I never heard of them, I just learned about them today. What is your experience with them? I would grow them in containers.
Im not that cold but smith is allegedly a bit cold tender. So far it seems fine in my garage. Ive heard texas ba-1 is basically rhe same fig but a bit more cold hardy. Tia penya as well but thats a very late season fig and would need a headstart.
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I have TX Ba-1 rooting now. It is supposed to be similar to Smith but slower growing and lignifies better. Hopefully it thrives here and I can possibly try it inground.
Smith is one of the best tasting figs. I myself like it a lot. Some years it grows better than others. One of the few trees I have two or more of. I want a backup.
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Smith is an awesome fig, probably the best-tasting mid-season fig available to northern growers.
That said, you should not grow Smith (or any other fig) in the ground without very serious winter protection. Smith is especially prone to enter dormancy late and leave dormancy early, making it more vulnerable to cold.
If you search the Ourfigs forum, you will find hundreds of people growing Smith in Z6. I have 3-4 Smith trees here, all in pots.
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That’s encouraging. I’ve also thought about trying Smith in a pot in Z6 but my preliminary research made me think it would have a hard time ripening before my season ends. I’m a pretty far north Z6 though.
Yeah, what matters for ripening is the length of the growing season. FWIW, I spent a lot of energy a few years ago analyzing data from growers around the U.S. My goal was to figure out what growing conditions are required for fig development and ripening. Oversimplifying slightly, you need anywhere from 90 to 130 days when the daytime temperature reaches ~65 F, depending on variety. That’s without nighttime temperatures dropping below roughly 45 F, which tends to set back growth.
My best estimate for Smith is that you’d need ~110 days at 65 F of higher. Hotter doesn’t really help.
Here the season starts in early May. Early-ripening varieties require ~90-95 warm-enough days, and at the start of the season not every day will be warm enough. So for example, Florea is normally the first to ripen on or about August 15th. If my memory is right that Smith requires ~110 days, they it would start to ripen in early September, which sounds right.
So I would encourage you to look at weather records in your area. Determine as well as you can when nighttime temperatures remain >45-50 F. Then count the number of subsequent days with high temp >65 F. Smith should ripen roughly when you hit 110 days.
This is when the first fruits ripen. The tree can theoretically continue ripening forever after that but your season will stop when temps drop, probably late Sept to early Oct. So your ripening window may be roughly the month of September. You want Smith to start early enough that most of the fruit it sets by early August can ripen.
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I’m in sixB , it was 5B and is getting back there!
I had no problems ripping late season figs here. But only 1/3 of the figs ripen in time. But I will not give up my col de Dam Gris and Noir. Both to me are the very best figs better than black Madeira.
I only get about ten figs a plant, sometime double that, depends on the year, and lose about 20 figs that don’t ripen in time. But that first flush of figs is heaven.
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I forgot to mention Smith has a super thick skin. Which can make it rather chewy but they never split from too much rain or watering. Great in places that rain a lot. When you lose a dozen figs to splitting before ripe an intact Smith is a sight for sore eyes.
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This is awesome, thanks for the detailed advice. I had 119 days last summer that met those criteria (up until October 1), so it seems possible. Actually, a few of my figs continued to improve for a couple weeks after temperatures dropped below those levels.
Yes some figs do ok in cold weather. Others start losing flavor with cold weather. Keeping them happy, healthy, paying attention to sun and proper watering will give optimal performance.
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That sounds promising. Also I may have been conservative setting 65 F as a cutoff. You might get some progress at 60-64 F assuming sunshine. So that might pull forward the ripening a few days.
When the trees start growing, take note of fruit set. That’s the appearance of tiny round fruitlets, like a very small pea. For a mid-season fig, this should happen roughly 35 days after bud break. Assuming summer weather, the interval between fruit set and ripening should be very predictable for each variety. If my memory is ok, then 110 - 35 =75 days between fruit set and ripening for Smith.
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Why isn’t Smith wider known? I just happened upon it by chance after studying figs for months.
May be lack of cold hardiness or ho-hum name. If it were “Fleur de Marseilles” or similar, that might fix its PR image. Except I just remembered it’s from Croatia! Maybe someday we’ll know its name in Croatia.
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It’s not the Chicago Hardy or Brown Turkey that you’ll find in box stores, but it’s well known on the Ourfigs forum. You can find it prominently mentioned in my own write-up on best figs for the northeast.
Prior to that there were many discussions regarding Smith, especially as one grower couldn’t get it to fruit. That turned out to be a pruning problem – Smith likes full sun and an open center that admits a lot of light, so prune it hard.
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its very wide known in the fig community. basically everyone has one.
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OK, thanks. Maybe I overlooked it do to its common name…dunno.
The info about growing temps and days is really helpful. Do you think a cold frame would help a fig plant get an early start?
It is possible to give a fig tree a head start. The key, I believe, is to replicate the sunshine and temperatures of late spring or summer. For temperature, that means a minimum 60-65 F (maximum 85 F) during the day and a minimum 45-50 F at night. This is achievable with a greenhouse if you don’t start too early. The disaster scenario is to create temperatures warm enough to push the fig tree out of dormancy, followed by temperatures low enough to kill it. Or temps low enough to damage new growth / emerging buds and stall subsequent growth.
I’ve head-started trees in my basement, which tends to be ~70-72 F in March / April, thanks to the presence of a furnace and very good insulation. Years ago, I build growing lights using LEDS, replicating sunshine. This has worked very well.
My question about a cold frame is whether you’d achieve and maintain the right temperatures. I suspect that the ground will provide a source of passive heating, reducing the risk of temperatures much below freezing. And you’d have natural sunlight. But without artificial heat I doubt that you could achieve the 45-65 F required. I’d love for you to prove me wrong. 
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Also, there are just so many fig varieties. It could be easy to miss one when you’re reading through lists.