they've clearly produced fruit in the past as they have plenty of buds!)

I was thinking of potting and placing against the garage wall which is one of the sunniest positions in the garden.

Any advice/ thoughts would be hugely appreciated as I have no idea when it comes to fig trees!

Many thanks in advance.

Borderline · February 2019

I don't see why not. If the plant is in the wrong place, it should go or move. But I personally would not attempt to pot it if it's over 2 meters in height. That might be harder for the plant to adapt. But, you can prune the tree smaller for this.

Fruiting is unreliable when grown out-doors all year. Any small fruits in autumn should really be removed. They will never ripen. If you have a greenhouse, you can at least move them inside over the colder months, and that may be better for a container grown plant.

Obelixx · February 2019

Moving to a sunny position is definitely a good idea and a sunny, sheltered wall should be ideal. They do best with a restricted root run or in poor soil so don't enrich it but do make sure it's broken up and forked over so the roots can re-establish quickly.

They can cope with hard pruning if you need to shorten or lighten them and also respond to being trained along a wall if you can prune them to a fan or espalier shape. This link to info from the RHS should help -
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=106

Fig tree advice

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