Matt, when does your Green Ischia start to fruit in relation to standards like the Chicago Hardy or other Mt Etna’s. I have a second year GI that is a couple weeks behind my Mt Etna’s in putting on figs, and wonder how early it starts to ripen
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It is slow to ripen. One of my friend’s trees has a fruit sizing up fast. But it takes closer to 90 days or more… rather than 70.
It has proven a rugged survivor. I’m waiting for my trees to size up and establish bigger root systems… they are still fairly young.
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Chicago hardy seems to be a great fig for Kansas. My fig collection is now up to 5 of which 4 are Chicago Hardy and one is Brown Turkey.
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Yours a a little ahead of mine Clark, when do you think you will have a ripe fig?
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I figure by August or September. Whatever we are going to ripen we need set on the plant here in the next couple of weeks. I definitely got caught with a bunch of green figs last year. If it’s a late winter we might have until the end of July to set figs. It takes 6-10 weeks to ripen them depending on heat. I’m very thankful for the higher 90 degree temperatures coming.
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My two are potted so I will bring them in and hopefully ripen as many as possible
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I’m going to try that as well but we will see what happens.
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I was inspired by @BobVance who reported here that he ripened figs on a sunny window - I think it was at work. And the plant was small, as I recall. So rather than parking some of the figs in a garage, I’ll try that this winter. I have a brown turkey in ground along with some yet unknown varieties but the majority are in pots. Figs in the winter sounds too good not to try. 
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We were in Branson last weekend and I picked up some fig preserves at Harry and Davids, I’m hooked , sweet honey flavor with crunchy seeds, yum.
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Yes, it was a plant that was less than a year old and in a 1 gal pot. But, I’ve had other plants inside and only a few of them set figs, let alone ripened them. I think it helped that it was a very large (yes, at work) South facing window. So, your mileage may vary.
I’ve since planted that fig in ground (it bumped a tomato from a raised bed), to size it up. The goal being to both to increase production and to potentially allow for taking some cuttings.
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Are there degree-days charts for figs? I know with sweet potatoes, you can calculate your degree days and figure pretty accurately whether or not a variety will size up in your climate.
Are figs as predictable?
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Figs are not predictable on fruit set.
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I guess it’s more fun that way.
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In ground figs and container figs fruit quite differently. I have about 35 varieties and everyone fruited for me in zone 5b. I grow in containers. My in ground figs have not fruited much so far. I harvested my first figs yesterday. Three were ripe on Teramo, Breba crop.
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most my ripe figs are from container grow. In ground fig Hardy Chicago usually don’t have enough time to ripe. I harvested my first breba fig few day’s ago.
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Good to know. So would you recommend just sticking to container figs up here?
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So that would be fun to figure which varieties and which factors are needed to continue ripening figs in a south facing window. I don’t suspect all figs would cooperate, but yours certainly did. And it is such an upper to see things like that inside during the winter when most everything slows down or quits.
So, for starters, do you recall the variety and the type of potting soil you used? That may help narrow down a plethora of factors. (I want to air-layer an in-ground fig and try bringing it in this winter.)
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I would suggest having your container figs for production and backup. Experiment with in ground. I know a few will produce in ground.
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I have 4 x 4 foot t5 lights and figs do well under them. I only used them to grow cuttings but noticed the deep green leaves. Last year it gave me a huge head start on rooted cuttings. This year I only did a couple and started them super late winter.
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I agree- 2 figs isn’t much, but I was thrilled to have them ripen in January.
I make most of my own, with a mix of pine bark, perlite, leaf compost, and turface. But I don’t remember the ratios. I think it was a fairly good draining mix and since it was at my desk and I passed it each day, I was pretty good about remembering to water it. Usually each Mon/Wed/Fri.
Here’s a picture of it now, with Tomatoes and strawberries in the background.
One of the risks with protecting figs outside is animals. Something completely ate the base of my Hardy Chicago this past winter. So far, this was the only outside fig which has produced fruit. When I pulled away the leaves, I only found a single stick. And it wasn’t attached to the ground. I didn’t have much hope for it, but I stuck it into a random pot in the yard (it had Rose of Sharon in it). Strangely enough, the fig eventually took, so I have a new Hardy Chicago to replace the old one.
These other figs all overwintered (under some leaves) without issue. The two on the right were planted August 20th, 2016, while the one on the left was maybe a month earlier.
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