Some pretty pictures of 16 fig varieties ripe now

It’s time to be thinking about ripe figs. More pictures to get your appetite going.!

Sorry about the picture limit…!!

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Great crops of top tier figs!

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Good lord. Those look amazing. How do you like your Smith? I feel like I’m missing out because I chose not to get one of those suckers. My Preto is loaded this year.

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Smith has been disappointing. It may just be my tree. It lacks vigor, the fruit is small, and last yr it wasn’t all that tasty. They are very small again this yr. It may be a wet/humid climate fig.

My favorites are Black Madeira and it’s sibs, Maltese Beauty, Socorro Black, Bourjasotte Grise, and Battaglia Green. Those are ones I’m sure about. Oh and I have a soft spot for Emerald Strawberry. It’s big, precocious, very productive, dries up on the tree, has good early breba, And looks so sexy…!!

Then many new ones that look promising: Thermalito, Exquisito, Calderona, BFF, Cardenillo, Motoso Preto, and CLBC.

I’m torn about the various CdD varieties. They are not precocious and generally late to ripen. Quality is high but there are easier figs.

My sexy lady Emerald Strawberry:

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That Exquisito looks so much like Sicilian Red. Can you compare ripening time to some other varieties?


Don’t know if you saw this Steve, but my local Sicilian Red type put out these dark figs for a while last season. The only thing I can guess is that the ph went high from homebrew fertilizer and reacted with some anthocyanins. I washed a bunch of biochar at one point and used the ash water along with fermented comfrey and some other weeds.

image

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An overwhelmingly beautiful collection! Can you rate them by taste?

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Ripening times to me are as much related to how early the variety sets as anything else. Set time can be affected by pruning and other factors. Exquisito ripens pretty early. It’s a seedling found near Oroville CA so isn’t Sicilain Red or any other fig that’s been around a while.

Also in long season areas start of ripening doesn’t mean as much as in short season areas. It’s not that important to me.

I gave my favorites above. That’s mainly based on taste. But I also like some size and a jammy texture. All of my favorites taste as good to me as Black Madeira which is often said to be the best tasting fig. The Mt Etnas don’t cut it here. Too small and average tasting.

The worst I’ve tried has been the Luv and Iraqi.

Black Madiera looks incredible!

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I’m not saying it’s the same. I had a seedling that looked just like Kadota, from parents that looked nothing like Kadota, but it seemed like it ripened late.

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One reason I’m so so on the CdD figs is they seem to set 4-6 weeks after Black Madeira. That means the fruit is late to start ripening. Maybe that’s related to pruning. All mine are pruned back to 3/4 to one inch size wood for cuttings. I think that can delay fruit set perhaps more on some varieties than others. Black Madeira sets very early after growth starts even on heavily pruned plants. Last yr I had ripe main crop BM by mid to late June.

Very nice fruitnut.I hope the ink is edible too.bb

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Pruning really can push back ripening time, the added vigor will increase the harvest but also draw it out over a longer time. I have a tree that hasn’t been pruned for like 8 years that I get about a hundred figs from in 2-3 weeks, I could be getting more if i pruned it (and I think I am going to next year) but it is a real morale booster early in the season for me and fruits from terminal buds seem like they are usually bigger and better quality.

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Geez, I wish. My figs are just now starting to show fruitlets.

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I don’t think that most of mine are even showing any fruitlets yet…Except for this:

It must have overwintered as a tiny fig and started growing again this spring. There were two of them last week and when I checked it out on Friday, there was only one left. When I got there, I saw a groundhog running away from the bush- he looked a bit guilty to me.

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Does Emerald strawberry produce a good breba crop for you?
Mine has just 2 on it but it is a young tree.

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No kidding? Good to know.

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I only had those two. But I prune everything back very hard for cuttings. I don’t know what it would do if unpruned. It sets main crop early and everywhere possible. I don’t have many figs this vigorous and also precocious and productive.

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