Fig

What is a fig?

The fig is one of the oldest companions of Mediterranean farming. Its large, lobed leaves, the smooth grey bark and the milky sap that runs from every wound make it easy to recognise. What we call the fruit is botanically a hollow, fleshy receptacle lined inside with hundreds of tiny flowers. They never see the light, and whether they need pollinating depends on the kind of fig.

Origin and growth

The fig belongs to the mulberry family, the Moraceae. It most likely spread from Western Asia across the Mediterranean, where it now grows wild in rock crevices, on old walls and along dry stream beds. Its cultivation reaches far back. In Gilgal I, an early Neolithic village in the Jordan Valley, archaeologists found carbonised figs dated to about 11,400 to 11,200 years ago. Kislev and colleagues interpreted them as fruits of a parthenocarpic form that can only be propagated from planted branches, and suggested that the fig may have been domesticated about a thousand years before the cereals. That reading is debated, but the find shows how early people were planting fig cuttings.

The tree usually reaches 3 to 9 metres, often wider than it is tall, and readily sprouts again from the base after frost or cutting.

Requirements

Climate. The fig is at home in mild temperate and Mediterranean climates. For fresh fruit a dry summer is ideal; rain during ripening makes the fruit split.

Cold. Julia Morton puts the limit in favourable sites at roughly -6 to -11 °C. Young shoots and unripened wood freeze earlier, but roots often survive and resprout. The chill requirement is low: UF/IFAS lists 100 to 200 chill hours.

Water. Established trees get through long dry summers. Some water while the fruit swells gives larger figs, although very hot, dry spells can make fruit drop even on irrigated trees.

Soil and light. Undemanding: poor, stony and calcareous ground is acceptable as long as it drains. Full sun.

Fruit, use and harvest

Many common figs carry two crops: early figs, the brebas or Italian fioroni, on last year's wood in early summer, and the main crop on new shoots from late summer. Figs are eaten fresh, dried or cooked into jam and syrup. Fresh fruit keeps poorly; Morton gives up to 30 days at 0 to 1.7 °C.

The common fig sets fruit without pollination. Smyrna figs only develop when the tiny fig wasp Blastophaga carries pollen from the wild caprifig into them; San Pedro figs need pollination only for their second crop.

Caution. The latex of leaves, shoots and unripe fruit irritates the skin and, in sunlight, can cause phytophotodermatitis, a burn-like reaction. Gloves and long sleeves help when harvesting and pruning.

In the food forest

In a food forest the fig belongs to the low tree layer beneath taller canopy trees. It tolerates some side shade but fruits best in full sun. In autumn its large leaves fall as a quick, soft mulch. Because it sprouts again strongly after cutting, it suits the rhythm of syntropic agriculture, where trees are pruned regularly and the prunings are laid on the ground. Together with olive, almond and vine it belongs to the old Mediterranean polyculture of terraces and dry slopes.

In the Mediterranean climate

The fig hardly needs adapting to the Mediterranean. According to FAOSTAT, Turkey is the world's largest producer. In Spain, Extremadura is a centre of dried figs, and the regional research institute CICYTEX works there with the varieties Calabacita, Cuello de Dama Blanco and Picholetera.

Sardinia has its own wealth of varieties. The University of Sassari keeps traditional fruit trees of the island at its conservation centre at Surigheddu near Alghero. Its list of local fig varieties threatened by genetic erosion includes names such as Bianca, Burdasciotta, Craxiou de porcu, De duas vias (also called Niedda longa), Mattalona and Murra. Many varieties go by several names, and molecular studies have been used to sort out synonyms.

The fig is not on the EU list of invasive alien species. In California, however, the Invasive Plant Council rates it as moderately invasive, because along streams and canals it can form dense thickets that crowd out native vegetation. Near water channels, seedlings are therefore worth watching.

Propagation and care

Cuttings of one-year-old wood root easily, in late winter either straight into the ground or into pots. Grafting is rarely necessary. Pruning is light, after harvest or in late winter, and keeps the crown low enough to pick. Young plants appreciate frost protection in their first winters and a mulched root zone in their first summers.

How Terra Humana understands it

The fig links Sa Medada to the oldest layer of Mediterranean agriculture. A tree that grows from a branch pushed into the ground and gets by on stony slopes fits well into a place that has to work with little water. It is meant to become a low, reliable fruit tree in the food forest, whose leaves return to the soil each autumn. The old Sardinian varieties show how much diversity once lay in this single species, and how quickly it can be lost.