A puzzling fig question

[Figgerlickinggood]

My husband was telling one of his customers about our fig trees, so his customer tells us his mother had a Brown Turkey fig tree for years that produced abundantly. She gave him a cutting of it that he planted in ground in his yard that grew beautifully. Said he had it in ground 10 years and it never produced 1 fig. He asked me why it produced for his mother but not him for 10 years. So I ask you guys what could cause a tree to never produce when it came from a mother tree that was a prolific producer?

 

[Inflorescence]

1) Some fruit tree branches are more focused on vegetative growth and not fruit production. Could just be a “wrong” branch was taken for the cutting.

2) Fertilization choices. Lack of natural phospherous, too much nitrogen in the soil.

3) Too much shade, too little sunlight or heat.

4) Winter dieback which causes the tree to grow back but not have time to reach the fruiting stage before it starts to cool down again.

5) There could be other unknown stressors involved that are causing the tree to be in survival mode.

6) Lack of pruning, since figs produce on new growth.

 

[GoodFriendMike]

Puzzling indeed.
I am kinda thinking something along the lines of #2 above.
Only reason I say that. Is we are talking about a fig that is growing well.
It is also a breba producer.
So if growing well and no figs.
It is missing something.

 

[Figgin' A]

It would be a guess at this point. I'd start with gathering more info. Where does it grow? What grows next to it? How far away from it? Shade/sun situation. Etc, etc, etc. Then we can make an educated guess and provide a recommendation.

 

[SpiritFarmVa]

Does the tree grow vigorously but not fruit?

 

[ktrain]

It really is a toss up of reasons why, I would start by possibly having the soil tested.
Maybe try a fertilizer that has lots of micro nutrients as well.
That's definitely odd to not even get a single fig.

 

[Figgerlickinggood]

This video just popped up in my recommendations section on YouTube. Google must have noticed this post and put it on YouTube. Anyway I found the info interesting.

 

[TorontoJoe]

Many possibilities. some was mentioned

If it's dying back to the ground every year that could be it.

Over fertilizing with nitrogen can be a problem

Not enough sun is big

Also possible albeit less likely, but it happens... Sometimes a cutting taken from a viable tree ends up with the rare, Italian "fico stronzo" mutation which causes the tree to not produce any figs. Most often this is seen in tissue culture but can happen in some cuttings when the fig is a real "stronzo"

(*please don't google translate "stronzo")

 

[LaFigGwr18]

Very interesting. I was going to suggest the soil get tested to see what it's missing and/or has to much of.