Hi Kath.

I can't find much on this, but I don't see why it wouldn't work as long as the figs have reached sufficient maturity before you pick them. Whereabouts are you? Figs seem to crop well in the south and west of the UK but need a very warm spot further north if they are to ripen.

You could try doing it and maybe get back to us if it works? Perhaps someone else out there has tried it already and could let us know?

Hi Val,

Thanks for info.  I am in sunny Manchester, although my back garden seems suitable to grow a variety of exotic fruit, so I was hoping that I might be able to get figs to ripen there.

I have gone on line and been reading about using olive oil (applied to the fig eye) to trigger maturity and ripening (apparently you get 30 days ripening in about 5 days).  However, the info seems clear that the figs need to have reached 'inside going pink' stage before this works, which seems a bit difficult to guage without cutting the fruit open!

Various fig growers have indicated that you can protect growing figs from bird attack by putting zip lock bags over the fruit on the tree.  Given that figs apparently fall into the category of fruit that releases a burst of ethylene at a key stage during ripening, I was wondering if anyone had tried combining the protective bag plus ripe banana skin trick to ripen figs.

I think that I will try a combination of the two in another two or three weeks once I have enough large fruit.  I will try plastic bags plus ripe banana on some branches and olive oil on some others.  I will let you know what happens.

Has anyone else out there tried any methods of ripening figs?

My daughter has a fig tree, which this years is in abundance.  They appear to be ripening off and we would like advice on storing them, and any useful hints or websites for cooking with figs etc.  Hope someone can advise us.