Figs 2018

[hoosierbanana]

Looks like tomorrow or the next day for the first Unk Pastilliere, pretty quick to ripen. Hope the rain does not ruin them.

Today’s haul

Gave this Adriatic JH in a compost sock a head start.

From left to right: Black Greek, Longue d’Aout, Ronde de Bordeaux, Adriatic JH, Negretta, Easton Purple (LSU Tiger)

[ramv]

Does Unk Pastiliere ripen for you? I thought it was a Smyrna variety?

[hoosierbanana]

They are hand pollinated, you can see one that was not pollinated getting ready to drop a little further up the branch.

[ramv]

Wow! Awesome.

[fruitnut]

They are hand pollinated, you can see one that was not pollinated getting ready to drop a little further up the branch.

Have you written up somewhere how you did that?

[hoosierbanana]

Fig Seedlings- Controlled Cross, I will update there when I start collecting seeds. These were done the way shown there, by forcing a stamen in, but I also dried pollen and puffed it in with a pipette to see if that does a better job.

[rayrose]

Brent, I just read this for the first time and I must say you’re quite
the botanist. How did you get the idea to do the job normally performed by the wasp?
Have you seen Jaime Sacadura’s videos?

[fruitgrower]

Really cool experiment and nice figs! Please let us know how your UP taste and maybe a inside photo.

[hoosierbanana]

A day of rain yesterday split them, this is the worst.

I just swished the pulp around in my mouth and spit it into a glass to collect the seeds, and ate the skin. The pulp had some real raspberry flavor, reminded me of fruit juice popsicles, the skin was kind of grape flavored, very deep purple that bleeds into the flesh. It was really nice.
Here is another that split on the side cut open. Some yeast got in when I pollinated apparently. I have a few more in the fridge still.

Here’s today’s haul, something like 40# in 2 days, lots of cracking and splitting with the rain so many are not as ripe as I would like, put both dehydrators into operation for all of the vulnerable ones, about 8 quarts in the fridge for tomorrow.

From left to right: GM 171 (Gludi) x2, Improved Celeste, Easton Purple, Adriatic JH, Unk Pastilliere

The little lady liked Gludi the best, very sweet, jelly texture.

[hoosierbanana]

I’ve been taking a crack at breeding for a few years Ray, I figure the odds of finding a superior variety that is adapted for growing here and not a duplicate are slim anyway.

I’m subscribed to Jamie’s channel, love it! Francisco was also very helpful describing the whole process, hope he is doing well.

[Stan]

Daily hauls from Aug 26 and Aug 28:

[JCT]

First main crop fig from my VdB. Very jammy, very tasty!

Two more should be ripe within a few days. I had to start bagging them as some birds got about half of my breba crop.

[fruitgrower]

Looking good! VDB is a great fig and sets more than twice as many figs as my other varieties, and very good quality as well. Because I get so many figs off this tree I thin about 1/3 of my figs to get larger, better Quality figs. If you could only have one fig tree this would be a great choice, many high quality figs, small eye, and rich flavor. There are a few slightly better tasting figs, but you have to sacrifice production, and the better few figs are only slightly better, hard to beat VDB! It starts early and keeps producing through November too, that is really nice!

[fruitgrower]

Here is my Red Lebanese BV, first year on a graft, but on a large Panache. Awesome figs. very thin skinned, tastes like VDB but slightly sweeter, so far may be my best, but Bourgasotte Gris was also awesome, only got a few of these though. Looking forward to tasting more figs, will have better info in next couple of years.

[JCT]

You know, I never thought to thin figs. I regularly thin my other fruit trees, but this just never crossed my mind.

[tonyOmahaz5]

Just harvested all these yummy figs before the heavy rain forecast for the next 3 days. Heavy rain will split all my figs and go sour.

Tony

[fruitgrower]

Panache and Strawberry Verte, two awesome figs!

[fruitgrower]

Whoops, up on the river bad connection, top pic Panache these are Panache and Strawberry verte

[Drew51]

Here is Osborne Prolific. A very strange fig. Thought to be a French fig called Archipel. Goes back to at least 1850. Tested in the states as early as 1866. Interesting that in warm CA valleys the fig was not even fit for pigs, but in the cool CA coastal regions it was excellent. It’s great here in my cool zone. The first two years it was awful. I gave it one more year, and it blew me away. Some figs, you really do have to give them time. Not many seeds, so tastes creamy and has an in your face caramel like flavor. Very different from other figs. Sometimes I taste that flavor but lighter in Celeste type figs. It has a medium eye, but here never splits. It was rainless for 2 weeks and rained almost 3 inches, and the ripe figs did not split. They did on everything else ripe or near ripe. Ones not quite ripe did get watery though. Here I have to pick figs before they mold. So not ideal. But I know by looks when to pick them. This is an ugly fig, nothing to look at. OK, one more day and these figs are mold balls.

Actually the one had a spot of mold at the bottom of the eye. I cut it out, it was excellent. The other needed another day, but the skin was in too bad a shape not to pick.
Some may hate this fig, tastes differ. Mine tend to differ from the main stream. For me this is a keeper.

I like this time of year as I can let the figs go longer. Just about starting now. So future OP figs I can let ripen even more. As humidity just drops away this time of year.

[mamuang]

I lost a couple of tags on my fig bushes. I wonder what variety this one is. It was mildlty sweet but we had lot of rain until a week ago. The taste was probably diluted.

Could you or any experienced fig growers tell me, please?