Ficus carita 'Brown Turkey"

I have two Brown Turkey figs that are loaded with fruit that will not ripen. Last year I chalked it off to too much rain. I don't know what to say about this year's crop-or lack thereof. Are there any fig growers out there who can help me? I live in zone 7.

The cold weather may be slowing down the uptake of nutrients to your trees.

You could try foliar feeding the trees with a bloom promoter and fulvic acid mixture. The fertilizer should be something like Pete's 0-10-10 or other high phosphorus & potassium, but no nitrogen, soluble powder.

Make a mix with liquid fertilizer (usually one tablespoon per gallon of water) and two tablespoons of fulvic acid per gallon. Spray down the entire tree with the mix.
The fulvic acid will help the tree to absorb the fertilizer.

those figs keep looking green after ripen, but u might try a windowsill, this summer lots of fruits didnt ripen/grow as was normal

gladshack, it would be helpful if you could give a bit more information.

Oftentimes many of the Brown Turkey strains/varieties will produce fruit late in the year and they won't mature. (And yes, there are quite a few strains of Brown Turkey, each with different growing/fruiting habits.) However there are also other factors that come into play.

If your plant is looking nice and healthy I wouldn't dare offer it extra fertilizer/plant food, or fulvic acid, save your money. (No offense meant, Metrosideros.)

gladshack, how old is your fig bush/tree? What kind of soil is it in? What have you been feeding it, or have you been feeding it at all? Most importantly, what kind of location is it in...partial shade, full sun, only morning sun, only afternoon sun, etc?

Keeping those factors in mind, figs require full sun to really get on the ball with fruit production, that is one of the major limiting factors when dealing with ripening of fruit. This being the case, for fulvic acid to be of benefit it requires the plant to be growing in proper sunlight (for that plant) to best benefit from the fullest amount of photosynthesis. (By the way, fulvic acid tends to accelerate cell division but w/out proper light/energy no amount of it will benefit plants and I would consider it an un-necessary expense.)

If you can give us a bit more info, gladshack, I bet we can come up with some great suggestions for you and this time next year I hope to hear you are enjoying an abundant fig harvest!

Happy Gardening!
Shoe

By the way, kittriana, figs won't ripen after you pick them. Some fig varieties are greenish in color so I wonder if you have one of those.

Thank you everybody. I sort of got lost. The figs are in full sun, good soil and I haven't fertilized them at all. This will be their fourth season. First season the produced beautifully. Second year it was very wet and the fruit didn't ripen. Last year, same thing with out the water. I would think that if the plants get enough sun to set fruit then there should be enough sun to ripen. Also, I was out there the other day and noticed that they have a very extensive root system.

Thanks for any help/

Gladys

Gladshack, If the night time temperature starts dropping before the figs ripen, they never will. Figs require hot days and warm nights to ripen properly and the cooler temps can end the ripening process. We had that happen to our Brown Turkey Fig a few years ago. I spoke with our County agent and he said if the fruit became chilled before ripening, it would not ripen. He suggested removing the green figs to allow the tree to process its' spring or breva crop.

Srping or breva? Don't know the term breva. Please enlighten.

Breva is a Spanish word meaning "early fig' , the first crop of figs that appear in the spring on last year's growth. The second crop is produced on this year's new growth.

Are your figs planted in the lawn where you are using lawn fertilizer? Trees usually put out lots of shallow roots running everywhere, so, if that were the case, you would be feeding your fig lawn fertilizer, and maybe even weed control.