How do you like using a tire for your fig trees? It looks like a good idea but wondering after a couple years are you still liking it?
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What would you say is the flavor group/profile of this fig variety. One fig collector has said that it tastes a lot like “Water melon mixed with plum”
What flavor group would you say this fig variety falls in to?
I find it hard to define a fig into a flavoring group. Maybe that is why nobody jumped in with an answer to your question. Compounding the issue is that it’s been a while since I had it, so remembering subtle flavors is tough.
Even though the consensus from this thread seems to be that Reservoir is a Mt Edna, I don’t think it falls in the same flavor category as Hardy Chicago. I can taste berry pretty strongly in HC (strong enough to remember it months/years later), but Reservoir is more of a sweet neutral fig. Maybe the “carmel” group? Next time I same figs, I should bring up the picture that @mth posted a while ago with the group descriptions.
I’ll be very interested to see how my figs respond this year. Our winter hasn’t gotten too cold, with the low at my house about +11F and some other sites where I am growing figs +14F. And some of those figs are next to a building, maybe giving a bit of protection. Given the 10 day forecast doesn’t go below 19F and takes us to the start of March, I’m cautiously optimistic that the above might be the coldest it gets this winter.
If so, then it will roughly tie the winter we had in 2020-2021. That time, the big reservoir had minimal dieback and I got a nice breba crop in late July.
Except, now I have several other Reservoir figs at other locations, so we’ll get to see how much being 30-40 years old was a factor.
I’m also anxious to see how Bryant Dark fares. It was the old fig last year to have any above-ground growth survive and produced some great figs, both on that plant and another one which came back from the ground (I think, though a 3rd which I know came back from the ground didn’t produce).
Though some of the descriptions online say Bryant Dark is supposed to be a small fig, which doesn’t match up with what I got:
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Many mount etna types of figs do have a nearly identical flavor, and a lot of people consider mount etna types of figs to have it’s own flavor group. I feel that only adds to the flavor group confusion, because not all of them do have the same flavor type, and I believe that some non mount etna types of figs have the same flavor as the common etna flavor as well.
Based upon what you wrote here, and based upon what I already read online about ‘Reservoir’. I am thinking that ‘Reservoir’ would fall under the fig flavor sub-group of ‘Sugar Berry’. Which is not considered a mount etna type of flavor. I will consider it as being that, unless someone changes my mind.
Any single variety of fig can fall under two or more flavor groups.
I also believe that some mount etna types of figs are really hybrids between mount etna and a male type of fig, which might be what ‘Reservoir’ really is.
The only reason I care about flavor groups, is that it makes it easier to make sure that a person does not have too many nearly identical fig trees. Just like knowing ‘Fig Texture’.
It does get very confusing though, like flavor groups, flavor sub-groups, and people changing the groups/sub-groups around. That and climate differences, like any fig variety experiencing a lot of rain and cloudiness could have melon tasting figs, should that put a fig variety in to a melon fig group!
As far as your comment about ‘Bryant Dark’, different nutrients can effect the size of fig fruit, and of fig trees, and they are usually bigger in the ground, than in pots. In cooler or in some drier climates fig trees can grow slowly. Yet most fig trees will get full sized eventually, and it’s not uncommon for their figs to eventually get bigger as the tree ages.
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Anyone here still willing to share Reservoir fig cuttings? Would love to try my hand at trying to get it to root. Or if someone has a plant - happy to pay for that as well. I’m new here so I’m not sure what the right etiquette is around this. I’ll do whatever is the accepted practice. I don’t have any cuttings to share yet unfortunately but I’m sure I will in the future. (At least I hope so :))
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Thanks to both @BobVance and @rsivulka for sharing your Reservoir cuttings and a special thanks to @rsivulka for sending me some Black Jack too. Happy to report that all except 1 cutting are showing leaves now though I haven’t dared to disturb the small pots to check if there are roots. Fingers crossed they continue to grow and survive.
Is it a good rule of thumb - for the fig rooting experts here - to “pot up” when I see hints of roots at the bottom of the current pots? Or should I try to gently remove the cuttings and check on the roots in a few more weeks? Right now the new growth on most of my fig cuttings (including VdB, Negronne, etc) is about 1/8th-1/4th inch to 1 inch at max.
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This is why I always use clear cups or bags and only up pot when it’s obvious I have a lot of healthy roots with flourishing leaves.
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You want them to be well rooted before you up pot. A small percentage die when up potted.
So if you think it’s ready wait a week.
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I have a Reservoir from eboone. It doesn’t look like a mt Etna to me. And if flavor is correct as described here, it’s not a Mt Etna. Mine is getting big I though have not tasted fruit yet. That’s because it was thrown in the drying bin and was mixed up with a lot of figs. I’ll make it a point to try one fresh.
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