Season Ending

 It seems the 5 to 6 stems per plant was a success!  The figs prospered, had lots of growth, produced fruit, and appeared to be doing well. However, the strange weather pattern messed with somehow. The fruit did not set until mid-August so they never really ripened, and suddenly were all gone. We think squirrels got to them because it does seem like in the course of only a few days the plants went from a promising harvest (although later in the season than expected) to nothing on the plants at all.

Of course, there's no evidence of the deed so we can only guess but it does make me look suspiciously at squirrels I see in the neighborhood and as the leaves fall off trees, I am keenly aware of how many nest there are high up in the trees. 

Drat!

A New Perspective!

OH MY!  A whole new way of looking at this fig gig!  Upon reading up on pruning techniques, it's become clear what has been wrong all along - the pruning technique!  Every year the crazy weather kills off the previous years' growth and we start over. Because there is so much root system, and a healthy one at that, lots of new growth happens and the plants spend the whole summer pushing out lush green stems and leaves but then has nothing left for producing fruit until late in the season.

Well, well, now there's a new plan. By pruning back to 5-6 stems and deleting all the others, the growth is supposed to be better, fruit-production-wise. It's snowing right now, but you can see how 2 of the plants have been done with this new 'recipe of gardening skill'.

The front and middle fig plants have been done.
The plant on the far end has not. You can see what
was allowed to happen every year, but now limits
have been set!

Crazy Weather, Crazy Results

The winter was bitter, but the die-back was survivable. However, the spring was wet and cool with fits and starts of summer weather throughout July and August. Now, here we are October 1 and it's a week of 90-degree temps - most unusual for this time of year when the figs would normally be eaten straight off the plants.

Here is what we have - a whole bunch of immature figs that are destined for death from the frosts that are sure to come....unless, it stays uncharacteristically warm through November!

OH, the sad irony of it all!

Another winter of yuck?

Now we're heading into another winter of questionable weather.  These fig plants have been through a LOT over recent years. They rebounded mightily from last year's frozen torture but did not produce fruit....so no figgy pudding this Christmas!

At Last!! A Harvest of Bounty!

Oh my, oh my... it's been a bountiful harvest of figs this year!  Sweet, abundant, and ever yielding. We just keep picking and picking and eating and then picking some more. The fridge is filling up, the freezer is filling, and we're enjoying filling up ourselves!  What not to love?  It's been 3 years of rabbits and snow and one thing after another....but YUM!

YUM!  There's no other way to describe the bounty and edible joy!

Spring 2017

A little die-back, but overall
the bushes are strong!

The summer of 2015 produced a LOT of foliage as the plants rebuilt themselves from the ground. They had very little attention which makes me thing they must have a pretty strong root system by now.  This was confirmed the next summer, 2016, following a bitter cold winter and they had to start from the ground AGAIN because of the die-back. They produced a handful of figs, which I ate one afternoon while they were still warm from the sun.  Very satisfying, but hardly the harvest I look forward to for big batches of fig preserves. Folks, it's been 3 years since there have been enough figs to make the preserves you saw earlier in this blog.

Now, step forward to the spring of 2017!  The winter was mild...actually, there was no winter to speak of if truth be told. The bushes began to bud freakishly early and now I'm seeing full leaves and fruit. There has been a little die-back but not enough to warrant concern. This may be the year I take cuttings to propagate new plants to add to the mix!

The fruit buds are still small as you can see, but they exists and offer promise for the season!  The close up pictures of the buds show 3 figs.  This is happening all up and down the branches, unlike last year when the foliage was green and prolific but the fig buds were sparse.

Summer of 2015

Remember how the rabbits took down the figs?  Pitiful. Well, we cut them down to the ground and new growth bounces back triumphantly, as shown in an earlier post. As a another verse to the sad song, last winter the 0 degree temperatures (a unique situation in these parts of Virginia!), the figs went down again. I had not protected them and sure enough, they froze hard and died. So, we cut them down to the ground again.

BUT, they have come back with a vengeance!  Lush and green and beautiful! I certainly intend to burlap them this year!  They look like last year so much, I'm using the same picture!  The rabbits are still happily chewy up other stuff in the garden, so they are still healthy and prospering, but the rabbit fencing works. Can't complain about that.