Those Dottato look great, nice and plump. The small old varieties that dry on the tree are fascinating, there are a few in my area too and they seem to hold on much longer than the bigger modern figs.
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Thanks well I tried stretching zones pushing the boundaries. But now that I’m older I’m starting to be more practical. Martinenca Rimada Is not practical for my area. Only half at best of the figs ripen. It is so tasty and pretty I still want to grow it. A touch self indulgent. Maybe one day I can put it in a greenhouse and extend the season.
I have gotten rid of a lot of late figs but I can’t let this one go. The last two years my figs have really suffered. I had many medical issues I had to deal with so I was unable to care for my figs as they should be but one good thing about this is that the hardest of the Hardy the toughest of tough survived and I’m probably better off growing them and losing the ones that were marginal for my area or couldn’t take the stress of this experience of me not being there
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This is a Smith Fig picked today. Super jammy. So tasty. Tasted like Strawberry/Fig jam. Texture was so soft (like a water balloon). Protected by an organza bag. My smith figs have been dropping from the tree so much this year. Getting organza bags over them as they change color has been tricky. Even the slightest bump is disconnecting the fruit. This particular one drop to the ground by itself, the organza bag makes it easy to spot on the ground. I love that. A few Really small ants had gotten into the bag, but it slowed them down. Hardly any damage was done when I got it.
My Moro de Caneva figs have a very long neck and they have stayed much more secure to the tree than Smith. I think the combination of the almost nonexistent neck on Smith and the size it gets to makes it more prone to snapping off the tree.
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My first ever home grown fig(variety Gulgun):
Picked a little early. Was too excited to wait 
.
Mild flavor, so I’ll let the 2 remaining figs hang for a little longer.
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How do you like taste of Moro de Caneva? Saw something claiming it’s in the Bordeaux berry taste category like RdB, etc. True?
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I find if you can manage to snag them off the tree incredibly ripe (1 day prior to it spoiling) it tastes really nice. The figs should feel very soft. Like water balloon soft. Ideally, if you don’t have rain in the forecast it can hang on the tree for quite a long time. Up to 7 days after you see the figs change color. It’s the rain that accelerates the spoiling/mold spores. You need organza bags in my opinion to keep them on the tree that long to prevent the ants getting to them. Or use tanglefoot around the trunk with plastic wrap.
But the fig flavor when not at peak ripeness has a sort of figgy/melon taste to it. Like a sweet cantaloupe/figgy flavor to it. If you hit the that small window of peak ripeness it can start to get banana flavor notes to it. It gets really sweet at that point too. So it has a figgy/sweet/banana flavor to it.
The benefit to moro de caneva is that it handles rain quite well (tear drop shape + long neck), it grows quite quickly, and it lignifies, giving it cold hardiness.
It might be classified under the Bordeaux berry family, but I don’t have any Bordeaux fig varieties to compare it to. From what I’ve heard described of Bordeaux berry figs to tasting like, Moro de Caneva doesn’t taste like that description to me. I even have trouble connecting the flavor to “berries” in my opinion.
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Broadway, first homegrown fig is a proper moment. Mild on the early side is pretty normal, the ones left to hang a bit longer should be noticeably better.
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Unknown Sicilian Dark from Off the Beaten Path. Not the true best figs I’ve ever eaten but very solid and worth sharing for a few reasons:
- It’s true what they say about Mt. Etnas; this tree handles cold well but also took three years to produce anything worthwhile which is def longer than most.
- Very small Mt. Etna, maybe 20-25 grams. I’m a big believer in smaller figs holding up better to elements and seem to attract less attention from bugs at least where I am in Upstate SC.
- Flavor is fruity-berry when allowed to fully ripen and dry out a little. Texture is somewhere between jelly and jam.
- I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of these split even during periods of heavy rain. I’d say the eye is just under fully closed. If what you’re going for is a workhorse, quality, never-splitting, cold hardy, dries well on tree since you can leave them seemingly as long as you want - this is a great choice.
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Yeah Mt. Etna types are great. But we have a few others I really like too. Like the black figs Nero600. VDB, Galicia Negra, Fort Mill dark and a bunch of others. Not as cold hardy but most will ripen most to all its figs. Very tasty figs. Celeste is great doesn’t crack withstands stress has a traditional fig flavor. A sugar fig. Produces well easy to grow. Green Michurinska is very early and a tasty fig. I would like to try it longer before I finalize my thoughts. So far it’s awesome. Many others too. Izbat an Naj Is awesome too. A yellow fig but has a unique flavor. Can taste tropical when dead ripe. I lost mine I need to get another. All these ripen in my zone six in containers. Col de Dame Noir, Violette de Sollies, and Noire de Barbentane are big dark, with berry flavor. Most ripen late but NdB ripens the earliest. A very nice fig. Noir is the best but very late. I only tried a couple. As plant matures it can produce figs faster. It took five years to get one to ripen here. I got four last year, hopefully more this year. Mine comes from the “Prusch” line for Noir. From Figaholics tree in California.
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I was at edible landscaping (in Afton VA) this weekend. It’s zone 7 but in VA so a long-ish growing season. They have a bunch of outdoor, in-ground, large fig trees. The Chicago Hardy and Celeste were ripe and I sampled some!
The owner said those two and “Marseille” which looks like Marseille White were his most reliable. I got a Marseille White and a Ronde de Bordeaux (which I think will have to live in a pot at my house) to add to my collection.
I’ve now got quite a few of the honey types that I think will do well. I got fruit off Lattarula and Improved Celeste this year. Now I have the Marseille White.
I like those honey ones, but I really love the berry flavored figs. I’m hoping to add a couple more that have berry flavors, shorter ripening times, reasonably cold hardy, and preferably do well in humid summer…
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It’s been a less than ideal year for figs here. Really way less than ideal.
After an exceptionally cold winter and one of the worst years ever for ambrosia beetles, we had a severe drought in the spring after the trees started leafing out which stunted most of them. That dry weather continued through early summer leaving us more than a foot of precipitation short of average. Now that it’s ripening time we can’t seem to get more than a day or two without rain.
A few figs have been able to handle it well, others not.
VdB ripens late so it’s unaffected so far. Didn’t seem to mind the drought much though it didn’t grow much either. Smith is only just now recovering from the cold and won’t fruit this year. Alma wanted for water but still set figs, just didn’t grow much, and those figs are incredibly rain resistant but do struggle to ripen all the way without spoiling so I pick them partially ripe (they’re sweet enough that ends up being fine, invariably have gobs of syrup dripping from the eye). LSU Purple is as vigorous as ever and is ripening plenty of figs but suffers from a long hang time after coloring up so wildlife usually get them first, not much of a loss though since they’re ok. Very pretty though.
Olympian is a major disappointment this year. The cold and drought stunted it badly and it never fully leafed out or grow much. It set plenty of figs which did ripen–at the height of the rain. With no big leaves to hide them, bugs and wildlife ruined most of them, and the ones I did get were mostly just ok. Unless it impresses me next year I’m probably going to cull it. The figs are large and plenty sweet when ripe but otherwise meh, and they all ripen at the same time at the worst time of year for thunderstorms.
Potted RdB might get culled. It’s early but not that early and really suffers from midsummer thunderstorms so being early isn’t a virtue. Might replace it with a potted Celeste. Potted Atreano did not like the drought at all. I think next year will be better. It still impresses me with rain resistant despite got big and juicy the figs are. A potted Yellow Long Neck is going to be an interesting comparison going forward, the one fig it did make this year was pretty good and very big too.
Angelito is still very small but showing promise.
LSU Tiger was small last year and got knocked back by the winter. But it’s rebounding well and the one fig it produced despite the setback was surprisingly good. I’m hopeful about this one. A new Cherry Cordial planted nearby is showing an aggressive love for water and vigor, if somewhat more of an issue with deer eating the new leaves… I hate those animals so much.
Chicago Hardy lived up to it’s name. Good figs too, if occasionally spoiled. Looking forward to seeing it establish more and show its potential. The flavor is almost amazing, just a bit too figgy and maybe could be sweeter.
LSU Scott’s Black is the workhorse fig for me two or three years running now. Dense, think growth with short internodes hide the maturing figs very well and mean that there’s just a lot of figs to boot. The figs are large, tend to crack rather than split except in very heavy rain, and are generally just quite good. Not the best fig but good, sweet, a bit syrupy, and decent berry flavors with very little of that dried fig flavor I’m not terribly fond of in Mt. Etnas like CH for example. The tree has a loooong ripening window and it basically just keeping churning out figs which is awesome since you never know when you’ll get that perfect two weeks of sunny, warm, dry weather.
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Looks ripe to me. The skin is right. If it’s a little soft to the touch, I’d pick and eat it.
I just ate two from Teramo Unk myself. Incredibly sweet with a wonderful crunch. Enjoy!
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The harvest is becoming heavy. I picked these this afternoon (plus a bunch that I ate) as well as a dozen or so this morning. I picked mostly Florea, Improved Celeste, Mt Etna. A couple Ronde de Bordeaux, one De Tres Esplets, a Smith, two Teramo Unk, one Campaniere. In the picture we can see a lot of Improved Celeste because it was the last thing I picked.
Here the weather really cooperated. There were no late severe frosts. The summer was mostly hot and dry.
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Thanks! I wasn’t sure what to look for. The rest look green and hard. Same on my other mystery tree. Will try this today or tomorrow. Fingers crossed!
Cover it or birds may get there first. Or squirrels. Or possums. Or raccoons.
Or better still, pick it now and let it sit on the kitchen counter for half a day. Breakfast!
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I found the yellow jackets eating one of my figs and I blew them away with the hose. Damage was small so I ate it wow it was a Paratjal Rimada, wow what an intense flavor. The rest of the harvest don’t look near ready. But man was this fig excellent with the exotic strong intense berry flavor. I also had a couple Dall’ Osso Not that good, hope these improve very mild and seeet.
I’m at my cottage and go home twice a week to maintain garden. I went today.
I’m still having health issues but I’m alive. Trying to figure out how to fit gardening back in. I want to do a lot of things as the clock ticks down.
Smith figs are cool because of the thick skin. Excellent flavor I guess one of the newer figs is like Smith figs. A little better I heard but have not tried it. Crap can’t remember the name?
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Wow the LSU Scott’s Black look great. How long do they take to ripen? Wondering If I can get them to ripen where I am…
You’ll be able to ripen them. Mine started a few weeks ago. They’re not much later than Chicago Hardy. Way, way earlier than VdB.
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