Cold hardy figs

Kind of hard to say. I’ve had quite a few truly excellent VdB at a friends house that were top notch. My Nero600m became home to a persistent ant nest and was repeatedly attacked by birds, so I only got 1-2 decently ripe ones. I think they will be pretty much the same, though Nero600m should ripen better in cool weather.

Anyone growing St. Rita or Red Lebanese Bekaa Valley?
Both i guess cold hardy and so-called good figs.

I’ll be getting cuttings of Bekaa soon. Not sure if cold hardy. I’ll probably try it for pot culture. One grower in New York State says it is vigorous and productive even during coolish summers. Pics of the fruit posted on other forums look amazing. Taste reported as mildly sweet with figgy/berry flavors and slight seed crunch.

I’m growing St Rita. It’s a tremendous fig if one likes very sweet and great flavor. The fruits are small and shrivel up on the bush to 45 brix or higher if that’s what one likes. I don’t know how hardy it is but tend to think figs are all tender. It’s more about which ones will bear in short season areas after freezing back.

Oh yuck! I want my figs sour with off flavors.

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It’s supposed to have excellent cold hardy resistance.
Both sound like winners to me. Yeah the sweetness is what figs are. And in reality I’m not sure how well I can tell them apart? I’m looking to cook and dry them. I recently tried persimmons again, and can say i just plain do not like them. Really cool looking and great color, wish I liked them! I could taste nothing but sweetness, and little depth of flavor. I will not be growing them. At least with figs I don’t mind the taste, and like them a lot dried. One of the few sweet fruits that taste decent to me.
I want to add one or two more figs, and these two look like good candidates if they can ripen here on time. I think Bekka will, not sure about St Rita? Yes for pot culture. I’m looking for figs that will survive around 20-30 degrees. I have all I need for in ground experiments. Yeah short season for sure like Natalina looked awesome too, but will not ripen till Christmas, so it is out for me. Col de Dame Gris and Col de Dame Blanc look fabulous too, although not in a short season climate darn! These are the types that tend to drop fruit when they are not happy, they need a warm environment and don’t like sudden changes so would be very poor choices for my area.

Well open them up at the eye and let them sit at room temp for a few weeks!

I scored some today yes! I think I’m all set now. If it doesn’t work out I’ll have cuttings of Bekaa next year at this time if all goes well.

Oh I read where St Rita will bear around August 15th in Michigan, from a MI grower, so that’s on my want list still.

A list I had which shamefully does not list the source, but I am fairly certain much of it was from Figs4Fun forum:

Cold Hardy Figs

Brown Turkey (Texas Everbearing)  DWN

Blue Celeste (all Celeste really)  DWN

Brunswick 

Hardy Chicago DWN to zone 4

Violet De Bordeaux (Negronne)
medium eye, down to zone 5  DWN

Desert King DWN to zone 5

Italian Honey (Lattarula)

Peter's Honey DWN to zone 6

Osborne Prolific (Neverella) DWN

Excel  DWN

Texas Blue Giant DWN to zone 6

Golden Celeste

Black Mission  DWN

[there are others but they require either hot summers or a summer greenhouse to sweeten]

Alma - late ripening, honey fig, ugly fig, super flavor [female Allison X male Hamma Caprifig]

Atreano

Bayenfeige Violetta

Biancheta

Brogiotto Nero (Briogiotto Fiorentino)

Capelas

Dauphine

Genovese Nero

Hollier

Isfahan

LSU Purple

Mademoiselle de deux Saisons

Malta (Sugar Fig)

Northland (Nordland Bergfeige)

Paradiso Bianco

Portuguese East Mountain

Ronde de Bordeaux

Sal's (Corleone)

Skardu Dark

Stela (honey fig) (aka Stella)

Sultane

Tena (Bifere)

Ventura

  http://www.waldeneffect.org/blog/Cold_hardy_figs/

DWN = Dave Wilson Nursery availability

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FascistNation,
That’s a very nice list. Thanks!

Great list thank you!

I have been looking at excellent cold hardy figs. I found a few others I would like.
Maltese Falcon sounds excellent! I really would like to try this one.
I also scored some Desert King cuttings and Atreano fig which is a green fig that is huge! About the size on one’s palm. What the heck! Now to see if I can root cuttings, so I could lose some cultivars. So far putting them in whole sphagnum peat moss to root with heat has worked on all I have done this way. I also hope to score a Ronde de Bordeaux also.

I scored a very cold hardy fig from F4F An unknown Teramo fig with a good story that can be read here. Cuttings are coming my way.
http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/unk-teramo-7747424?highlight=unk+teramo&pid=1289473688

I can supply Atreano and Desert King next year if you have no luck.

My climate is milder but 2 winters ago we had a historic freeze down to 8F, and last year there was an early, brief freeze almost as cold.

Hardy Chicago still had leaves and wasn’t fazed.
Petite negri leaves were frozen but the tree itself was fine, no damage the next year.
Brunswick already lost its leaves, no damage at all.
Lattarula is next to the house so might be warmer. Already lost leaves. No damage at all.
King, same as Lattarula.
Smith - totally dead.
Carini NOID - killed to ground but ultimately rebounded from roots. From a F4F member.
Dominic - no damage but too young to taste roots so far. From a F4F member,.
Sal’s - no damage at all. I don’t know what Sal’s, from a F4F member.
LSU Tiger - some top damage but not much. But it was protected.
Champagne - killed. It had a lot of growth, was in chicken yard, so maybe too tender.
Atreano - top was half killed. Also had some rank growth, in chicken yard.

The Atreano, Champagne, Smith, LSU TIger, Carini, Dominic were all 1 to 2 years old. They might be tougher when they are more mature.

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Awesome thank you! Hopefully not, but yeah I really want to try those two. I obtained cuttings for very cheap, so no great loss. I didn’t really obtain any rare hardy figs as to purchase they are expensive. I’m not willing to pay a lot of money for cuttings. Including postage all the figs I obtained cost under 15.00. Once I become a better fig grower I may try the expensive ones.
So far figs seem fairly easy to grow.

Good info Bear. OK, i will keep Atreano close to the house wall in the garage. I have Sal’s, Chicago, and hopefully King, so good to know.

Which were the expensive ones that interested you?

I was watching some sellers on Ebay from f4f forum, so decent guys and sellers.

These went for over 30 dollars for 2-3 cuttings. i suppose one might get them for cheaper if lucky. The last three auctions the cuttings went for 30 dollars, one in November went for 17 dollars.
Natalina Fig Tree.
Natalina is an Italian Black Fig Cultivar. This variety produces small to medium sized dark colored fruit with strawberry colored flesh. The is small and resists rain and humidity. The fruit are of excellent quality and taste of berry jam.
Natalina figs originated in the Lecce province in what is the region of Puglia, Italy. The name Natalina is from Natale, which means Christmas. These figs are supposedly late to ripen and some say it ripens around Christmas in parts of Italy. The tree roots very quickly from cuttings and is a strong grower so far. Summer 2009 will put it to the test and I will have more info after this first year. The figs on Natalina are very small and dark.
On Natalina I read a Michigan grower said it ripened for him earlier than Christmas.

St Rita figs went from 40-100 dollars

St. Rita- hails from Italy in a town named Cascia. The name is derived after a local saint. medium sized purple/black fruit with deep maroon red flesh. The eye is closed and will hold up extremely well to adverse weather conditions. Excellent cold Hardy resistance. This cultivar is one of my favorites. The flavor is strong and rich. It tastes of concentrated berry jam. A very strong grower while producing good quality fruit at an earlier age.

The LSU might not be the best for my environment but many described it as the best of the LSU series, and well they are all excellent.
It went for between 80-100 dollars
LSU Red is a delicious and productive variety.
not an official release from the LSU breeding program. Dr. O’Rourke sent cuttings to a botanist in North Carolina labeled as something else, but it was clearly a different variety once it fruited. The botanist labeled it as LSU Red. The tree is productive and fruits later than Celeste, starts ripening late August into September. pulp is amber and rich. My source is fruit the original grower who named it LSU Red.

AB Sounds like a decent cold hardy type. Winning bids were between 20-30 dollars.
Antoine Black produces medium sized purple/black fruit with strawberry colored flesh of excellent flavor. Wonderful both fresh or cooked down to make jam or preserves. Antoine Black does very well in South Louisiana and is well adapted to most climates or regions. Another prized quality is that it can tolerate extremely cold winters.

Only seen it offered once and it went for 26 dollars
Black Greek produces medium sized purple/black fruit with deep maroon red flesh. The eye is closed and will hold up extremely well to adverse weather conditions. Very tolerant of cold weather. This cultivar is one of my favorites. A strong grower which will produce good quality fruit at an earlier age.

These figs went for between 40-90 dollars
Maltese Falcon is one of my overall favorite figs. It’s one of the best growers, one of the most productive and one of the best tasting varieties I currently own. This cultivar produces medium sized black with reddish amber flesh. The eye is tight and will resist rain, humidity and dew very well. It is all very cold hardy. You cannot go wrong with this variety.

I would be interested in any of the above, and now everybody knows they sell well on Ebay! So do I get a cut for letting you know? Well a cutting? :heart_eyes:

I did score one for only 10 dollars that sounded decent. It went for as much as 40 dollars in some auctions They just came in today.
Red Lebanese Bekaa Valley is one of my overall favorite figs. It’s one of the best growers, one of the most productive and one of the best tasting varieties I currently own. This cultivar produces medium sized dark fruit with dark strawberry red flesh. The eye is tight and will resist rain, humidity and dew very well. It is all very cold hardy. You cannot go wrong with this variety.

You know out there are a ton of good figs, so i refuse to pay these high prices. I’ll keep looking and hope for trades and such. As listed earlier I scored a nice fig from Italy the Unk. Teramo. Cuttings were mailed today. Good story too about it. I posted a link to it above. so that was 12 dollars, and I bet it’s as good as any i just listed.

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Figs on eBay today are like tulips in Europe in the 1600s. Stay away, the market is going to crash soon :smile:

I missed some of the posts above about VdB. I am surprised to see it listed as hardy, I have heard from many people it is not and it has always been the worst one of my dozen or so varieties. Basically I have two categories of hardiness: the VdB category, and the all my other figs category.

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Scott,

We had 2 bad winters. Which if any are fruiting for you after die-back?

Yes tulips were crazy valuable if people didn’t know that. It’s good advice. i have a limit of $15.00 which is cheaper than most nurseries sell them for, so I’m doing good on the price range!
I’m more interested in the saved figs people have been finding. i saw another post about a fig in Brooklyn that was saved. These are unknown cultivars. I think I have enough figs now for awhile!
I’ll keep the VdB in a warm spot!
I’m sure I will cull some out. Well maybe not, as I have stated, it’s hard for me to kill anything. It’s going to have to die on it’s own!
Nothing here is going to survive in the ground without extreme measures, so I plan on growing in containers. So hardiness is relative to the temps in my garage!
Although soon some cheap figs may be available to me, it’s going to be impossible to resist!