This one is interesting—to me, anyway, and possibly to other marginal zone growers—because it ripened on 2 year-old in-ground Longue d’Aout that was totally winter topkilled. Late (and it probably won’t taste the greatest—I’m going to leave it in the fridge for a few days), but there you have it.
I was actually about to give up on LdA—I didn’t even bother covering this one last fall because I figured I’d be ripping it out—, but it’s won a reprieve. (EDIT: In my experience, it is not a precocious fig; seems to take 2 or 3 years to get production going.) My potted LdAs ripened quite a few big figs this season—though I didn’t get to eat many of them because the invasive vinegar flies (AFFs and SWDs, with the former being especially aggressive and numerous) have been so horrible this season—, and then this one did this. Also of note: the eye of this one remained pretty tight despite some recent rain, whereas the ostioles of potted specimens dilated with the least excess of water. I guess that when your roots are all cooped up in a pot, it’s harder to regulate how much you drink. Anyway, I’ll protect one this fall.
I’ve also recently ripened a few small figs on a topkilled in-ground LSU Purple. All of them were totally flavorless, save one, which was actually pretty sweet. I might keep it around for another season.
EDIT 2: I’ve got no patience. Here’s the interior of that LdA. It was actually sweet and surprisingly tasty for an October fig!
My CH Fig is still cranking them out… got 9 this eve.
I ruf counted the ones left on my CH Fig… approx 120… around 12 per shoot and 10 shoots. They seem to be ripening faster now that it has cooled off some. they did that last year too. Like they know the end is near. Last year the end was Dec 3 (our first hard frost). It may not be that late this year… we will see.
@Phill_Boise_7a - looks great. The inside looks similar to my CH Fig (which I hear is a dark berry fig)… and I would agree with that taste wise. I can’t say they taste like any specific type of berry, just berry like flavor, very jammy and figgy.
Does yours have berry flavor ? can you describe it ? It looks wonderful !
To me the best figs have at least 1 of the following qualities. Either they have a sour or tangy taste that compliments the fig flavor or they are just so sweet that the fig flavor is amplified. I really like the tangy flavor some varieties offer. I assume this is the berry flavor people refer to, but I am still not sure to be honest. As I try more varieties I hope to pinpoint this more. This fig does have that tangyness that I enjoy so much. Other varieties I have tried that have that complexity were cdd blanc and panache.
It is very important to wait for the fig to ripen to the very end. Otherwise the tastes can be dramatically different. Unfortunately in our humid cold climate, it is difficult to wait to the every end. Here are two photos of the same fig (still unknown). We can see the color difference and the tastes are different too. The first one has light berry taste. The second one has very sweet berry taste. I could wait for two more days if not with the humidity. They do not look from the same tree. Of course the lighting of the photos probably make some difference too.
@RedSun — that is so right… getting them at peak ripeness the flavor is so much better.
A little to early and my CH Figs can be a little dry and have much less flavor… wait another day or two, and they turn jammy/juicy and much more intense berry-fig flavor.
Getting a few weeks of dry weather… sure helps. I can leave them longer until they turn quite dark and start to shrivel up some… and WOW… good stuff.
We have been getting a slow rain most of the night and all day today so far… and in conditions like that I can’t let them hang that long…
There is one fig left on the black Spanish…I’m hoping it will taste better than the previous ones did, they were quite disappointing. We have yet to have a frost, we usually have one by mid October. I plan on putting my potted figs in our unheated garage (only have 4 or 5 and not huge pots). For those of you who keep in pots and move into storage, when do you do it? After frost, after all leaves have dropped, before temps drop below “x” degrees…or some other trigger?
I still have around 100 or more figs on my in ground CH Fig tree… going to pick some here shortly.
It’s going to get close this week, per Nashville weather stations…
Last year we had some very light frosts in Nov… but it kept ripening fruit and the leaves stayed green… until Dec 3… Raspberries did the same… Best I remember on Dec 3rd we hit the mid 20’s and that did them in for the year.
Not sure we are going to make it that long this year.
Are you sure that is BG? Where’s the Grise? Also a very open ostium on that fig. Sometimes first time plants bear figs they can look completely wrong, but I would be skeptically eyeing that tree if it were mine, at least until next year. If they look the same next year I’d call it “BG not”. Just FYI.
It does still look like a treat though!
It is from @fruitnut so I would trust the source. Also here is another fig ripening on the tree right now. As you can see it is developing color. This tree has lived in the greenhouse for a year now, so conditions vary significantly from those outside.
I walked around the garden after getting our first frost last night and was excited to see a few figs waiting to be picked. It is always a treat to get good figs this late in the season. There was one JH Adriatic and 2 Bataglia Green. They were very sweet and tasty - better than I expected with them ripening during the cooler weather. I’m really liking my green Adriatic type figs this year. I just wish they were a little earlier, since I think if I put them in the ground they’ll mostly be too late to get a good crop. They’re currently in 15 gallon fabric pots.
@TNHunter Yes, a lot of people describe the Adriatic figs as being jammy and that seems right. It isn’t quite strawberry, but definitely reminiscent of it. The green color seems to make them less of a target for birds and squirrels and they have a tight eye so don’t really split, get ants inside, etc.
@Seattlefigs I’m not sure I notice a huge difference between them, but I don’t often have perfectly ripe ones from each plant at the same time to directly compare. But they are very close. Battaglia Green seems to be a week or two later than JH Adriatic, so that is definitely a big plus for JH if I was going to compare them. I also have a 3rd Adriatic type that is an unknown I collected locally from an abandoned garden plot and that one is even a bit earlier that JH Adriatic. That flavor is very similar to the other two and also has the closed eye. I assume it is some specific variety, but I just don’t know what it is since whoever planted it was no longer there to ask. The unknown does seem to want to be a bigger plant to start setting fruit, so it is probably a good candidate for in ground for people how have the right season for it.
thank you for the info i have an adriatic JH and well it dropped all the fruit due to our heatwave so i have no idea when it ripens. but im leaning towards early ripening adriatics since we dont have much heat. i think next year ill know more.
