THE FIG. 197 



FIGS IN POTS. 



There is perhaps no other fruit-bearing bush or tree 

 that is more manageable or more productive when 

 confined to pots than the fig. In this way it is 

 most serviceable and easily cultivated throughout the 

 season. But it is especially when very early forcing 

 is required that plants in pots are to be recom- 

 mended. They can also be made to bear in a very 

 young and small state. I have struck them from eyes 

 in February, and by shifting and pinching have formed 

 comparatively large heads on a clear stem in 9 -inch 

 pots, with a good sprinkling of ripe fruit on them late 

 in the autumn of the same year. This refers to Brown 

 Turkey and one or two of the most free-fruiting varieties. 

 For the propagation of figs to be permanently culti- 

 vated in pots, I refer to the directions already given 

 under that head, as the process does not differ in any 

 way from that recommended in the case of plants for 

 planting in borders. The training of pot-plants is, 

 however, different, inasmuch as the object desired is 

 a plant with a bush-like head of bearing branches and 

 twigs. As in the case of plants for borders, plants with 

 clean single stems, about a foot high, are best for pots 

 such plants as may be described as dwarf standards. 



Training, Pruning, &c. Fig. 20, engraved from a 

 photograph, represents a plant four years old from the 

 cutting, in an 11 -inch pot, bearing its second crop of 

 fruit of the same season. It bore two heavy crops the 

 previous year. To form such a plant, the point was 

 pinched out of the cutting when about a foot high. 

 When the several shoots with which it broke away into 

 growth were long and strong enough to bear it, they 

 were occasionally bent downwards with the hand, and 



