The first fruits on my largest fig never seemed to ripen that I noticed, before discovering ants apparently eating them. I pinched the tips a month or so ago because I wanted to thicken up the trunk before heading into its first winter here. There’s several figs in the neighborhood, so I’m very optimistic about its chances. I noticed this morning what appear to be figlets starting to form. If we have a warm fall, do y’all think I might get to taste a fig by thanksgiving that’s starting today?
Improved Celeste is my first maincrop fig from inground plants. A winner variety for hardiness and early ripening, tasty too. This one will hang for another couple days…
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So here are a few RdBs from a couple days ago. You can probably tell which are from container plants and which is from a grounded beast of a fig tree. I taste “it”, the vegetal taste which I can’t really describe all that well, in the “tree ripe” stage figs (pale and top) and just a little in the one the wasps started on. Most of my experience with RdB is with my grounded tree, 2nd year with container plants and they did split last year as first year/vigorous plants, not much growth this year so the figs are much better.
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Yeah I like RdB and plan to keep it. I doubt I will get rid of any, I have a hard time with that! I need to, but don’t want to. I’ll make it work somehow? I am going to sell a couple on Craigslist. Too big to ship.
Just don’t plant it in the ground! Mine is about 7’ x 18’ now and I don’t think I will ever be able to tame it. Must have tapped into some groundwater or something, no rain here for quite a while and it has not shown one bit of stress.
I was thinking even in just containers you could probably grow some monster figs!
Not sure you would want to? Have you seen how Richard cuts his down?
Yes, I would like to limit pruning as much as possible though to see if it will eventually slow down, most growths are spreading so I may be able to push a good bit of it flat again this winter. It is a beautiful landscape tree at any rate. I might try a protected trunk structure like the step over for some of the RdBs in the planting I manage, but am afraid of how they will respond. May end up transplanting some others to large fabric containers as @alan said he does with plain soil and digging each year.
In my experience, VdB and Ischia are well-suited for containers.
I need to see how they grow and respond to pruning or not pruning etc, before I figure it out. I could always take a cutting and start over. The landscape use interests me. I have used elderberries this way.
My in-ground figs re-sprouted from ground level in the Spring starting to ripened. I still need to ID their varieties since I lost their labels.
Tony
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That can be tough as many look like that before they ripen.
I will take some photos of the ripe figs in a few weeks.
Tony
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I picked a bunch of figs today. It supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow. So I picked that which were ripe or near ripe. 7 different cultivars had ripe or near ripe figs today. Some are first leaf, well most! So size of figs may be off, and I show that. I have to assume names are right, but I really don’t know?
Top is Chicago Hardy, very ripe, great fig!
Middle row, left to right. A 1/2 a Lebanese Red (Bass). Near ripe, these are good too! Both this and Bekaa, are good! Different too! Only one side as I ate the other before I decided to take a photo (dolt!) VdB is next, classic, ripe. When VdB stems turns purple 360 degrees, it’s perfect! Pick it!
Next is Teramo, fig turns a little red when ripe on the outside, so reddish yellow skin. Inside is dark amber. Teramo is globe shaped, almost round. Probably a sugar profile. I like it a lot, it tastes figgy, a good choice to cook with. Bet is tastes great dry. Super ripe. The next two are MBVS, to show how much size variance I’m getting, 2nd leaf plant. Good fig! The small one is ripe, the larger one could use a day or two. On the bottom is Sal’s Gene, a Mt Etna type, Ripe as possible.
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The figs look great but I gotta ask…whats going on with your hand? lol
That’s my daughter’s hands. She had a birthday party last Saturday and got hand painted (Indian style) at the party. It can be removed using alcohol or just wait and it will fade off.
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I was wondering about that. When my two Indian coworkers go to visit their family back to India they always come back with these henna paintings on their hands.
I picked a slightly small but very close to rip Battaglia Green today. It looked ripe, but did not want to come off! I knocked an unripe fig off getting it off! I guess it needed more time! But it looks ripe and wow the taste was there! You really have to leave these figs on as long as possible. Another on the plant is just as ripe. I’m leaving it till tomorrow. Another is close behind. The taste was excellent, it’s a keeper, but needs to be dead ripe. I heard JH Adriatic is a lot like BG, but has good flavor before ripe, so I picked one up, as I like this fig a lot. It’s huge too! This is the smallest one I harvested. I ate the other side, I wasn’t going to take a photo, but it was so good, I wanted to report my observations.
Photo was in direct sun, so some color washed out.
I guess I need to wait till it’s brown and wrinkled all the way to the eye!
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Well… that is not typically what Verte types look like: too yellow, not red enough, skin cracking/translucent, neck too long and thin, too early… Could be it, but there are so many mislabeled figs already I’d really check that one out before sharing as Battaglia.
It is much redder than the photo, it only turns yellow when ripe. As does every green fig I have.
Here is another
Bottom right is BG, VdB at 9 O’clock. About as dark as VdB. The BG is not ripe enough. taste was not good.
I got it from @Matt_in_Maryland , maybe he can fill in where it comes from?
Here is a photo of a BG from Paradise Nursery
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