Two excellent Kadotas
This year, Miami's late spring and early summer brought little to no rain but a lot of humidity and brutal heat. Luckily, the figs manage to dry out a little on the branch and a few varieties have produced very good fruit. In late summer, we face a lot of rain and the quality of the fruit may change. I think I got lucky this year since so many varieties began to ripen in mid-May.
None of my trees produced fruit that split or soured unless notated otherwise. Also, none of these figs were caprified and all of them are in pots.
In order of ripening:
Brown Turkey - 2 year old tree. Open eye. I don't know what happened to the photo of the opened fruit. Oh well.
Taste - I picked it a bit too early so it was kind of sweet and musky on the eye-end but bland and watery near the stem. Recent fruit and growth were disappointing so I discarded the tree.
Ronde de Bordeaux - 1.5 years old. Small, open eye.
I hadn't begun using coins for size comparison but the fruit size of the RdB is inconsistent; some are as big as a quarter/2 euro coin, others about half that.
First RdB on May 18.
Taste - Reminds me of a good Black Mission but with raspberry notes. It also has a bit of that grassy coconut thing going on but that might be because the tree is still so young.
Hollier - 5 years old but has been with me since 2013. Closed eye. Here's where I begin using coins for scale.
Taste - Cloves, musk, and a honey-like spiciness without having the same flavor profile of actual honey. All of the figs are only mildly sweet right now.
In 2014, the fruits were very small, bland, and three of the six fruits that formed fell off. The flavor has improved considerably and the size of each individual fruit has more than doubled. If this massive shift in quality is any indication of how the fruit will continue to improve with age, then I hope this is a good variety to wait out.
Texas Blue Giant -
I’m curious about what this one is like like after it’s been caprified. Mold and subsequent souring was an issue, probably due to that huge open eye. Some split directly across (an opening of 2 inches / 5 cm) while others remained perfectly intact. Others only had a mild tearing around the eye.
Taste - The tree is about four years old and there’s still major variation between fruits in terms of quality; one had absolutely no flavor whatsoever while another was like a greatly improved Brown Turkey - exceptional, even. Unfortunately, the often overly-watery texture is a major letdown. The best flavored one was like biting into watery cake icing - delicious to taste but disappointing to chew. Another was like a watery peach.
I’m still going to keep this one for at least two more years before I seriously decide whether to toss it because when it’s good, it’s lovely. I just wish it were good a bit more frequently.
Smith 1.5 years old. Honey drop eye.
Taste - For a young tree, the figs were very nice. Despite the variations in flavor, I noticed notes of vanilla and raspberry in the riper ones - almost like a vanilla custard flavored RdB. Really interesting and very sweet. The texture is consistently jammy, or at least dense with sugar.
Unknown from my neighborhood - In spring 2014, I started a cutting from a local bush/tree, which was slow to get started and I wasn’t sure if it was going to make it. Luckily, it’s extremely productive now. Fruits are small and very sweet with a slight non-distinct berry flavor and a jammy texture. Any guesses?
Closed eye.
Excel - 1.5 years. Honey drop eye.
The inverted fig in the above photo is just deformed and is not characteristic of the variety.
Bright and sweet with hints of citrus when underripe. Similar to an excellent Kadota, but jammier when properly ripened. It’s described as an improved Kadota and I can see why.
Kadota - ~3 years old. Honey drop eye.
When left to blacken and wither, they’re like sacks of sugar with a hint of date. Really great and misrepresented by much of what you get in the grocery stores. (First and second years' fruits were awful.)
UCR 291- 4 - 1.5 years. I’m going to wait this one out before I comment. It was decent, though. Closed eye.
Adriatic JH - 1.5 years old. Semi closed eye but it splits badly.
One tasted like a fresh strawberry milkshake. Another had notes of caramel and another had notes of tropical fruit like pineapple and mango. The base of the fruit had a lot of exquisite flavor but the top half tasted like nothing. I'm sure this will improve, but its current strengths are excellent.
LSU Scott’s Black - ~ 4 years old. Closed eye.
One had the flavor of a Raspberry Linzer cookie and was seriously good. The others were kind of gross - acidic with little sweetness and didn’t seem to ripen properly. I’m not sure what happened. Maybe next year.
Violette de Bordeaux - 1.5 years old. Small, open eye.
Too young to assert itself. Decent.
UCR 143-36 “Emerald Strawberry” - 1.5 years old. Closed eye.
Truly excellent. One tasted exactly like a black plum, others had a strong figgy flavor with a ton of sweetness. The rain kicked in pretty hard when they started to ripen so allowing the skin to wither wasn’t really possible. Regardless of how juicy the figs got, they retained great flavor and sugar while resisting splitting.
The unranked winners so far have been Smith, UCR 143-36, RDB, Adriatic JH, Kadota, Excel, Unknown, and Hollier. The trees are still young, so hopefully the others mature nicely.
If all the baby fruit on some of my other varieties ripen, I’ll make another post in a few months with reviews of CDDG, Unknown Owensboro, Stella, Mary Lane, and perhaps others.
Thanks for reading and happy harvest.