Due to the kindness of a forum member I now know where a fig orchard is in my area. I  had heard rumors of this orchard, but no luck finding it. Then a kind member saw something I mentioned in a post and PMed me with the contact info.

I talked to the orchard owner last night and have an appointment to see his place Sat. afternoon. He told me he has 5 main varieties with multiple trees, and 5 more varieties with only a few trees. He said his harvest should start in 10 days, maybe 2 weeks, which is about what I was thinking from tracking my trees.

I will file a report after that field trip, and pics if he will allow me to take them. From what I have been told, this orchard has been around for several years so I hopefully will learn quite a bit about local in-ground fig culture from this visit.

That should be a real interesting trip.

And great timing. I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight.

Very interesting Gene, I'm curious what he is growing, and who he sells his figs to. It will be good information to learn how he deals with birds and other fig thieves, and if he has to protect the trees during the winter. Enjoy your visit, I'm looking forward to your report.

Mike in Hanover, VA

Have a nice time on your field trip Gene...sounds like fun.

Take notes, take pictures, take cuttings!

That's cool Gene.  Have been looking everywhere on my delivery routes, checked at two nursery's and have not spotted a fig tree yet. 

We just got back from Mr Smith orchard, he lives about 12 miles from me. He has probably 15-18 trees in production, all about 18 years old. They are huge bushes, so big he has permanant scaffoling build into them so he can harvest the figs, one bush is so big it has a two-story scaffoling in it.

His main production figs are Celeste, Hardy Chicago, 2 varieties of Brown Turkey, and a Kadota. These are all about 18 years old. He has several other smaller figs (2 years old) that he is trying out. He said that this winter was the first time he had any significant dieback, and surprisingly the worst hit where the Hardy Chicago! The BT were hardly touched. His trees were LOADED with figs, some had two fruit at each node.

He said that his main season lasts about a month, and he harvests 75-100 lb of figs per day. He sells them from his house, at a farmer's market, as well as through some high end grocery stores on the expensive side of the city. Since my trees are still very young and small, I will probably buy several pounds from him next month to dehydrate.

I asked about birds, he said it is too hard to keep them away so they get their share. He used to use bottle-rockets, but now he doesn't worry about it.

On the phone he seemed a bit wary, so I did not take my camera. But after talking a bit he warmed up a lot and next trip I will try to remember to take some pics. His scaffoling looked like something you build for the grandkids to play on. It was good to see how hardy figs are in this area once they get established.

Off topic, but he also had a HUGE pecan tree. It was massive. He said last year he harvested about 500 lb of nuts from it.

Gene, that sounds like an awesome time!  Did you get to try any figs?  Did he say if he had a personal preference in varieties?  I guess one positive note to my growing in containers is that I don't anticipate the need for scaffolding! :D

none of his figs were ripe yet. A few of the HC were close, but the said his first real harvest would probably be around the 20th.

I came up with an idea. Mr Smith at the orchard sounded very interested in Black Mission figs. But he has not been able to get any to ripen off his young trees. I have a couple of nice Texas Blue Giants (aka 'Texas' Mission), so I am going one over to his place next month and offer to trade it for some figs. What say yea?

Great report Gene, I'm glad he warmed up to you. I love the idea of scaffolding, really must make it easy to harvest from a large tree. That is a lot of figs he harvests, it must be nice! You are lucky to have him nearby as you wait for your own trees to come into full production. I wonder how he keeps that much soft figs in good shape until it gets to market? Around here in the stores, I see mission and brown turkey. Last I saw, they were $6.99 for 8 Brown Turkey figs.

Mike in Hanover, VA

I just spoke with Mr Smith at the near-by fig orchard. He said that he was just starting to get a few ripe ones on his Brown Turkeys now (7/26) and by next weekend he should be having a good harvest each day. Also, he said that the Hardy Chicago would be a week or two later before it starts. He said that July 20 was normally the start of his harvest season, but this year is about 2 weeks late. Keep in mind these are all huge, inground trees, but this should give a frame of reference for others like me in this area and zone(7b).

BtW, my young Italian Black fig tree has its first three fruits that just started swelling and changing color yesterday. I am hoping to get my first taste-test in the next 5-7 days.

Very nice report!  I wish we had a fig orchard here, and I even called the farmer's market, but none.  I already knew I'm the only fig person in this area, but that call confirmed it.  There are NO fig trees here other than mine.  Well one!  In somebody's back yard, and it's probably a BT.  I think for figs, you need to have a population of Greeks and Italians, but this here is Red Neck Country, and the Italians are chain restaurants and we don't even have a Greek restaurant.  Sigh.............

I bet he will trade you!  You should bring him a couple really cool varieties, or just a taste of a ripe fig from one, and promise him cuttings.

Jealous!

Suzi

We don't have Greeks or Italians here, in Arkansas figs are an old south heritage. Everyone I know remembers eating figs off their grandmother's tree, but no one thinks to grow them in their own yard - I don't get it?

I guess it is just part of the whole shift away from the rural mentality. But perhaps the younger ones (20s and 30s) will reverse the trend.

Figs are the forgotten fruit, or so I read, not for long!  Besides my brother who has an unknown that dies back to the ground nearly every winter and says ants ravage the tree when it does bear fruit, I'm the only one I know with fig trees.  Oh yeah there's the grandmother of a receptionist at one of my delivery places who has one, also unknown but I'm promised cuttings in the fall.  She has never eaten any of the figs and complains for having to mow around it.

I think I will love figs from the descriptions here and will do my best to re-popularize them for West-Central Arkansas at least. :)