How Does 'Little Miss Figgy' Perform in Southern Nevada?

Q. I just purchased a dwarf fig tree (“Little Miss Figgy) at the fall plant sale at the Springs Preserve. I was planning to put it in a planter on the north side of my house which in the summer gets full sun, but which now is getting a lot of shade. Is that a dealbreaker for the fig?

I have never grown Little Miss Figgy in our climate but, like most figs, it should do well. It is smaller and may be suitable for container growing. The trend now is for smaller plants and earlier production. 

A. It should be fine with that amount of light on the north side of a home. All fruit trees require at least six and prefer to get a minimum of eight hours of sunlight every day when in production. That includes fig trees.

It is a small tree (suitable for container production, 6 to 10 feet tall by 4 to 8 feet wide) and develops dark purple fruit with red “pulp” or interior. It was a chance mutation of ‘Violette de Bordeaux’ fig from South Carolina. I have not grown that variety, but all varieties of figs seem to do well in our climate. At that size, a 15-gallon nursery container should be adequate.

Most people growing fig trees in the ground don’t water it often enough when it starts into its second batch of fruit and temperatures are higher and therefore its water use is higher as the season gets warmer. Because it’s smaller, it should use less water (but not watered less often) when planted in the ground and can rely on other sources of water that the soil might provide.