Fig Tree's, Safe To Plant Near House?

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Basically i really love fig tree's but my fiance is worried that their roots will mess with the foundations of our house. If i got a fig tree, it would be planted about 11ft away from the wall of the house in my front garden, does this sound ok?

 

[rdd1952]

My dad has a huge fig tree in the corner of a fenced brick wall. It has been there for years and to the best of my knowledge it has never caused any problems with the wall. It is also only about 20' from the house. Unfortunately we had a very late freeze this year (Easter night got down to 21F) and it killed a lot of stuff. His fig trees were covered in leaves (as were most other trees) and now it is bare (as are a lot of other trees). Some are starting to put bck out but it really looks strange. Unfortunately, there will be no figs this year for us.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

So you think it would be fine then being planted about 11ft away from the house ?

 

[rdd1952]

Based on the ones at my dad's house (I looked at them yesterday), I think it will be ok. The roots actually do grow very close to or on the surface but I think that is better than being below ground where they can get under the foundation and cause problems. Where they hit my dad's brick wall, they just stop. Here is a link to a photo of the root system of a fig tree.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Thanks for the help/info rdd1952, i really appreiciate it . I think i'll plant two fig tree's in the front garden about 11ft away from each and 11ft away from the house .

 

[Danno]

Do you actually get figs from this variety of fig tree that you plan on planting?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Do you actually get figs from this variety of fig tree that you plan on planting?

Yes, i went and got two fig trees the other day- although they produce crops of figs every year, it said on the fig tree labels that the best crops are the ones that come once every 2 years. The 2 fig trees are really small though at the moment, only about 1ft high, but they look really healthy. It said on the label that they can grow to over 10ft high, but they can be kept much smaller by pruning/cutting . I'm going to get a trellis or two for the tree's to help support them as they grow as the wall at the bottom of the front garden where the trees will be growing is very short, i heard these tree's do well with a bit of support.

 

[K.J.]

We have a fig tree right next to our house and it hasn't hurt the foundation?

 

[l.michelle]

My old house we just moved fro, we had two fig trees in a greenhouse attached to the solarium which was attached to the back of the house, and we never had any problems with them. They grew the figs, as well

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Cool, my fig tree's are doing really well right now, they've pretty much doubled in size since i first got them and look really healthy, they seem to thrive on all the sun that the front garden gets (the flower bed they are in is also has loads of compost and stuff in it) .