Here in Canada we can buy commercial figs from California, Mexico and Brazil but transport make them quite expensive at about 1$ (sometimes $1.50) a piece and frankly coming from so far away they don’t taste very good, IMO. Huge carbon impact by the way. So buying 200 figs to make my own jam is out of the question. I have to grow them!
I bought many fig jams jars from abroad (Greece, Lebanon, France etc.) but was disappointed with their extreme added sugar content and little flesh.
I prefer dark skin figs with dark flesh (either black/brown/red). I prefer fig with thin “skin” and a lot of flesh. I don’t care if they are “petite” size cause “taste” is important to me…
I prefer varieties with only Breba and harvest time no later than late September to mid-october.
I could grow 12 trees from different varieties.
The fig trees are going to be grown in containers in my greenhouse and put in shed at 5 C (41 F) for winter.
Last but important question: should I concentrate on finding Canadian fig growers to buy cuttings from them or U.S. fig home growers could sell to me (snail mail or air mail) without going through Gov. regulations, export certificates and so on?
I can’t think of a dark San Pedro (breba only) type, but if you have a greenhouse you might be able to ripen main crop from early varieties. Hardy Chicago and synonyms are particularly well suited to making jam, and worth a shot I think. You can also prune varieties that make 2 crops in a way to maximize breba, but at least in my case, breba tend to mostly drop or when they do ripen are often disappointing.
For some reason, Canadian growers seem to have a very tough time with fig bud mites. I heard in the past that buying pesticides is difficult there, that, and if you show a picture of fig bud mite symptoms on a fig forum you will be misled into thinking you have not fertilized well enough, or some other distraction from the real problem, so it is really not surprising at all. But that fact absolutely could hinder your success, since fig bud mites would most likely survive forever in the conditions you describe. My point here is that you should look for a source that cares about the health of their trees, so you don’t get off to a bad start.
Go to ourfigs.com as we have many Canadian members there. Some have everything. I myself don’t grow for breba as most are poor. Plenty of main crop figs that ripen in that time frame.
Yes, Adriano has a very impressive collection but he sells only for pick-up and I live about 10 hours from him… He’ll not send (even cuttings) by post at any cost. I called him 3 times left messages but no reply…Too bad indeed.
Thanks for the tip. I will visit the site you mentioned in a few days/weeks hoping to find the info I’m looking for. So I could grow some decent September figs? Good. Marc
Misunderstanding, Andrew. If I could buy from him: I. W-O-U-L-D. I-M-M-E-D-I-A-T-E-L-Y no question asked but as mentioned he only sells for pick-up… so I can not buy from him. 10 hour drive to get to his place? No way. I’m a bit low on ice wine so I could go to southern Ontario next summer or visit our figs.com. We’ll see. Marc
Thanks very much for the info. Yes, I have checked with them some time ago. Prices are way over charged… 60$ for an established brown turkey (6 months old) is grossly over charged… He does not sell cutting only established trees. Too bad for he is located about 30 minutes from me.
Marc