Ripen More Figs in the Fall

By Steven Biggs

Turn up the Heat for Your Figs

Dark coloured paving stones capture heat by day, and release it through the night.

Around here, we’re only a couple of months away from that first fall frost that puts an end to any hope of ripening more figs.

But if you turn up the heat, you can ripen more figs between then and now.

Remember Radiated Heat

How can you turn up the heat?

You can turn up the heat for your figs by remembering materials that capture and then slowly release heat.

I’m talking about things such as brick, tile, and concrete.

In late summer, as temperature swings between day and night become greater, using radiated heat in the garden is a technical-sounding, yet simple way to given fig plants more heat.

Remember: More heat for our fig plants means more ripe figs before the fall frost arrives!

Walls and Driveways

If you already have your fig near a paved driveway or brick wall, then it’s benefiting from thermal mass. At night, the driveway or brick slowly radiates heat that has been stored during the day, keeping the air temperature around your figs a bit warmer.

I was reminded of how much of a difference radiated heat can make a couple of weeks ago when I visited a friend who recently planted a fig hedge (which she intends to overwinter with an insulated A-frame).

As I stepped—barefoot—onto the patio surrounding the fig hedge, the dark stone singed my feet.

It was scorching hot.

When it rained a short while later, the stone dried within minutes because it was so darn hot!

That fig hedge has a really great “micro-climate.” They’re surrounded by that heat-capturing and heat-radiating stone. At night, those figs bathe in radiated heat.