An Experiment: Will Girdling Speed Up Fall Fig Ripening? 14 Aug 24.

 I recall a rule of thumb, it takes about 100 days for a fig bud to ripen into a full fledge, ripe fig.  So from now, that would be about 14 Nov.

It's possible weather will be good until then.  It's also possible, and more likely, there will chill and rain.  Those conditions cause ripening figs to mold, and we lost the crop.

My biggest disappointments for fall ripening are Brunswick, Petite negri, and Smith.  They are all excellent figs, but ripen so late that a get very few before they mold from the rain and chill.

I decided to do some experiments.  

First, girdling.  I noticed that the Petite negri air layer grew about four feet above the girdling.  That tree grows very slowly, about a foot to 18 inches a year.  I wondered about that.  The leaves are also much larger.  I think the difference is due to the fact that the leaves, which are the trees solar collectors,  make carbohydrates that transport to the roots.  Girdling removes the phloem layer, and stops that transport.  So the carbohydrates remain in the stem, and in the case of the air layer,  make top growth and new roots.

There are also hormonal effects that I don't know.

For fig production, the effect might be similar.  Except instead of producing top growth and more leaves, or roots, the carbohydrates go into the growing figs.  Possibly, removing the growing tip, would also help.  I do that anyway.  And removing any tiny fig buds that don't have time to grow and ripen,

First step.  Removing a strip of bark (girdling).  I used a single edge razor blade, and pushed it into the bark.  Then around, sort of like a copper pipe cutter.  Then must peel off that section of bark.

I did this on Brunswick fig.  Also Petite negri.  There was a fork, somI left one side without girdling, for a comparison.

I don't know if this will cause the inner wood to dry out too much.  I wrapped tape on some.  Most, I just tried to remove a narrow strip of bark to minimize potential drying effect. 

I also tipped the ends to remove the growing tips, and removed the fig buds above the fairly large figs.  To do that, I just bent the buds until they snapped off.

Below, snapping the growing tip.

Below, snapping of fig buds.

Will all of this help?  Time will tell.

I did this for Petite negri, Smith, and mostly Brunswick.

This experiment suggests it might work, but I don't have any good details, so had to make it up as I went along.

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