Again in my top 5 this year.
 
 

Very nice looking fig Gary! 

Looks great! What is the taste profile like?

Beautiful, Gary.  Mine is about to go to sleep.  It's a good grower for me.

Thanks Frank and Charlie. It is a wonderful fig here.
Becky, the flavor changes a little during our long season. Not honey or berry. When dead ripe, it is very complex, fig/plum flavors to me. It is not overly sweet, which I prefer, just the right seed crunch, thin skin, and a nice acid/sugar balance.

Wow! That is something to look forward to!
Congratulations!

Gary,

this is a very nice and tasty fig
Also called here as Bêbera Preta.

Francisco
Portugal

Looks nice!!

Frank yours already ripened figs in your area?? I'm curious if its an early or late ripening variety.

Tyler

Tyler,

I don't know if this is the norm for this variety, but mine was one of the first to ripen last year.  I even got a breba this year.  It was root bound in the SIP this year, so not much happened with it.

Thanks Frank.. good to know

Tyler, here in my climate, I picked the 1st breba on June 15th. The tree produced until late October last year, but it will be done sooner this year. There are only a few remaining now. The picture is of a breba, from June.
Thanks Francisco, I actually prefer the name Bebera Preta.  

I thought I'd update this post about my Abebereira, or Bebera Preta. I just enjoyed a breba, that tasted as good as I remember the main crop did last year. Outstanding. My tree is in its 3rd year in ground, and has a nice breba crop of 12-15 figs. I was away a few days, and the person looking after my garden found 2 ripe ones, and was amazed at how delicious they were. We've had a fair amount of warm weather so far, that I suppose has helped in the ripening. So far, I've also had Negronne and VdB brebas, which were good, but not quite in the Abebereira class. Here are Abebereira breba pics.

 

Thanks for the updates, Gary. The fig looks very tasty. I've read that this cultivar can be a slow grower. If I may ask, what's the tree's growth rate in your zone?

Hi Dan. It has been a decent grower, though it does show fmv. Here is a picture of it. I started it as an air layer 2 years ago, and planted it in the ground winter, 2014. It is about 5' tall and wide.
 

Thank you. That is decent growth. I was expecting it to have growth habits slightly better than black Madeira, from everything I've read. Even with FMV, the 2 year growth in ground is impressive; Your results makes me seriously consider putting mine in ground next spring.

Thanks for posting pics Gary. I had no idea that this one was that good. Reason enough to be excited about it come Sept here.

Thanks

Very nice pictures, Gary.  Mine is in a 5 gallon SIP and I root pruned it this past winter since it barely had any growth last year.  It is growing stronger than ever now.

Dan,

I had several root-bound trees last year that responded very well to root-pruning this past winter.  Only two did not respond well, putting out a few inches of growth, and currently idling.  Perhaps I needed to prune more top growth, I don't know for sure.  Otherwise, just fresh potting mix after root pruning.  Several factors may be affecting a slow-growing tree, but keep in mind that some varieties are slow by default.

That's good to know. Thank you for your complete response, Frank. I'm trying to make sense of all the seemingly contradictory ways slow growing figs cross the spectrum of sudden death for no apparent reason on the one side and put on growth like they are steroids on the next, as reported here in past various posts.

So far, if there is a pattern of best practice that can be applied generally, then I can't see it yet. Too many factors come into play and interact with each other. And like you said some varieties are slow growing by their nature.

You are right, Dan.  You can only do so much before the tree's DNA takes over and it does what it feels.  Always keep 2 of every variety you do not wish to ever lose, if possible.  The good news is, after the first year of a fig tree's life, it is very hard to kill them, assuming you do the basics (watering, pruning, etc).  In my experience, after the 1st year, I've never had a tree die unexpectedly.

Okay. Just get over the first year hurdle. And with my luck lately, I am going to double the back up number to 3 or 4 when possible/resource permitting.

It's true that fig friends can be another source of back up. Once you build relationships, the links are your safety net. However, I don't think there's anything that can turn back the time invested. Imagine the favored fig trees that have reached maturity at year 5. Their fig flavor have reached the apex and stabilized. A freak freeze/ heat wave/ flood, etc...came through before any protection can be erected. Even if the trees recover from the ground, the five years of effort and growth have been wiped out. New trees can be rooted and planted, but I imagine I would feel a deep loss, like 5 years of my life had just froze to death.

That's why I think it wise to plant two of each variety in ground at different locations; one in the main orchard and another in a hedge as a hedge against disaster. The third string in the bow would be a container plant. The fourth and fifth are frankenfig and fig friends. In such a way the risk of lost time is spread out and mitigated. Of course practicalities and other limitations have to be considered too, like if there is no land, space, and other resources. By such point, the issue becomes about force-constrained decisions.

Given an unconstrained choice I would back up the trees in such a way that time invested in favored cultivars is preserved because the costliest, most irreplaceable resource, and most precious is not the monetary cost of attaining the variety, but the cost of time invested in attaining and growing it.

Sorry for the long reply post. Recently, I've thought a lot about what if plan ABC all failed, then what is it I want saved above all.

You sound like you work in IT, Dan.  :)   Backup, backup, backup.  I have the same mentality.  I would hate to start from square one if I lost a well established tree.  I only have room for about 30 trees (winter storage), so every year I am removing and replacing trees, keeping the best performers.
Sorry for derailing the thread, Gary!