Cold hardy figs

Here is today’s pick from the 3rd year MBVS row that I installed and manage, about 15 trees are producing now with another 10 to go, I expect all of them ripen fruit until frost because they have 3+ feet of growth, picking every 2-3 days. A good haul with only a little ant and wasp damage. Ended up with a half flat more of Black Greek,Takoma Violet, and Gino’s ~ 5 trees. 6 RdBs of the same age with the same care are sparsely set and way behind. My older mother tree is loaded but they are ripening one at a time from the growth with least cold damage only.

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Those figs look excellent! What will you do with all of your figs?

Handed them over to the person who owns them :wink: I don’t own the trees but they are still my babies and I take good care of them. I will be handing over most of the responsibilities to workers sooner or later because after next spring’s planned planting there will be in excess of 350 trees. In the mean time the regular observations are helping me to make decisions about training and variety selection.

My fridge is full right now from my container trees, making some jam tonight.

Great harvest! Good job! The MBVS you gave me is fruiting well. Here are some MBVS fruits along with a Battaglia Green.

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I’ve always called it Marseilles vs black or MvsB but regardless how you say it’s definitely one of the most aggressive growers in my garden and a dependable producer of high quality figs.

MBVS is an awesome fig, a good choice for production. Seems prolific. Also it appears most are ripening fairly close, so a small harvest time. The eye seems tight too, so you can let these hang for a good time. I picked the above because rain is expected. The MBVS are ripe or very close.

Drew, those look great.

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Beautiful figs!

Inground figs in Maine, only the toughest will survive, and only the earliest will ripen in my challenging location. These leafed out starting in mid-May.
Improved Celeste has proven itself again, earliest maincrop figs to ripen, we have been enjoying these for a couple weeks now.


First year I’ve gotten fruit from my Ronde de Bordeaux, waiting for it…

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Looking good Jesse! If you prune down that IC, I could use some cuttings. Anything that works there, should work here. I put Sweet Diana in the ground. An unknown, probably Celeste. Not IC though. I won’t know till next year, it did produce a few figs first season. Always a good sign. I have a few candidates to try next year in ground. Red Lebanese Bekaa Valley, may work, and so far my favorite fig. Smaller than RDB, a smaller fig. At least the first year, another first leaf giving fruit. So was RDB in ground? My second favorite fig is Unknown Teramo. This one is small too, fig flesh is amber to slightly red. I like these two because when dead ripe they have the strongest flavor. I find most figs rather bland to tell the truth. I think these two dried would be super good.

Drew,
That’s interesting. My Red Lebanese are twice the size
of my RdB, and yours are the opposite.

Mine is first year, so size could be off, My Lebanese Red (Bass) has larger figs.
My RdB has huge figs, well medium. Some bekaa figs were the same size, most smaller.
My RdB looks just like Jesse’s. The Bekaa could be mis-labled who knows? I got mine from Plant-Creator on EBay. Mine are about the size of these figs.

I recently purchased a fig tree from bigbadbill on f4f who owns “Off the Beaten Path” nursery.
He said this about red bekaa
" Of my 160+varieties, red Lebanese bekaa
is a top 10-15 fig-without question. As stated earlier, it sets itself
apart from many dark berry figs. Many of them I can’t tell the
difference, but with Mavra Sika and red Lebanese bekaa, I definitely can note a distinct difference."

So I think I have the right cultivar, as I agree, it is excellent. Better than VdB.

I can get you down Imp Celeste too, if you need.

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Yes, that would be wonderful, and I will have cuttings, and plants too of stuff I have. I know you have a lot though. Many will need pruning, I may air layer some in the spring. I never did that before, I will list out figs I have at some point.

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My Desert King fig, donated by @Greenguy, is finally putting on its first set of embryonic fruitlets that will overwinter and hopefully produce my first ever home-grown crop of brebas by early summer, 2017.

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Jesse,

I cannot believe you fruited figs in-ground in Maine. That is astonishing. Do you protect them in the winter?

Matt, full disclosure- that plant was in my basement over the winter, planted out this spring. 4 other Mt Etna type fig plants did survive last winter outside with 12" of woodchips over the root crown, and this led me to plant a few more inground, adding other varieties known for hardiness and early ripening. The four survivors died back to ground level, but have rebounded with multiple shoots of 4’-6’. They have some fruit that is in the stagnant phase of ripening. I plan to oil the eyes of most of my unripened figs-time is running out!
This winter I plan to do a better job of protecting the inground plants and hope to build a cloche around them come springtime to give them a bit of a headstart… I really need another frost free weeks to do them justice!

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Looks like my dozen or so figs might ripen. Maybe one of the experts on cold hardy in ground figs can take a look at these and see what you think. If I’m lucky I have until November. If I’m unlucky the cold weather will get here in October. Is it time to hit them with olive oil? I’ve been trimming the leaves back around them to give them more sun exposure since I know I’m up against the clock. Zone stretching is always a game of chance.

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Clark, what variety(s) are these?

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Clark,
I think you have a good chance on those that have turned color.

My fear of exposing them to sun by taking off the leaves is birds. I think most of my ripe figs have escaped birds because they are hidden under those leaves.

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