Petite Negri would have a better shot at ripening after dieback than Petite Negra or other VdB types.
I have tried VdB, Aubique Petite, Vista, and Valle Negra in ground and the best any can do after dieback is a few ripe figs that are disappointingly small.
If you show me a picture I can take a guess at what you have, since there is naming confusion. As you can see from my pic Petite Negri has many truncate leaf bases and smaller sinuses than VdB.
You must be confusing me with somebody else, or my dyslexia got to me. The plants are nothing alike. Fruit at different times etc. Grow patterns are different etc.
Just pictures of breba, yeah it is the 3rd season fruiting (I think?)
, not 4th my bad. I loose track. My point was I have not been growing it long. So I guess I was correct. The plant is 4th leaf, it didnāt fruit the year I rooted the cutting. So do like Los Santos 2 is fruiting itās first year.
OK that is from 2020 and so it looks like I got the plant in 2017. So yeah 3rd year fruiting.
All I know is it is better than any black I have tried except maybe Galicia Negra. Which is a shy producer, and late ripening. FMD is just the opposite fruiting early and a fair amount of figs are produced. You actually will never know unless you try it. Iām curious if the figs remain superior or it was just some fluke. Hard for even me to believe they are better than most blacks, as for me I like the blacks. Flavor does get washed out with rain, less so with FMD. See how it goes this year.
Iām going to keep the name too, as I have no clue what it is? It is a lot like PN, except PN had larger fruit for me. The flavor is so much more intense for FMD, they all taste the same except my FMD is much stronger in flavor, again see if the trend continues. Sue another local fig grower came over and tasted some, and agrees with me it is superior. Now the breba crop was nothing special. I donāt care much for any breba except Olympian which I only like dried.
That was a direct quote you made in 2017, so yes I am confused because you switched names at some point. I am trying to help you figure this out.
This makes me think you have Petite Negra, because like I said, I have already seen a mature Petite Negri, and the fruit is an exact match to FMD.
So you donāt have any pictures of ripe fruit, breba or main, from your tree?
There is zero chance I will devote the effort into growing this. But as I said, I donāt need to because I found a mature tree that is identical to everything I have seen of FMD, and got to evaluate how it does in my climate without doing all of the hard work. No, there wasnāt a tag hanging off of it, but I have a very good batting average when it comes to this sort of thing.
I have found dozens and dozens of local unknowns, but only propagated a handful because I already had a copy, or didnt like the way the mother performed. I canāt imagine growing every single one as if it were unique, as well as all the ones other people find.
@Drew51 i would sure be interested in cuttings but im a bit overloaded with plants right now especially with this drought and the varmints thats been hitting my stuff but perhaps next summer after i get this fall/spring transplant round done! Or if i have scion you like this winter we can set up a trade later or something! Im hoping to add more early types for my testing trial inground that may fruit after dieback here in kansas like etnas and sunfire etc do! But im bad about getting carried away with more than i can care for lol! 
Yeah sure do you have Florea? That one always produces. Not the best fig though.
No main crop fig is ripe here yet. Not one, just breba I have over 100 figs. I donāt photograph the fruit I mostly eat it. If I have a reason to I would. Hey your loss no skin off my nose. Iām happy to find such a winner that is leaps and bounds above the average black fig. I agree itās hard to tell the difference not only in phenotype but they all pretty much taste the same too. Well except FMD. So much better
Another fig I love is Izbat an Naj. I only like a few sugar or honey figs. This is the only yellow fig I like. One is never enough. Fairly early too. It doesnāt even taste like a fig. My corn fig was a sugar fig. To bad! I culled it last year. Very middle of the road. I want only winners. I just got seeds from Eric. Paradiso is the mama. I have the fathers name but canāt remember what fig was used.
I also have another seedling from three year old seeds. I forgot I had more. Only one germinated ( is that a sign?). Itās 2nd leaf now. No clue to what it is?
See the thing is, in that thread you said you would take pictures of the breba figs when they ripened. Maybe that was reason enough and you forgot and just need to look through your pictures to find them?
During this episode I also stumbled across and took a look at Fort Mill Park, which is an Etna type. So there, people got to hear a second opinion on 2 different varieties.
The chlorotic spots on that seedling look exactly like the ones fig bud mites cause. Iāve helped lots of people over the years with them, much to my dismay there still isnāt much thought and consideration put towards the impact they can have on other people. If you would like help, let me know.
Here is something that I can use some of the expert opinion here.
I get at least a couple unknown hardy fig varieties from Aaron at NJ Fig. They all look purple with small to medium figs. I also get another Mt. Etna fig that a friend from Long Island sent to me. I already get HC and another un-named Mt. Etna fig. So I just do not know if it is worth the effort and ground space to try all of them. I also added Keddie, Malta Black, Ginoās Black this past season.
Iām thinking of giving them to friends to trial them. I just do not know if they can get any meaningful results.
The main thing is to plant them in full sun. If you have friends that could trial some in full sun and report to you the results then if one proves best you can get cuttings from them of that one.
I think Ginos and HC and MBVS and a lot of unknowns are Etna probably the same or at least very similar. Malta black is different. black bethlehem is probably different too but similar. Sunfire is different too but similar.
I recommend getting different ones if you are limited on space. I think Sunfire and Malta Black and maybe Black Bethlehem are probably worth growing, different though similar. Also LSU Tiger great though totally different.
If you already have Ginos and HC then you really dont need more etnas that are so similar or the sameā¦
The Etnaās are hands down the most productive for me, and they make excellent jam and dehydrated figs. The fact that there are so many names is a testament to their quality. In the orchard they make up 75%of the trees and closer to 90% of production.
If you know someone who would like to grow a fig tree they would make a great gift, but i donāt think you will regret planting them either.
Here is what I get with Mt. Etna figs:
HC
Ginoās Black
Keddie
Sunfire
U. Bridgewater (HC clone?)
U. Long Island AD
U. Gusā Long Island (late Mt. Etna)
U. Italian III AD
U. Portuguese Purple AD
U. South Plainfield AD
I already planted the top 6. ADās figs may not be all Mt. Etna. But they all look similar as purple small/medium sized with berry color inside. If I do plant any of them out in ground, I wonāt be able to winter protect all of them. It just takes a lot of efforts to trial all of them.
I think he said his most productive is South Plainfield so it may be worth trying.
But you also want to save room for different ones with a good name like Florea, Improved Celeste, Teramo, Malta Black.
True. I still wonder if any of those unknowns can be as good as Florea or Teramo. Those were unknowns too until they were named. I still get another Syrian black fig that also assembles Mt. Etna leaf shape. May not be Mt. Etna though.
I like mt Etnaās, they are excellent figs. But so are so many others. Olympian, Smith, Fort Mill Dark, some type of Celeste, Izbat an Naj and many others. These named figs taste nothing like a Mt. Etna or each other This is only a few. Many more excellent and unique figs out there. I love it! . I grow mostly in containers although I have a few in ground. I can handle more in containers than in ground. I plan on eliminating most. What I mentioned are keepers for me. I like having a huge range of flavors. I will keep unique figs even if low producing as taste is my first priority. Having said that only Smith is moderate in production. The rest are excellent producers. Smith though is better than all of them for me. Even if a low producer I would keep it. Mid season, never splits, rain cannot change flavor or dilute it down. Some of the late ripening figs are better but not a good fit for my zone. I grow a few anyway. Black Madeira usually rates as the best of all figs by many. It is awesome but for me I prefer Col de Dame Gris. I rate that as the best fig ever. Hell yeah I grow it even though I get only a few each year. Having a few is worth it to me.
@RedSun That makes sense! Yeah I agree! One of those could be fabulous! I imagine even several of the mt Etnas are more different than they get credit for. I can say for sure that Sunfire and HC are not the same. I want to keep both. I for sure would keep Plainfield and yeah Syrian black sounds good!
@Drew51 what do you think of Teramo? Mine is setting now for first time. The description by big Bill sounds nice! I like the sound of those you mention! Do you have Raasti Iranian Candy yet? So many nice ones!
Its an early fig, seems hardy. Probably a good candidate for in ground. Although everybody has their priorities. Mine is flavor and I myself didnāt care for this fig. It probably is better in ground. Iām not concerned a lot about how early figs are. Always a plus, but not a game breaker if mid season since I grow in containers for the most part. Itās not that bad, and can be decent flavor, just not what Iām looking for. I hate that I have to cut out very good figs, I just do not have the room. I have fun trying new ones too. Iām very patient so waiting a few years is not a big deal to me. So much fruit has been described to me as good or bad, and when I grew it out I had the opposite response so many times, I test them myself. Some fruit described as bad turned out to be my favorite. So I only trust my own taste buds as it is too subjective for me to gain much info from taste reports. I advise others to consider that when looking at adding a fig.
That makes sense @Drew51 ! Yeah for me ive never had a bad fig lol but yeah some are better than others for sure! Yeah i figure the ones that are less great we can use for whole or jam preserves or dry or pie or something hopefully but yeah variety and testing new ones is fun I agree!
In terms of fig taste, if you look at the Youtube videos, most we hear is that:
āThis fig tastes sweet, jammy and has a complex berry flavor to it. It is a KEEPER!ā
All the same old. So I stopped watching the Youtube videos.
Iād consider figs are like wines. There are some distinct groups by color, texture and flavors. Beyond that, sometimes it is very hard to describe the ātasteā. When folks talk about berry flavor of blueberry, cherry, raspberry and strawberry, I have a hard time to link those berries to their ātasteā. I already forget the flavor after many days of eating them.
It is just me though.
Thanks for sharing @mth that is a very nice chart and welcome to this forum too I hope you enjoy it!
