Last edited by shiny on November 10, 2026. View history
How to sow Common Fig: Cuttings, young tree, or seeds
Sun requirement for Common Fig: Plant in Full Sun
The fig is a perennial, flowering, deciduous shrub or small tree in the Mulberry (Moraceae) family. Figs are native to the Middle East and western Asia and are grown for their fruit, which are also known as figs, and as an ornamental plant. In the right climate, they can grow as tall as 10 meters, but they can also be grown in containers and brought indoors in the winter in cooler regions. The plant has smooth white bark, deeply lobed fragrant leaves, and multiple, spreading trunks. Flowers are often pollinated by fig wasps, and develop into 3-5cm long fruit with green skin that, depending on the variety, can ripen to a deep purple. Figs need to ripen fully on the tree before harvest. They are ripe when they droop and are soft to the touch. If they ooze a white sap when they are pulled from the tree, they are not ripe. Fig trees have an aggressive root system that searches for groundwater in aquifers, ravines, and cracks in rocks. Once established, they can tolerate seasonal drought and are affected by few pests. Figs are propagated through cuttings or division, and generally produce fruit the year after planting. In warmer climates, they can produce two crops, one in early summer, and the other in fall.
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For Common Fig, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 4°C and a shortest growing cycle of 120 days at its best temperature, about 2040 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your Common Fig will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
by oakandsage,
Banana s have taken off. Both doing well. They only have about a month before the weather starts getting a bit cold, nights are already getting down to 50F some nights. Will have to think about frost protection soon.
Grapes that survived are doing well. The one …
squash
parsnips
by Skud,
So, I am in my new house in Ballarat (zoom in!), a reasonable sized city of 88,000ish people an hour or so west of Melbourne. The move was gruelling, not least because of the garden, but it's all done now and the keys to the ol…
apples
lemons
Common Figs
loquats
There are no seeds available to trade on Growstuff right now.
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 120 to 300 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Ficus carica L.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Dilleniidae Urticales Moraceae |
|---|---|
| Killing temperature | growth: -1 °C, rest: -12 °C |
| Life form | shrub, tree |
| Life span | perennial |
| Habit | erect |
| Optimal soil depth | deep (>>150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium |
| Optimal soil fertility | moderate |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
Resources outside Growstuff.
Common Fig
Photos
mmmel harvested 20.