I have been bagging mine once they first turn brown… and that keeps the ants wasp jackets hornets off… while they ripen. Notice how clean and perfect it is. Bagging during the final ripening stage works well.
If it were me, I would focus all of my immediate efforts into Hardy Chicago. The Bo Ji Hong looks like California Brown Turkey, which was more trouble than it was worth for me. It might be useful for the breba crop, but those nearly all drop here so it still seems like a long shot.
Figs with light interiors don’t have mass appeal like Hardy Chicago. You could trial Florea, it probably would be more productive for you but everyone I have surveyed prefers the taste of Hardy Chicago.
I feel like a climate battery/geothermal greenhouse is a huge improvement over both a high tunnel or conventionally heated greenhouse. In the mountains though, I think that much excavation could be a problem. You may also need to dig down in zone 5, similar to the original concept in Nebraska.
It would be a very big investment compared to low tunnels. I really don’t know enough to say whether it would be worth it. You could give your trees a little bit of a head start in a low tunnel, and could simply cover with frost blanket in the fall for season extension to get some of the same benefits at a much lower cost/larger scale.
They all are good. I like the sugar sweet of Celeste so I rooted ten productive fig trees of it to get my sugar fix. The rest of other fig varieties will ripen from now until frost.
In-ground Mt. Etna-type figs just now starting to come in. I’m a little late this year, despite good wood survival. I blame it on a cool spell in spring which slowed formation of figlets. The following are on Hardy Chicago, which is the most loaded it’s ever been. Have already eaten a few.
Malta Black is just starting to ripen, so HC actually beat it this year; usually it’s the reverse. Nothing on Papa John yet, probably because I cut it back more severely, as I was pressed for time last year and didn’t follow my usual procedure of bending down a number of pliable branches before covering and so simply topped it at a little over 3’.
Organza bags usually work well for larger insects for me—though the ants have always managed to find a way in; sometimes, they’ll even cut small holes in the bags in order to get at that sweet, sweet fig sugar. Surer way for me is to put a band of paper tree wrap around trunks and smear it with Tanglefoot—which I actually need to do this evening! Organza bags used to work okay on birds, but now they’ve gotten wise and have started pulling the bags off along with the figs; sometimes I find the organza bag with a few remnants of fig still inside; at other times, both bag and fig disappear. Yesterday I put out disposable cake tins on poles to blow and rattle in the wind—worked on blueberries for a few weeks earlier in the season—and I’ve not noticed any further thefts today. For a while they were stealing every fig on Improved Celeste that even came close to ripening, bag or no.
Your Hardy Chicago look really big. It seems the Mt Etna figs make sizable fruit in the ground whereas their potted fruit are less impressive. I love Hardy Chicago. The SWD are coming in force despite my good sanitation practices. I blame it on a neighbor who has a Kousa dogwood dropping fruit that’s rotting right now.
I am very sorry to hear it, Andrew! We’re approaching that time of year here, too. Have you tried hitting them with spinosad? Think I’m going to try it this year. Did spray a little bit last year, but by the time I started, their population—and that of the African fig flies—was already considerable.
I think I sort of dissed Hardy Chicago—for lack of production early in its life—here a year or two ago. Well, I take back any nasty thing I said! Judging by the number that are swelling, I hope to get quite a few. And when the weather and pests cooperate, they are indeed very good. I think I like Malta Black (ripened under the same optimal conditions) just a touch better, but I sure wouldn’t turn down a HC—or any good Etna-type! The latest ones got washed out a little by a downpour yesterday—which made some of potted figs go pop!—but still decent.
So far… and in year 3 now of ch fig harvesting… birds have not bothered my figs at all. The SWD here seem to come and go with blackberries… I have not seen any since early August… been checking strawberry raspberries grapes and figs… none found.
I learned how to tie those organza bags in tightly with my blackberries… and the figs are even easier to tie them on tightly… checked my bagged figs several times this week… ants on the outside of bags only
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We picked a nice one last year… and a dang Japanese Beatle had worked his way into the eye and was feasting on fig. Freaked my wife out a bit.
Figs I picked last night. @PharmerDrewee inspired me to dehydrate them, so that’s where they are now. I know I have Celeste, which is the first time I have had these. Very good. Also Chicago hardey and two other varieties, not sure of names. Celeste is in the ground and the others are in pots.
Noir de Barbentane : this beauty is a day or two away from being ripe. Took a chance knowing that lot of rain coming tomorrow and left this and lot of others to ripe optimum.
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