I have an Italian Honey Fig that I planted five years ago. Last year it had lovely figs, not a lot but sweet and juicy - yummy. This year the tree is loaded with green figs but they are not ripening right. The inside is full of seeds as I would expect but the fleshy part is thick (pulpy)and dry and not sweet at all. I live in California and we had very little rain but I have been watering, perhaps not enough? What do I do now?

Kirsten, yes, it was the dry Nov/Dec/Jan/Feb that shook up a lot of the fruit. How old was the tree when you planted it? Quite small? Five years in the ground for a 2 year old tree isn't very long for a fig, so it can still be vulnerable to swings in the weather.

Where are you as far as heat; inland or by the coast? Nights are very chilly by the coast still. My figs are always delayed without heat.

Did you give the fig lots of compost and rotted manure last fall? Mulching it deeply out to the dripline is important all year long. That helps save water and improves the soil, helps suppress weeds.

If there aren't very many figs, and they aren't even worth cooking with, you might try taking them off, water the tree out to the dripline, feed it organic fertilizer high in the middle number, phosphorus, and it might go again. Mulch it with leaves and mowed grass to at least 4 inches deep, maintain it at that depth.

If it doesn't try again, then giving it the fall treatment ought to improve next year's crop.

I think it's the minute you turn your back!!!

Seriously, this link says it's a perennial that produces seed in the summer. When those little bird's foot tops come out on it, those are where the seeds are.

http://www.aragriculture.org/h...eed_id/crabgrass.htm

does this look like what you have, or do you have the annual one that this link says is an annual:

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7456.html