Hi,

Just posting to say hello & to introduce myself. I'm brand new to the forum and just as new to figs in general. I think I'm hooked already! I've enjoyed "growing things" for as long as I can remember. I've been thinking about trying figs for years but only now am I getting started with them. I'm in south west KY (zone 6b).

There's a neighbor of mine who's an older gentleman (70 I think) and he's been growing them for years here. He has just two unknown varieties that have been doing quite well. One is a red/brown variety that seems to be producing very well (he cans/preserves a bunch every year). The only other variety he has is what he's been calling a yellow ("yella" in his vernacular :) fig. This one seems to poduce a late crop which seems to be a bit too late for our zone as it is producing now (mid Nov.).

This neighbor of mine comes from Missippi (he brought the fig trees with him when moved here) and he has never provided any sort of protection for either of these fig varieties in either locale. They've always been grown right out in the open- not even on a the south side of a building. As I said, the brown one produces magnificantly this way while the yellow one grows well under these conditions but just seems to produce too late in the year for us. Maybe the s. side of a house would produce better results.

I really have no idea what either of them are (the brown one might be brown tukey/texas everbearing or similar considering its productivity & hardiness) but I was very excited when he offered to give me some of each if I wanted. I couldn't refuse so I promptly set up a nice little bed on the south side of my brick house. I was expecting a few cuttings. Little did I know that what I would end up with turned out to be FOUR 4' + trees and three 18" + whips with roots and plenty of cuttings to boot!! Wow! I tried to give him some money for them but he would have no part of it. What a nice guy! 

Yes I know some of you may be thinking 'why are you transplanting in November!?'. Well, as I said, I just couldn't refuse. Besides, I have a hunch that most of them will do just fine anyway.

Oh, by the way, the trees & cuttings I mentioned are what I only kept for myself. I have a few more pieces left over that I'm going to trade with a local horticulturist friend of mine for a couple of other known varieties.

Well, Ive made a pretty long first post (Sorry) so I will try to wrap it up.

I enjoy taking photos so I will try to share as many as I can. That is once I figure out how to get them on here. Any pointers on that will be much appreciated. I'm also interested in trying more new varieties in my area. So if anyone has any suggestions on which ones might do best here please let me know. Any really good ones that might be a challenge here would be of interest to me as well. 

I've had so many hobbies/plant varieties over the years I know my wife will soon be rolling her eyes at me again when she sees our 1.75 acres filling up with fig trees. I don't think she's quite gotten over the bamboo era yet but I'll try to ease her into figdom gently -Hee Hee.

Looking forward to hearing from you all.

-Bill.
Hazel, KY  
  

Welcome from another newbie!

When you click "reply" or are making your new post, look just underneath the box where you type your message.  You will see a link "Manage attachments" with a paperclip next to it.  If you click that link, a popup box will appear.  Click the Browse button in the popup to locate the picture file on your hard drive.  Once you've filled as many boxes as you require (up to 5 per post), click the Upload button and the files will start uploading to the forum.  Once it's complete, and you enter your message in the box, when you click post, the images should appear below the comment in the finished post.

NOTE: You need to make sure your pictures are less than 1MB in size.  With the newer 3-megapixel-and-greater cameras out there now, it's really easy to end up with huge sized photos, both in height/width and in actual size they take up (bytes/megabytes).  If you find you need to resize photos, there is a great free app out there to do it called IrfanView http://www.irfanview.com

Those unknown figs sound pretty cool.  You should snap photos of the leaf, the unopened ripe fruit, and then the fruit split open (next to a quarter or other coin for reference) and post pics so others can take a stab at ID'ing them.

Welcome saxonfig
Good start for you and make good use of it. You may need a bit more protection for your new plants outside the first couple of years. We can always use others experience but should also look at all the variables. Your neigbour trees may survive without covering but possibly because the trees may be mature and can survive (compared to your small plants) and possible micro-climate situation. I am suggesting good protection at the start years if you have to plant them outside in zone 6b.

Welcome.

One good approach to growing figs is to take cuttings from trees in your area which are know to perform well, and which you like, and then rooting the cuttings. Even if they are ubnknowns, if they perform well, they are good choices. The name is not as important as the outcome.

See http://figs4fun.com/Growing_Tips.html for the basics.

Ah another one hooked - reeled in !
Welcome from illinois amd yes most here if not all enjoy pics.

Hello Bill, and welcome to fig addiction. Sounds like you've got off to a great start. Looking forward to your future posts.

Welcome aboard ~Bill

Welcome--and if your wife rolls her eyes, just tell her how much better the figs will taste than bamboo!

Big Welcome from South Florida
Sal

Glad you are here, Welcome.  Ciao!

It's great to see another new member. Y'all are coming out of the woodwork lately, which is good. It's always nice to meet new people and learn about their figs and their local.

Partially because of my work background, and partially due to curiosity, I am very interested to know the manner in which people find F4F.

I was watching Georgia Gardener and saw Ray Givan on the show walking through his figs.  That was around the time that I started looking up the varieties he mentioned, and eventually came across the F4F variety database.  I started dreaming about growing in pots while sallivating looking at all the pictures.

I was delighted to find F4F's "Basics" section, the section from the fellow in NJ that talked about his pot growth method, and then snuck over and read about rooting in a bag - for the umpteenth time.  That's around the time I found an abandoned fig tree that is old and will probably be demolished, and got a bunch of cuttings....and put all the info to use.

I was so excited to find the F4F Basics info that for about 3 weeks now, I've been posting links to it and talking about the forum, here, over at GW, on the Atlanta Fruits list, just ... all over the place.  I'm curious if anyone that saw those is amongst the newly registering? 

I found f4f while googling for information about a problem with one of my trees.

Welcome Bill,

If you ever have the opportunity to visit Mtn. Grove, Missouri, the Missouri State University Fruit Experiment station is there.  They have several varieties of fig trees and I think were going to be putting up a hoop this year.  I have traded a couple varieties with them.  They have also gotten several varieties from a fellow in St. Louis who sells the fruit at Farmer's markets and to restaurants.  His large, heated hoophouses are a sight to see! 

Thanks for the warm welcome! It's a pleasure to meet everyone.

Thanks Jason for the tips on loading photos. It seems like it will be easier than I've seen on some other forums. I'll give it a shot here in a few.

OttawanZ5- Good point on the micro-climate consideration. I used to live in Naples FL and this was taken quite seriously by the SW FL Tropical Fruit Association. It was often a simple matter of a cold sensitive tree being planted near a body of water or not. Point being; a decent size body of water holds heat longer than the surrouning area. It usually was enough to ward of frost long enough for the sun to come up. I saw frost only 3 times in the 10 yrs I lived there. Zone 10 BTW.

I definately plan to see what else is doing well in my area. Today was an awesome day here in KY. Beautiful sunshine with a high of about 70. I took the remainder of the plant material I had over to my friend who is a horticulturist. I ended up with two more unknown brown varieties. One is a possible Brown Turkey that was doing well up in Owensboro KY. And the other he couldn't even rember if they had been cuttings from a yellow or brown fruited fig tree. So I'll just have to wait and see on that one :). I did end up with one other that he was certain about and that is the Italian Honey or Peter's Honey fig. That's one that I 've eaten fresh out of his hoop house and I'm really looking forward to that one fruiting!

I learned about F4F from one of your fellow forum members who is selling cuttings over on Ebay. I think his username on Ebay is hermansur.

Now here goes my try on the pics. This is a leaf and UNRIPE fruit of the unknown yellow variety that I got from my good neighbor. I just cut open one of the fruit and the flesh was a light pinkish. It may get darker when the fruit ripens- dunno.

Well I just tried loading a couple images and I kept getting the "file size exceeds limit" message. I'll try it in a seperate post. If that doesn't do it then I may need some additional suggestions.   

Here goes another effort on the photos. Okay, looks like I got two out of three to load. The third pic was 1.03 MB so that's why it was getting kicked out.

So enjoy the photos. I don't have my hopes up on an ID since I don't have a ripe fruit & only limited info. But I welcome any stabs at it :). Thanks!

Bill, I'm glad you got the picture thing going. I too new with figs to even venture a guess by looking at leaves, but I do say that they have a unique look to them that I have not noticed before. The end of the lobes seem to be flattened, most others are round or pointed. I'm sure someone here has seen this before and taken note. Good luck.

saxonfig, Welcome aboard.

I am glad that you figured out that the pics files need to
be re-sized to less than 1Mb. Yesterday, I was in the middle
of pointing that to you, but then some pics did pop up...

I agree with genecolin that the leaf shape is quite unique.
I have nothing like it in my big fig collection.
The fruit looks great too.

Sorry, cannot help you with the ID.

Hi Bill  -- welcome & thanks for sharing those pic's. I have never seen fig leaves like that. Very interesting. Good find.