What to Do About Leggy Fig Trees? Latest Solutions Explained in Detail

The fig is a tropical fruit with a fairly rich aroma, and it is not only good for eating fresh and for medicinal use. It can also be processed into various products such as candied fruit, dried fruit and juice, making it a very popular item on the market. So naturally, more and more people are growing figs, but leggy growth in figs often occurs when growing them, so what should be done about leggy figs? Let's take a look together below!

1. Ventilation and air permeability

The air permeability inside the orchard is very important for the growth of figs. If there is insufficient light and poor air permeability, the fig trees are very prone to excessive vegetative growth. Therefore, we must be careful to control the size of the fig trees and appropriately reduce the number of branches. Do a good job of pruning during the fig growing period, cutting out leggy and overly dense branches to improve the air permeability in the orchard. Among these, we should pay attention to controlling the planting density; if growing in a greenhouse, make sure the greenhouse film has good light transmission and clean it regularly, which can effectively improve the light conditions and promote normal growth of the figs.

2. Water and fertilizer management

Figs have relatively strong drought resistance, so when planting we should pay attention to appropriately reducing the amount of watering. Keeping the soil with a moderate amount of moisture, slightly dry, is enough. If watering is excessive, it will reduce the air content in the soil, inhibit the growth vitality of the fig roots, and also very easily lead to leggy growth in figs. So if there is too much water, be sure to drain it in time. Then control the application of nitrogen fertilizer well; applying too much nitrogen fertilizer is also a main factor causing leggy growth in figs, so ensure balanced nutrition to reduce leggy growth in figs.

3. Temperature control

The fig is a tropical fruit, so during cultivation pay attention to controlling the temperature well, keeping it above 15 degrees. If the temperature is too low, it will inhibit the growth of figs. The time for covering the greenhouse should be decided according to various factors such as the climate environment of the growing area and the variety grown. In the early stage of fig cultivation, control the daytime temperature at around 18 degrees, then as time goes on it can gradually rise by about 5 degrees, and the lowest nighttime temperature must also be kept above 10. Finally, control the growing humidity at above 80% to ensure healthy growth of the figs.

4. Pruning and chemical control

During the fig growing process, do a good job of pruning, controlling the growth rate of the figs through methods such as pinching and girdling. Especially for some leggy and excessively vigorous branches, cut them out in time to avoid worsening the leggy growth. Then we can spray chemicals such as paclobutrazol in the orchard for chemical control, to avoid overly vigorous branch growth. This is also a very key measure in our management, which can effectively increase yield and can also reduce cultivation costs.

The above is a brief introduction to what to do about leggy figs. The causes of leggy growth in figs are nothing more than poor air permeability, improper water and fertilizer, and temperature, so everyone must pay attention to corresponding prevention and control. That is all for today's introduction; this article is for reference only, and we hope it can help everyone!