@Bear_with_me has been growing figs for 20+ years as he says. Several dark figs on his list ripen just fine. Petit Negri, Hardy Chicago among others.
Your heuristic of light skinned figs ripening sooner than dark skinned varieties has numerous counter examples
RdB is my earliest ripening main crop fig and it is a dark skinned one. Light skinned figs like Col de dame and Adriatic ripen very late.
Are petit negri different enough from VdB/Negronne to justify adding another tree to the yard? I have not seed RdB in stock anywhere. It must sell out fast. I am also not trying to buy from auctions.
RdB scions are offered by Figaholics. Their yearly sale starts tonight at 6pm PT. Not an auction but a frenzied sale. This will be my first year taking part.
What I said is just general speaking. There are certainly small dark skinned fig varieties like Florea, RDB and some Mt. Etna ripen early.
Most of the sugar and yellow figs ripen early and do not require intense heat. The exception is the Adriatic figs which ripen late.
And there are a lot of dark figs that ripen late or very late. They also require intense heat.
Now let’s look at Daniel’s fig varieties:
Desert King (18 years) - good production, good figs. A good solid choice,
Lattarula (18 years) - my best light color fig in production, best breba and main crop. Also a good solid choice.
Hardy Chicago (20 years) - my best dark fig for production, good main crop. A good solid choice.
Brunswick (20 years) - Very big, very sweet figs, poor productivity, often drop or split. Rarely have brebas, main crop often so late they rot on the tree in our chilly fall rains.
Petite negri (21 years) - my favorite for flavor, black outside, red inside, very figgy, poor breba crop, main crop so late they often rot on tree like Brunswick.
LSU Tiger (8 years) - nothing stands out. good enough figs but others are more productive and better.
Celeste (5 years) - uncertain. 2020 was my first crop. Very figgy and sweet, small figs.
Carini (8 years) - good reddish brown brebas and main crop. From old garden web member.
White Sicilian (5 years) - uncertain. So far, a few nice sweet light figs brebas.
Smith (8 years) - very tasty dark figs, main crop, very poor production so far.
Champaign (8 years) - small yellow figs, very poor production. None last year.
Adriatic (8 years) - I’ve only had about three figs from this tree. I don’t recall the flavor.
In a typical Zone 8 climate, all those fig varieties should not have any problem properly ripenning. Even in my cold Zone 6, I should not have problem to ripen Brunswick, Celeste, LSU Tiger, Petite Negri. Smith and Adriatic are marginal. So I’m surprised to see he has had this much problem with those well established fig varieties (8 year old trees). He also clearly mentioned that he had better production with warmer year(s).
Clearly summer heat plays very important role in his observation.
I found Ronde de Bordeaux at Cricket Hill Garden. Because I live in WA state, they have to ship it bare root. Which also costs less for shipping than their calculator indicates.
and @RedSun hardiness zone is a poor proxy for how much heat an area gets or how long the growing season is. We have mild winters, but long rainy, cool spring and fall.
They say on their site that their trees have come in contact with fig mosaic virus, and are all likely infected. That is worrisome.
Yes, this is the exact point I wanted to make. There are certain fig varieties suitable for the PNW region with the unique climate. It is not only the growing days, but the summer heat (temperatures) too.
I almost bit on figaholics, but the mosaic virus possibility is a deal breaker for me.
@nil, not disagreeing with you, but there is something to consider. When I was on the figs4fun forum, many years ago, many forum members considered that virtually all figs in USA have FMV and have for many many years. Someone can correct me if that’s not true. A lot of nursery stock is infected with viruses, we just don’t hear about it. I imagine there are various FMV viruses, and some cultivars are more affected by others, and growth conditions also affect how that affects the figs trees and crops.
That said, none of my fig trees shows mosaic symptoms, so maybe not? It’s also a reason Im not so crazy about exchanging scion any more.
One take on the topic ask extension https://ask.extension.org/questions/661020
images http://oregonstate.edu/dept/nurspest/fig_masaic_virus.htm
Some science https://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/47395/PDF
Is meristem tissue culture not possible with figs? Supposedly possible to culture in vitro without viruses, like emla rootstocks. I would have expected large nurseries to use clean stock for propagation purposes.
@nil, tissue culture is done. I think it’s a good idea and possibly the best choice for reducing virus risk. I forgot about that. You would have to check the nurseries for particulars. I have not grown a tissue culture fig. If I was going to start now, it is something I would consider. That said, Im pretty happy with the good producers in my orchard now.
Some times I wonder if various issues in other fruits are virus related. Graft failure and failure to thrive etc. The original malling rootstocks were virus infected. That caused graft failures and failure to thrive. Now some are grown by tissue culture and/or tested. There are lots of apple viruses that cause reduced yields and disfigurement. Other species too. If I see what I suspect to be virus, I remove that plant. I wonder about that with scion exchanges too. It’s something to think about.
Much of Europe has at least some cases of FMV, just like viruses that humans can get ‘plants can have a virus and not show any symptoms’, even the ‘black madeira’ variety, which is one of the few varieties that has been tested for FMV, it has many different types of FMV in each tree, a ‘black madeira’ fig tree can have no FMV symptoms what so ever despite having so much FMV in it.
Unfortunately fig trees can have FMV symptoms even if it does not have FMV, a stressed out tree can appear to have FMV like symptoms, some cuttings just root very poorly and don’t have FMV, FMV tests are still expensive especially if you have lots of trees to test. It’s impossible to know for sure if any of your fig trees have FMV unless you test them for it, or unless you have a variety that has been tested positive by someone else.
Those are the reasons that a lot of people have FMV disclaimers, they can not afford FMV testing. Some fig collectors spray all their trees as if they may be carrying the mite that spreads FMV, because FMV can not spread without that mite. The mite can not survive winters outdoors in a majority of US states, yet they certainly can survive in garages, in sheds, in greenhouses, in sun rooms and in other sheltered places located in climates that outdoors is too cold for them.
California is a perfect place for the mite to survive, so some people will never get any fig trees or fig cuttings from that state. I highly doubt that all of his fig trees have FMV, he has so many fig trees, yet to protect him self he needs to use a disclaimer.
Anyone can have a FMV infected fig tree and not know it, unless the trees are tested for it, some people will get rid of fig trees that clearly have FMV’, and unless that happens they don’t worry. Tissue culturing does not always get rid of FMV, and unless each tissue cultured plant is tested for FMV there is a chance that a TC plant has FMV. Some people don’t like tissue cultured plants because they arrive very small, they grow very slow for years, and they take a long time to fruit.
Considering the fruit habit of the Desert King;
I will divide the pruning job in half.
Half during the winter season
and then half after harvest of the breba crop.
Yes
Cool hardiness is more important than actual cold hardiness in the Puget Sound lowlands.
Locally -Port Orchard, Washington
as of July 29
The Desert King figs are turning pink inside.
Expect to start picking them in about ten days .
I just picked two of the four on my 1 year old tree yesterday. Really good.
@ramv when does your granthams royal or nordland ripen? Do you have LSU tiger and when does that ripen? Just planted those this year wondering if I will have different ripening times. Hope so!
Granthams is starting to ripen now. Still will be a few days before peak flavor. Nordland is ripe now.
LSU tiger is a main crop only and will ripen here in late September
Thank you it gives me an idea of ripening times
