Figs: Fantastic and Frustrating

Common fig varieties, or cultivars, have 712 names across various countries. Well over half are the common type, but very few are grown commercially. Some fig varieties have been called by more than one name. To verify the variety, growers have turned to literature, side-by-side growing, and comparing fruit characteristics. One example is the Magnolia fig of Texas, named because a tree peddler sold what he called “Magnolia” trees, which actually proved to be fig trees. Comparing the tree and fruit actually identified the Magnolia as the Brunswick, grown in England for at least 200 years. California’s brown turkey fig is Italy’s San Piero—with nine other names floating around for the same tree. Brown Turkey of the southeastern United States is also an English variety that has a dozen or more other names. California’s Mission fig, often called the Black Mission Fig, is Franciscana of Spain. These examples are just some of many. New varieties have been developed by fig breeding, and other seedlings are still being selected.

There are, of course, figs and fig culture in other states than California. Twice the author toured Virginia and Maryland’s historic districts with a representative from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), collecting and identifying 12 varieties of figs from gardens at Mt. Vernon, at Washington’s birthplace, the Lee Mansion, Williamsburg, Jamestown, and others. A few commercial orchards were found, the largest at least an acre at Crisfield, Maryland. A detailed account of early fig planting from Florida to New England is given in the author’s “Fig History in the New World.”

Fig trees in the colder sections of the United States may grow as trees but are often seen as bushes formed after the top branches have been cut back to the ground by freezing weather. The Chicago Hardy Fig is a primary example of a variety that can handle such conditions. Fig growers, especially the former residents of Mediterranean fig districts, will go to great lengths to protect trees from frost, though some opt for more cold-hardy varieties. Small trees, perhaps a few feet tall, may be dug and placed in pots to overwinter in cellars. For real trees, one method is cutting roots on one side of the root ball, bending the whole top into a well-drained trench, covering first with straw, corn stalks, or other material, then with soil or a thick layer of mulch until the frost threat is over.

The fast-growing trees are usually propagated from cuttings or grown in nursery rows for a year. They thrive in a wide range of well-drained soils, especially with full sun, as long as the ground doesn’t have high salinity, and are fairly drought-tolerant once established. Pruning practices vary widely and depend on the variety grown and harvesting methods.

Fig trees and their fruits are especially susceptible to injury by pests and diseases. Root knot caused by nematodes is common in plenty of host plants and accounts for fig trees failing to thrive in some places across the globe. Insect pests that go after the tree include certain scale insects, borers that attack the trunk and branches, and others. Still, most failures are because of pests that attack the fruit. The main insects that cause spoilage are fruit beetles, vinegar flies, and thrips, all of which carry bacteria and yeasts into the eye of the figs to start fermentation. A large, green beetle is so destructive to fresh figs that it’s commonly called “the fig eater.”

Tree diseases include cankers on branches, rust on leaves that’s controlled by spraying, a virus causing mosaic and distortion of leaves, and leaf blights or blotches that cause leaves to fall. Fruit spoilage is, at least in California, an insect problem that requires controlling. Pests and fig diseases are covered in more detail by various authors, including some listed below.