I am only a newbie to potted figs. The ones are my list are ones that produced a few figs this season. The list may change if non-producers produce good figs. I have about 30 other varieties, but they didn’t produce. Brown Turkey produced, but figs were humongous, tasteless and waterlogged. Waiting for Smith to produce! Others like Violette de Bordeaux produced 1 fig and you can’t tell much by one fig. But it seemed OK.
No particular order here…
Peter’s Honey…very early figs, OK honey fig. Spits in rain. Tough skin. Productive.
Alma…productive, early, but smaller figs. Rots in rain. Taste OK.
(The rain problem was when we got about 4 days of off and on rain.)
What are your top 5 favorite figs you grow?
If I do the shuffle dance OK this winter, I hope to be loaded with figs next year! Eventually I will get rid of figs that are not that good and buy more of my favorites. Some of these figs seem to grow terrible and are sickly. Others grow robustly and have no issues.
Richard’s point about locale is the key one really. My top performers in a cool UK climate would be pretty useless to someone in California. Brown Turkey being disappointing here too though, Zone6 — everyone says it’s the reliable one but it just tastes watery most years.
My potted figs in 9b started from cuttings in 2025 gave some fruit. Two in particular were better than any fig I’ve tasted:
Excel and Souadi.
Black Madeira also fruited but in my opinion was not as good- skin was thicker which I don’t really like but had more balanced sweetness. It’s only the first year fruiting so can’t come to any definite conclusions.
Yes, reliable but there is the taste issue. Next season will offer little fertilizer and see how it does. I read too much fertilizer make for humongous Brown Turkey figs. Sprinkle a little sugar on the halves, let it melt and they are much better. Can’t buy fresh figs here. Something is better than nothing.
Mid Illinois here, I only grow a few varieties in pots here and VDB is my best fig. Problem is it doesn’t start ripening until mid August and by early September there’s not enough sun or heat. September figs are no good here regardless of variety.
What really took my figs to another level was drip irrigation. I put covers over the pots to keep out rainwater and will intentionally under water them during ripening season. This is something I picked up from Fruitnut and others on this forum and it really does make a tremendous difference.
