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Fruit & Orchards Container Gardening

Non flowering fruit trees

last year

I have a potted turkey fig tree that has yet to flower so I assume it won’t this year. I overwintered it in a cold room with no light and spare water. It came out when it started to leaf and appears healthy. I fertilized it with Osmocote plus. We have had ample rain and I water as needed. I dont recall pruning it, and certainly not since last year. So what gives?

The same is true for two potted yuzu trees, although these don’t go dormant. I keep them in a sunny warm room and usually harvest a bounty of fruit around Thanksgiving or hold out til New Years. I prune after that. Where do you think I went wrong?

Featured Answer

floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK

last year

Just checking that you know what to look for on the fig. It won’t produce ’flowers’ as such. Are there tiny green bobbles in any of the leaf axils?

Comments (8)

seasiderooftop
last year
last modified: last year
Exactly as @floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK said, figs just make the fruits straight from their leaf axils. Not preceded by flowers.

Here's what that looks like at various stages of development on my Brogiotto Nero:
kitasei2 thanked seasiderooftop
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kitasei2
Original Author
last year
Yes! Fig tree problem solved! any thoughts about the yuzu?
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
last year
last modified: last year
All trees flower, some more conspicuously than others. In the case of Ficus, the blooms are inconspicuous because they are hidden within a structure (synconium) which serves as a receptacle for the blooms, which morph into a multitude of ovaries that line the inside surface of the syconium. The flowers are fertilized and eggs are laid within the syconium by a specialized wasp which enters through a small hole (ostiole) opposite the stem end, before dying (within the syconium).

Al
kitasei2 thanked tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
kitasei2
Original Author
last year
What is tge likelihood of having this dpecislized wasp? Is it possible to hand pollinate?
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
last year
last modified: last year
Yes, that is why I put ’flowers ’ in inverted commas.

Don’t worry about the wasps. Brown Turkey fruits in the UK. No fig wasps here. Many commercial varieties fruit without pollination and BT is one of them.
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
last year
Most common figs do not require fig wasp pollination. Only caducous or Smyrna figs require wasp pollination and none of these are very cold hardy and are not commonly grown where the wasps are not already present.
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
last year
K - The only thing you would gain from pollination is viable seed; and, the tree comes very easily by cuttings, sort of making that a moot point.

Al

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