Where I’m at lots of figs won’t ripen.
I’m zone 5b in Canada and I’ve had Chicago Hardy ripen in pots and my in-laws have a tree in ground that they protect in the Winter that also gives them ripened figs.
It does seem strange that it wouldn’t ripen on time in zone 8…
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Are the three I listed worth the time and $'s?
I can set you up with Florea and Hardy Chicago. RDB and VDB I think are better in pots. I’m not sure about White Marseilles.
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@Appleseed – IMO . . .
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Hardy Chicago is good but there are better similar varieties. Look for Salem Dark, Malta Black, Red Lebanese Bekka Valley, Norella, among others. Sometimes these are called “Mt Etna” types.
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Violette de Bordeaux is on the late side. Ronde de Bordeaux has a similar taste and texture, and it is earlier. Other early varieties such as Florea, Improved Celeste, Iranian Candy, De Tres Esplets would be better for you than VdB.
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White Marseilles is OK but in my experience it tastes great only if it is really really ripe. You can do better.
Apart from the early varieties listed above, you should prioritize Smith and Violet Sepor, both of which are superior in quality and fully capable of ripening in your location.
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THANK YOU Members, just what I needed!
Found this interesting site because this topic post. Due to my age, I need to plant a variety that is a shoe-in. No time for experimentation left.
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I will give Malta Black one more year. Las year it set fruit late so nothing ripened in time.
Have VdB for several years but it was a shy bearer for me. The fruit, when I got any, was fine. Got rid of the mother plants but rooted a few. Will see of the children will behave better. VdB form is spreading, not upright.
If you want to plant figs in ground in your zone, you may want to talk to @BobVance. He has figs in ground and in zone 6b. He also has a fig called Reservoir. It is in ground, cold hardy and produces well.
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Bob’s zones are the same as here, and in-ground is all I care to do, Thanks.
If ‘Ronde De Bordeaux’ is early enough after die back seems to vary a lot based upon location, and it’s very confusing on why that is. It certainly has grown back after serious die back and produced a sizeable crop in some cold climates, no fig cultivar is the very best for zone 6b or colder, they all can be easily killed under those conditions if anything goes wrong, or at even the slightest human error, and the same zone in one part of the country is not really the same as in another part of the country because all a hardiness zone is, a rating of how cold it can get at average, not how long it stays cold, how often it gets the cold, it does not determine what kind of late frost, or how much wind chill there is, or when the plants come out of dormancy. Sometimes late frost can be worst than actual cold, much worst. So much so that NYC sometimes can have earlier fig crops than we do in North Carolina.
Fig dropping is an odd thing like for example ‘Malta Purple Red’ some trees of it they abort their figs for a long time, long enough for most people to give up on the tree, other people brag about the huge crops that they get on it from a young age. For some reason unknown to me fig trees like this put way more effort in to their vegetation than their fruit. Yet not for everyone which is odd to me. Our ‘Malta Purple Red’ has begun it’s 12th season in the ground, and it looks like it will finely have it’s first decent crop(s), after all those years. This is why I don’t like totally writing off a cultivar, and it’s actually fun trying to figure out the mystery of why. I personally think that different cultivars will abort figs for different reasons. I did not give up on ‘Malta Purple Red’ because it’s figs are supposed to be incredible, plus it originated from Gozo Malta @JeremiahT which I have a lot of family in Malta.
I myself would not grow figs in ground colder than zone 7a, yet still the more cold hardy the better, because polar vortexes and late frosts in zone 7a and zone 7b can do serious damage to even the most cold hardy trees, the less damage to the trees the better. Like I have said on this thread already, a fig tree can not handle it’s maximum cold resistance every single year, it can die in the coldest that it can handle.
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Yes the only ones I might would try inground zone 5b if you have a good sunny protected microclimate are Florea and Teramo. Teramo is real good in a pot too.
RdB is not worth trying inground for you. I finally got my first 2 RdB figs inground last fall here in zone6b, Sunfire and Chicago Hardy and Reservoir and others do much better inground after 100% dieback. All figs will die back in 5b. RdB dies in 6b faster than most of my others.
For 5b I recommend plant Florea and Teramo in a good full sun protected microclimate, and plant them a foot deeper than normal to bury a foot of the trunk below grade so more trunk survives after 100% dieback to soil line so your regrowth will be more successful.
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mamuang –
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My Malta Black is among the earlier ripening Mt Etnas. If yours fails again, PM me and I’ll give you some cuttings.
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I have the VdB types Valle Negra and Nero 600M. Both bear well but so far Nero 600M performs better. BUT!!! – it doesn’t necessarily have a chance to ripen all its fruit, especially in the ground. I just removed my in-ground plant. My best success was with a potted Nero 600M that I head-started under lighting a warm basement. A 4-6 week head start makes all the difference. You are at least 1/2 Zone colder than me, I’d expect VdB to disappoint you.
FWIW, I got Pastilliere to fruit here finally after 4 years in a pot. It is early and it tastes like a blend of VdB and Mt Etna. I’d recommend it – but it may take 3-4 years until the tree holds its fruit.
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In the pacific north west all fig trees are known to ripen later than other places of the same hardiness zone, yet it has nothing to do with the winter cold, I wonder why that is.
@alanmercieca – I agree totally that performance is based on a complex set of variables. Most notably, “cold hardiness” of a fully dormant tree is very different from cold hardiness of a tree emerging from dormancy is very different from cold hardiness of an actively growing tree. The same tree that survives +5F in February will be killed by +25 F in May.
I also tend to agree with you about the futility of growing figs in the ground in ground colder than Z7A. I’m on the border of 7A and 6B, and I’ve had great success with as many as 19 in-ground trees. My caveats to the northern grower would be that (1) trees must be well protected during winter, and (2) in-ground varieties must be early-ripening.
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Many years our fig trees never fully go dormant, if you were to prune them their wood would be at least a little moist at the touch, VS NYC were their fig trees usually go fully dormant and more slowly than they would go dormant here, if they go dormant here.
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@alanmercieca – You’re making me thankful that I live in an area that gets authentically cold, at least briefly. 
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@alanmercieca – It’s warmth. To make progress toward ripening, the tree needs daylight temperatures >60-65 F. Many spring / summer days in the PNW are cooler. So it takes more time to accumulate the required number of warm enough days. Many other locations on the Pacific coast are similar.
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It’s also latitude- Washington state is pretty far north, most of the state more than Maine. They just don’t get the light up there for long enough over summer and early autumn for fully ripe fruit.
I pretty much given up in ground. Too much work. Plus I enjoy the premium figs so much. Growing in containers is the only option for them. Speaking of Malta Maltese Beauty is a big fig with excellent flavor. It took some time to produce but once mature it produces very well. Makes a great dried fig too I dry them whole. Some call Black Madeira the best fig I think Col de Dame Gris is The best fig I ever tasted. Better than BM if you ask me. So I would rather grow in containers and get a taste of these exotic figs like Izbat an Naj from Egypt that has a pineapple-coconut flavor. Best sugar fig I ever tasted. Fruits mid season. All figs ripen in time. Prolific too.
I enjoy having figs all winter so dry a large number of them. I prefer to dry larger figs and the two I like dried a lot better than fresh are Roberts Golden Rainbow and Dalmatie. Just ok fresh much better dried. Both are prolific producers. I also liked to use dried figs in cooking too. I try to save a few hundred every year.
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I’m pretty sure that this is totally wrong. Seattle is at the same latitudes as central France (e.g., Nantes). I doubt that they have any trouble ripening figs in central France. Also, the same problem is experienced in cool coastal regions as far south as San Francisco. SF is at the same latitude as North Africa. So latitude seems almost irrelevant.
Further to the point, people ripen figs in warm weather with as few as 6-8 hours per day vs the maximum possible >12 in summer. If the angle of the sun were such a critical issue, 33-50% shade would be a dramatic impediment. But it isn’t.
p.s. Isn’t there a huge business in the PNW growing apples east of the mountains?
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Some figs don’t like staying in containers, that could be a problem that you face doing that, with some cultivars. Here it’s the other way around since we don’t need to go to great lengths to protect the trees from the cold.
What figs cultivars have the best fruit somewhat depends on personal preference, Maltese Beauty is certainly one of the very best, as is ‘Malta Purple Red’, as is GM-142 (a poorly known one, yet it’s has top notch figs, they split too easily in our climate for my liking, yet when they don’t split a lot of the figs range from okay to incredible).
The figs of some fig cultivars dry much better than others, we wind up having to refrigerate them, because they never dry fully, and the peel gets too hard before they dry. We have made fig leathers with them though, much better than manufactured fruit rolls, and removing the peel gets rid of the hard peel problem. We don’t even add sugar, then again it depends on how sweet the figs are. What I like most is making Sicilian fig cookies with them, for the figs a mixture of frozen fresh figs from our trees, and sun dried figs imported from Turkey.
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