I read your profile and see that your kadota is in a pot, do you think this helped you get a jump on the season, is it in a greenhouse? I have a large old celeste fig tree that ripens in August. I also had an unknown fig much like the blue giant but it split and rotted in the rain so I got ride of it. I just added a rooted kadota this year. Can I expect figs at this time of year in the future? I assume that is the breba crop. I also started a strawberry verte and VdB.
Mark, I cheated big time with this wimp tree. It was much too thin of a wisp for me to feel comfortable putting it in the ground, yet. So, I moved it indoors during the coldest part of winter while it was dormant. Not only that, I had it in my grow tent under lights for over a month before I took it back outside.
I do have a large Brown Turkey in the yard that usually ripens around the 4th of July. It lost its brebas and new growth on the lowest sections of the north facing part of the tree when the March 29th freeze nipped it. The remaining brebas are close to full size and look like they may actually ripen a month or more early this year.
There’s also a young Mission fig that I kept in a very large pot in the ground last summer and only dragged inside (with help) on freezing nights. It was never under lights. It’s back in the ground now, making loads of little figlets, but I doubt if they will mature until late summer. I’m hoping that it’s trunk thickens enough that I don’t feel the need to uproot for protection again this winter.
The reason I’m keeping these younger ones in containers is because, in the past, I’ve had difficulty with have very young figs killed to the ground in the winter. By letting them spend some time in pots until their trunks have enough girth to take those cold snaps, they can handle the ups and downs of our winter weather on their own, without any more help from me than heavily mulching their bases with pine straw for a few winters.
Someday I hope to have an assortment of figs because it seems to be one fruiting tree that actually thrives in our climate with very little care once well established Heck, maybe if I’d started with figs and pomegranates instead of stone fruits, I might have felt like a great success, instead of a frustrated flop. (I’m getting better at stone fruits and apples, though. Thanks to people who participate here.)