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Mature fig trees

KpoKpo Posts: 2
in Fruit & veg
Hi,
We have three mature fig trees in our narrow garden plus a further two more on either sides gardens I think they could be 30-50 years old! 
They are out of control and blocking most of the light in the summer.
I prune regularly but they just spring back bigger and bigger!
I’m thinking of removing them or would it be possible to turn into a cordon??!
What should I do? 
Many thanks
kpo

Posts

  • diggersjodiggersjo Posts: 172

    Well first thing I would say is that the sap is/can be an irritant. My limited experience of these (we did have several) is that they are like weeds! Cut them when dormant (winter), and I’m sure you can grow them any shape you wish.


    Yorkshire, ex Italy and North East coast. Growing too old for it!
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I cut my diseased one back to sticks in the spring. It's in full leaf now. 
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • CeresCeres Posts: 2,698
    You can grow them as espaliers or fans against a wall but cordons, I would say no. If you decide that the glorious monsters are too much to bear and you decide to get rid of them, take cuttings which root easily (usually) and grow the new ones as bushes in large planters so that you still get fruit.

  • Joyce GoldenlilyJoyce Goldenlily Posts: 2,933
    If you keep cutting them back you will rarely have fruit as they fruit on 2 year old wood.
    With that many fig trees you should have more figs than you know what to do with. Baked figs, fig jam, green fig chutney etc. etc. If you are not bothered about the fruit remove most of the trees and just keep one. Train it along the fence, quite a job as they are very vigorous when happy, which yours seem to be. Lucky you. My neighbour has an old one which he periodically cuts to the ground, just as it is ready to fruit, but they do not eat figs. Some time ago I was lucky enough to eat a couple from his tree and they were wonderful. It takes 2 years for the nucleus fruit to reach maturity.
  • KpoKpo Posts: 2
    Thank you for all your advise it is much appreciated. Would agree they do feel like a massive weed. But we do get a lot of fruit, delicious if we get to it before the starlings! 
    I have taking some cuttings and once the fruit has gone I will cut down at least one. 
  • Joyce GoldenlilyJoyce Goldenlily Posts: 2,933
    Wasps are the main culprit for eating figs. They can smell a ripe fig from a mile away.
  • janetfossjanetfoss Posts: 303
    But figs have one of the craziest life cycles - did you know their flowers are on the inside of the fruit and you need female fig wasps to climb inside to pollinate them?
    I've just been reading about it. She lays her eggs in the fruit, the eggs hatch and the new wasps mate with each other. The males dig a hole to let out the females to find other figs and because males have no wings, they'll die inside the fruit.
    I think I've got that right.
    But don't worry, by the time we get to eat the fig, the plant will have already digested the dead wasps.
    Ain't nature wonderful?
  • CeresCeres Posts: 2,698
    janetfoss said:
    But figs have one of the craziest life cycles - did you know their flowers are on the inside of the fruit and you need female fig wasps to climb inside to pollinate them?
    I've just been reading about it. She lays her eggs in the fruit, the eggs hatch and the new wasps mate with each other. The males dig a hole to let out the females to find other figs and because males have no wings, they'll die inside the fruit.
    I think I've got that right.
    But don't worry, by the time we get to eat the fig, the plant will have already digested the dead wasps.
    Ain't nature wonderful?
    Even crazier than that, the figs we grow in this country don't need to be pollinated to produce fruit. So no need to worry about dead wasps lurking in the gooey interior.
  • Joyce GoldenlilyJoyce Goldenlily Posts: 2,933
    A warm, succulent, freshly picked fig is a wonderful feast.
  • CeresCeres Posts: 2,698
    Nature's toffee. No one will ever persuade me that the tree in the Garden of Eden was an apple. It must have been a fig.
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