This has bee the first year I’ve ripened figs with honey/nectar oozing out of the eye, the inside is syrupy…Not sure if it is variety or conditions, but I love it when they do this…
Genovese Nero AF
Genovese Nero AF
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Doesn’t look like my BT’s either. I don’t know what that is.
It does look like an OP. I do grow that one. It needs to be dead ripe and they are very good. I’m keeping mine. If not dead ripe they are rather blah.
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It was a good year for ripening figs here too. Some of mine I didn’t catch in time and they opened up. The bees found them. I was thinking that these were to much work for the north, but I got a lot of fruit this year.
Jesse,
We had some dripping honey, too, but they were in our high tunnel. Many of ours split. Some even opened up like flowers. Do you know what causes that? Is it too much humidity?
They are flowers, too much water, or letting them get super dry then heavily watering. Consistent water on the low side will help.
Thanks, Drew. I followed instructions from seller but it did seem like too much water and humidity. Will do differently next year.
Humidity can spoil them too. You want low humidity. High humidity is OK while not fruiting and may help. Figs that ripen and even dry on the plant are the very best figs ever! I can only do it here this time of year as the cold knocks our humidity for a loop. Jesse knows his stuff and is close to you. that is very cool. Any suggestions as to which varieties to grow should come from him. Figs are resilient, your plants will produce better figs next year anyway. Yes keep watering low especially as they ripen. Don’t let them get too dry either. When the plants have low water, so do the figs, and they are sweeter and have a better taste. They can taste watered down. This cannot be helped with mine being outside. What I do is use a dehydrator to concentrate flavors on those ripe figs harvested from trees that got too much water. It works fairly well. I also like to let the dry figs age a bit as the flavor seems to become uniform, and deeper with age. I discovered this when I found some year old dried figs. They were better than the figs i recently dried. You don’t have to age a year, but a few weeks would probably do it.
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Thanks for all that information, Drew! Yes, Jesse is our expert, although the advice came from another person who is growing them in a greenhouse like we do.
We had an unusually hot, very humid summer for Maine. I’m hoping next summer will be better and I will also know more about growing figs in our greenhouse next year, too.
Our figs could not dry on the tree, as they were very soft and went from almost ripe to rot in just a few hours. Lots of splitting at a certain point. Just really difficult year here.
A different yr won’t cure your fig issues. You’ve got to lower the humidity in the greenhouse. The only way to do that is more ventilation. In summer I ventilate day and night. That is I run an exhaust fan 24/7. In an area that lacks heat and sun that might lower temperature more than you like. But there really is no alternative that is economically viable.
Hi Steve,
Good to hear from you.Thatis actually what I meant is that next year I will understand things better. I planted too many tomatoes as an understory and they impeded air flow and kept humidity too high. I had 2 exhaust fans mounted in the walls up above which were set on a thermostat. But it wasn’t enough.
Next year I plan to add 2 more fans down lower and plant many fewer tomatoes.
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How about a dehumidifier? Would it work in a green house? The best figs that I have eaten this year (with my very limited experience growing figs) were from plants that I put in my basement (that has a dehumidifier keeping RH below 50%) under growing lights. I took them to the basement because we had too much rain while the figs were ripening.
Central air conditioning would work and it would lower humidity. But that would be very expensive.
Your basement setup sounds like a good way to grow quality figs. But the lighting is also expensive.
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I think geothermal greenhouse designs reduce humidity by condensing moisture from warm air when is cooled underground.
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Hey Brady
I would love to know more about this fig variety…
You wouldn’t happen to have a link or a few details?
Appreciate your time…
Dave
Hi Dave,
Is that the one in Bellevue,WA?bb
Hey BB
I’m not sure where its from, I’m interested to know myself… It was your first Green Ischia Fig, I would send you a private message but I don’t know how to work this site yet…
This Green Ischia Fig you uploaded a picture of looks very rare, I would love to see more pictures of it if you have any?
Regards
Dave
The Green Ischia Fig(Strawberry Verte) that I have came from Edible Landscaping in Virginia and shouldn’t be too difficult to get.A number of vendors probably have the variety in stock.I just checked and EL does.
The Fig is very good flavored,red fleshed and the skin stays green,so the birds don’t bother them much.bb
http://ediblelandscaping.com/products/shrubs/Figs/VerteGreenIschia.php
Hey BB
Thanks for the link, That’s great!
However I still don’t have any pictures of the leaves or the fruit… You wouldn’t happen to have any or a description? Would you say the fruits are smaller than many other fig trees? The picture of the fruit you uploaded looks different than anything I’ve seen
Regards
Dave
Here is the definition I have:
Ischia Green (Green Ischia aka Verte) Fruit quality:excellent,with dark red inside. Some sources of this tree have fmv and others don’t). “A medium to large grass-green fig with dark strawberry pulp. Brebas are rare. Shape is pyriform with or without a neck. Eye is small and fairly well closed. Excellent flavor” “Attractive small green fruits with intensely colored and flavored sweet rich raspberry flesh. One of our favorites! Midseason ripening”. Very nice flavor. This is a must have.
Yet based upon my notes ‘Strawberry verte’ is a Celeste type of fig that has a skin that tastes like nectarines. Name mix ups can be annoying.