Just curious if anyone has any experience with either of these fig varieties. I would like to trial both in zone 7a central PA in ground. Hunt might be a crap shoot but it seems like Dr. Gowaty would work. @eboone didn’t I read somewhere that you were trying Hunt in ground?
I have never grown either of those types. my attempt at rooting Hunt failed and I never retried. I think I read that someone in the north was not impressed with the flavor. And someone else posted that Dr Gowaty was late for them in the north, sorry I don’t have the references.
Actually most of my trees are INGROUND now - 35 trees I think out of about 45, hope to plant a few more next season… Some inground since 2015 and 16.
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I remember considering hunt myself when looking for rain resistent cold hardy figs… it is supposed to have tight eye and long neck so it hangs down when ripening and is less bothered by rain.
I had very little trouble with rain this year… but lost about a week and half of fig production last year with my chicago hardy when a long heavy rain happened during peak fig ripening time.
I used to grow Dr. Gowaty in ground in 7B North Carolina. It was one of my most vigorous fig trees and seemed to harden off well and experience less die-back than many of my other in-ground fig trees. It was also relatively early and productive. Unfortunately, I rarely got any edible figs from my tree and finally removed it. Some years every single fig would spoil. It has a big eye and seems particularly sensitive to humidity - splits very easily. It’s not a variety I would recommend from my experience, but perhaps it would perform better in your climate. It’s certainly not a wimpy fig.
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Thanks for your input! I was going down a fig rabbit hole on google and just remembered seeing you comment somewhere on one of the varities that I mentioned. I have a Tena fig in ground on the south side of my house that I’m going to remove and plan to try both Hunt and Dr. Gowaty in its place.
Jacob,
Are you growing other Fig varieties? Or are those the only ones?
Ed,
All i have in ground so far is Ciliegia Dolce, Chicago Hardy, Dalmatie, Olympian, RDB, and Tena.
The Tena was sold to me as a White Marseilles from Logees a few years ago. It’s on the south facing side of my house. It has produced figs every year, but way too late to ripen in this climate. I did wrap it for its first winter when I thought it was still a White Marseilles. The next year it started more figs than i could count. It gets loaded with figs every year with slim to no chance of ever ripening in my climate.
The CH is two years old but was kept indoors last season and has grown minimally. I expect next season it will take off. No figs yet.
Ciliegia Dolce, Dalmatie, and RDB were just rooted and planted this year. Ciliegia Dolce produced two figs but they both dropped.
Olympian is on its second year in ground. I did not protect it last winter and it died back to the ground. Figs ripened late this year but still got a decent amount.
I had a lot of cuttings die on me during up potting this season. Hoping to establish at least one Hunt and Dr. Gowaty for trial. Still chasing Genovese Nero AF, I-258, Malta Black, Sangue Dolce, Yellow Long Neck, Lattarula, and VDB.
I’ve had a young Dr Gowaty in ground in SC 7b since early spring which produced a few fairly good fruit I’d say mid season. It did grow well to about 3 1/2 - 4 ft this summer and was still going well when our first early freeze hit on Oct 19 and brought my orchard to a standstill. I’ll give it some light protection this winter and see how it does next spring.