I bought a fig tree, unspecified variety, from UBC Botanical gardens shop last fall. It was basically a tall stick tied to a bamboo. It now has unfurled 7 leaves, one fig, but the trunk is still half an inch thick. I want it to grow a nice thick trunk, and my question is how do I achieve that? I am patient, know it will take time, but would like to ensure a good shape of thick trunk and a nice canopy, for sitting under. I attached 2 pics of the tree, and look forward to your advice. thanks.
Here goes, the Fig tree needs sun and the time of year you bought it would be overcast in Van, right? At least when I lived there, at times the rains would start right at the end of October. So now you have had maybe...four months of that beautiful Vancouver sun? The leaves pop out saying, "YES! YES!" In time it will thicken. That is one of the things a tree will teach us, patience. Maybe someone can give you advice on how to thicken or speed up the growth, but silly me is thinking that your tree will be all grown up before you know it and you'll wonder where the time flew.
Hi mkaplan. I don't think there's anything special you can do to thicken the trunk other than give it a lot of sun, like Lynne Eberle said, and grow a healthy tree. I think your tree looks great. I planted three (different varieties of) fig trees this spring, and yours looks much bigger than mine. When it gets bigger, you may want to prune or shape it a little to get the desired "canopy" shape, but I wouldn't worry about that now. Keep in mind that if our winter got very cold, a serious arctic blast, you might have to protect it a little. I grew up in Louisiana (Zone 8a) where fig trees got massive. I don't know how big they'll get here. Maybe someone else does?
