Fig Tree Squirrel Deterrents

Minimize Squirrel Damage to Figs

Do squirrels eat figs? They sure do!

Squirrels Digging Potted Fig Plants

This question recently arrived in my mailbox:

“I am having trouble with my potted fig trees. squirrels keep digging them up and chewing on them. Do you have any recommendations on how to prevent this.”

I’ve seen a few squirrel deterrents over the years.

Some squirrel deterrents work. Many don’t.

In this post I’ll tell you what fig tree squirrel deterrents are worth your time.

Protect Young Potted Fig Plants

Prevent squirrels from digging up plants by excluding them with chicken wire. (In case you’re wondering, that’s not a fig plant in the photo.)

When it comes to squirrels digging up young potted fig plants, I’ve found the the easiest thing to do is to physically exclude the squirrels.

Chicken wire works well to prevent squirrels uprooting young potted fig trees.

If you’re having a bad year for squirrel damage, this is worth it!

I’ve come home to find an entire tray of young potted fig plants uprooted and strewn on the patio. Positively infuriating!

With newly potted fig trees, snip the wire so that it can be wrapped around the plant, and then folded over the side of the pot.

Or, make a small cage to cover a full tray of young potted fig plants.

One more idea: I’ve put an upturned laundry basket over top of trays of newly potted plants for a couple of weeks, so they have time to get established.

(Excluding squirrels works well for other plants too. My friend Claus uses it to keep squirrels from digging up his potted pepper plants.)

Squirrels Digging in Mature Potted Figs

Spiky bird-deterrent mat as a squirrel deterrent on a larger potted fig tree. The foil that was used as a baffle did NOT work.

I often get horse chestnuts poking up next to my potted figs. Every fall the squirrels eagerly bury the nuts in the potted figs…and then forget about them.

If this is a problem, you can physically exclude the squirrels as you would with young fig plants.

Chicken wire works well.

You can see in the picture the spiky bird-deterrent mat that a friend used to prevent squirrels digging in potted fig trees.

I don’t do this because it’s extra work—and the squirrels digging in larger pots with well-formed roots rarely causes damage to worry about.

Do Squirrels Eat Figs?

The pictures of squirrel-eaten figs below are worth 1,000 words!

It’s frustrating…because they don’t usually eat the entire fig, so some of it is wasted. And they leave those half-eaten figs right outside my kitchen window, on the deck railing, where it torments me!

(I’ve had people write to say that chipmunks eat figs too, though I don’t have a problem with chipmunks.)

Squirrel-Eaten Fig!

Squirrel Fig Terrorism!

Caught in the Act!

Squirrel Netting on Fig Trees

An organza bag as a squirrel deterrent for individual figs.

I do not net my fig trees.

It’s a lot of work…both when you install the netting, and when you repeatedly peel it back to harvest figs.

But I’ve heard of people netting fig trees it, in the same way that people net grapes to keep out birds and raccoons.

Organza Bags

Small organza bags (the fabric mesh bags often used for wedding favours) are a simple way to exclude squirrels from individual figs.

This is not something that’s practical for a large tree with many figs—but if you have a small tree with special figs that you must try, it’s an option.

(I don’t do this with figs, but it’s how I manage to harvest pawpaw fruit in my squirrel and raccoon infested yard.)

Fewer Squirrels

Foxes: an all-natural squirrel deterrent!

I remember asking my fig mentor, Adriano, how he prevented squirrels from eating his figs.

“Get a cat,” he said.

I don’t have a cat, but one year foxes made a den nearby.

Those squirrels that survived a litter of 6 hungry fox kits stayed high up in the big maple tree that summer. And I did not have any squirrels eating my figs!

Foxes are an excellent squirrel deterrent.

Fig Colour

I love dark figs.

And so, it seems, do the birds and squirrels.

I’m sure it’s not that the squirrels are choosy…but green figs fly under the radar. They blend in amongst the green leaves on fig trees.

Fig Tree Baffles for Squirrels

This squirrel baffle didn’t help at all! Squirrels jump — so they must be well above the ground and beyond where squirrels can jump from neighbouring objects.

If you’re thinking of trying tree baffles for squirrels, the main thing to remember is that squirrels jump.

They jump quite well.

I don’t use baffles on my fig trees because there are too many nearby launch points from which they could successfully jump into my fig trees.

But if you had a stand-alone fig tree, with a tall, single-stem trunk to which you could attach a baffle—it could work.

(I do use squirrel baffles on my bird feeder poles in the winter: The key to success is having the baffle high enough off the ground, and having the feeder far enough away from anything a squirrel could jump from.)

A friend tried the baffle pictured at the right…and the squirrel just effortlessly hopped onto the stem above…

Scent Deterrents for Squirrels

Don’t get me started on this…it’s a scam!

When I lived in a rental house with a squirrel-infested attic, the landlord insisted the the powdered coyote urine he sprinkled on the roof kept away squirrels.

It didn’t. I listen to the squirrels skittering around the attic as I tried to work below.

Don’t waste your money.

(What worked? Exclusion. Installing a one-way exit, and making sure that there was no way back into the attic.)

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Fig Fetishists: Oakville, Ontario

By Steven Biggs

In 2009, I wrote an article for Edible Toronto magazine feature two “fig fetishists” here in Southern Ontario. Below is part one, about Adriano Ferreira, a fig expert in Oakville, Ontario. 

Adriano Ferreira on Growing Figs in Cold Climates

WHEN I’M ABLE TO BLURT OUT only a hesitant good afternoon, Adriano Ferreira pats me on the shoulder and graciously explains that the correct phrase is “bom dia,” which means good morning. With a mere half dozen Portuguese words in my vocabulary, I’m far from fluent, but have eagerly scanned my phrasebook before this visit because Ferreira had told me he will only share his most important secrets if I speak to him in Portuguese.

Although we’re in a Toronto suburb, you’d hardly know it in this manicured backyard filled with fig trees, plum trees, hardy kiwis, and grape vines. Ferreira points out a recent addition—a peach tree to which he has grafted a variety that bears doughnut-­shaped fruit. Then, pointing to a fig tree in the ground with a trunk the diameter of a coffee mug, he says, “Anybody who has a house can have a big plant like that.” And the secrets to doing so are exactly what I’m here to learn.

Adriano Ferreira

It’s figs that occupy most of Ferreira’s yard—and his heart. “Once you grow them, they’re the only fruit you’ll want to grow,” he exclaims.

While he jokes about guarding his fig-­growing secrets, he is very generous with his time, taking a couple of hours to coach me through growing, overwintering, pruning, propagating, and ripening figs. It’s clearly a passion, and his enthusiasm shines through when he points out the techniques he’s developed to overwinter and coax fruit from his trees here in Ontario, Canada.

It Started in Massachusetts

Now retired, Ferreira started growing figs about thirty years ago while working in real estate. Reading a gardening magazine, he stumbled across the name of a fig-tree nursery in Massachusetts and noted that it was close to where his brother lived.

So on his next visit out there, he contacted the nursery owner who, it turns out, grew up near Ferreira in a neighbouring town in the Azores. They struck up a friendship that helped kick­start Ferreira’s fig tree collection.

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A Rather Big Collection

Today, Ferreira’s collection takes up a good part of his yard where, along with well­ known varieties from fig-­growing regions in California, Portugal, Spain, France and Italy, he has varieties from places such as the Canary Islands, Majorca, Austria, the former Yugoslavia, Iraq and Iran. He has two hundred varieties, which he claims is one of the largest private collections in the world—and the largest in Canada.

A recent addition is a tree that came up from seed in his garden around the time his granddaughter was born; he named it after her, calling it Angelika.

Ferreira fields enquiries from fig enthusiasts worldwide, both private collectors and researchers. A collector from Thailand recently paid him a visit. On another occasion, a foreign collector called just to make sure he really existed, surprised that such an avid fig collector—and fig trees—existed in Canada. But Ferreira is for real; he knows this fruit and his collection intimately, pointing to a particular tree and then describing its growth habit and fruiting characteristics.

Why Figs?

Grow Figs Where You Think You Can't

Someone who has tasted only dried figs or store­-bought imported “fresh” figs might not understand the fascination with this fruit. Store-bought figs are never truly ripe because a fig picked too early never ripens to perfection, remaining corky in comparison to its tree-­ripened cousin. When properly ripened, the neck of the fruit becomes limp and the body droops. Then a glistening drop of nectar escapes from the eye. This is the only time to pick it. By now, the fruit is dead ripe and far too fragile to withstand shipping.

There are light- and dark-fleshed varieties, and light- and dark­-skinned ones, too. Ferreira’s website offers vivid descriptions such as lemon-­yellow skin, melting in your mouth, strawberry flavour, and honey surrounding the pulp. When I wonder about the taste difference between varieties, he likens it to wine. An uninitiated palate might not perceive subtle taste nuances, but a connoisseur will.

“That’s a hard one,” he says, pausing when I ask about his favourite. He especially likes a variety called Desert King because its first crop ripens earlier than most varieties. But there are others he favours because of their flavour.

Growing Figs in Ontario, Canada

Adriano Ferreira overwinters potted fig trees in a wooden box.

Adriano Ferreira overwinters potted fig trees in a wooden box.

In warmer climates, figs grow to be large, branching trees. Small, specialized pollinators—fig wasps—look after pollination in fig­-growing regions. But there are some varieties that requiring no wasps to produce figs.

There are two crops per season, one formed on the previous year’s growth, ripening in mid-summer, and one formed on the current season’s growth, ripening in September and October. The key to getting both crops is extending our relatively short season at both ends, and protecting trees from frost. “I’m always prepared,” says Ferreira as he points to the plastic he keeps ready to cover plants if there’s a late or early frost.

Ferreira explains the good news: you don’t need a greenhouse to grow figs here.

Many people with family ties to fig-­growing regions keep potted trees that they bury outdoors or overwinter indoors. Instead of burying them, Ferreira bends over his in­-ground trees and then covers them with an insulated A-frame, which offers sufficient protection from the cold. But most of his plants are in pots. These he lays on their sides within a wooden box that he covers with insulation, moderating the temperature sufficiently that they survive. On my visit in early May, they were beginning to leaf out.

Trees defoliate and go dormant with the first frost, he explains. In that dormant state, they can also be stored in a cool, dark basement. The key, he says, is to provide that dormant period. “They have to sleep,” he cautions; otherwise, they might not fruit.

Ferreira’s Secrets

Ferreira bends over in­-ground trees and then covers them with an insulated A-frame, which offers sufficient protection from the cold.

Ferreira bends over in­-ground trees and then covers them with an insulated A-frame, which offers sufficient protection from the cold.

The real secret to coaxing the fruit to ripen in our climate is to gain a few days of ripening time.

Ferreira shows me a couple of trees over which he’s draped clear plastic bags. This creates a warm micro-climate around the tree, helping it to come out of dormancy more quickly. Once the current year’s growth is underway and figs are forming, another trick is to break off the tip of the branch, leaving four leaves on the current year’s growth.

What’s Ferreira’s big secret? Extra virgin olive oil. In the first week of September, he looks for figs that don’t seem as if they will ripen before winter, and puts a drop of extra virgin olive oil on the eye. After six or seven days, he repeats the step. While this doesn’t work on all of the fruit, he says, it helps some to ripen.

When I ask how big the collection will grow, Ferreira says, “I think I’m gonna stop,” saying he can only fit so many plants into a suburban yard. But then we visit his potting shed where he shows me a new method he’s developed to root cuttings from other collectors, and he shows me how he grafts hard-to-root varieties. I'm not certain I believe he will ever stop.

Before I leave, Ferreira introduces me to his neighbour Domenic, who has an immaculate vegetable garden and fig trees in his greenhouse. Grinning, he motions to Ferreira to look at his well­ developed fig trees. The secret, Domenic says, is that he sings to his figs in Italian. Ferreira laughs and responds that he sings to his figs in Portuguese.

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Fig Leaves in the Kitchen

By Steven Biggs

Fig Leaf Ice Cream

It starts with an e-mail. The subject line reads, “fig leaves.”

Expecting the usual early-fall question about fig rust, I am surprised when I open the e-mail and read:

“I am looking for fig leaves to make dishes with at my restaurant (fig-leaf ice cream, jelly, savoury sauces, custards etc.) Is there any possibility of getting some from you, before they fall for the winter?”

Sweet Smell of Fig Leaves

I have never tasted anything made using fig leaves. But right away I think of the sweet, slightly earthy, coconut-like smell that wafts over from the figs trees in my garden on a hot day.

So it was that Chef David Salt drops by my garden for some fig leaves in early October, before they get nipped by frost. He tells me that when he was a chef in London, England, he knew where to go for fig leaves. But here in Toronto, he hasn’t been able to find a supply…until now.

He fills a couple of bags with fig leaves, which he will freeze until he is ready to use them. Then we agree that I’ll drop by the restaurant some time to taste his fig-leaf creations.

Find Out How to Grow Your Own Figs

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Tasting Fig-Leaf Dishes

I stop in at the restaurant a couple of weeks later to try a fig-leaf grappa, a fig cheese, and a fig-leaf ice cream.

Fig-Leaf Ice Cream

Cooking with fig leaves

David explains that this light coloured ice cream is made with the extract from steeped fig leaves. It’s lucky that I have come when I do, because there is only a little bit left in the container. At first I don’t taste the fig leaves, but then, slowly, a gentle fig-leaf flavour comes through at the back of my mouth.

David finds the fig-leaf flavour goes well with something sweet; I agree.

Fig-Leaf Cheese

While I’m tasting the ice cream, Sous Chefs Udit and Mandar go to get a ball of fig-leaf cheese, and then peel back the cheese cloth so that we can all taste it.

David’s fig-leaf cheese, while unintentional, is delicious. I tell David that I have heard of fig sap being used to make a yogurt-like dairy product and as a rennet substitute for making cheese.

Chef David Salt. The fig-leaf ice cream was a hit.

This ball of cheese is sweet because it was originally intended to be a batch of ice cream. As David made a batch of fig-leaf ice cream, it split on him—so he strained the curds to make this fig-leaf cheese.

Fig-Leaf Grappa

I can’t drink too much of the fig-leaf grappa as I am on my way to teach a college class. Pity. David says it was an incredible green infusion when they first made it, but the colour faded within a day. I don’t smell anything, and I don’t taste the fig leaves at first. But a moment later, the fig-leaf flavour comes through—again, at the back of my mouth. It’s a flavour that lasts, so I continue to enjoy it as I walk to class.

But What About…

Growing Figs in Cold Climates: 150 of Your Questions Answered

If you grow figs, you’re thinking as you read this that they don’t always smell nice.

I find that in the fall, as fig trees drop their leaves and go dormant, there can be a strong smell, which some people describe as cat pee. (The other time I’ve encountered that smell is when I leave fig plants in my car for too long on a hot day.)

David got those leaves early enough that there was only the sweet, slightly earthy, coconut-like smell that wafts over from my figs trees on a hot day.

FAQ Fig-Leaves

Can you eat fig leaves?

You don’t actually eat the leaf, but extract the flavour from the leaf (as in a syrup or panna cotta) or use the leaf to flavour a dish (as in meat wrapped and cooked in a fig leaf.)

Can you make fig-leaf tea?

Some people dry fig leaves for use in teas.

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Harvest more figs this year! Grow Figs in Cold Climates Masterclass shows you how to grow a fig tree in a pot, or outside with protection. So you can harvest lots of figs!