Good Afternoon,

My ultimate goal would be to provide a quality fig to my local market at Thanksgiving.  

But even October would be nice since the stores stop carrying figs by mid September.

What varieties would you recommend to accomplish this?  Is this too unrealistic in zone 8?

Thanks for all input.

Hi Don,

You are in the same zone as I am.

Col de Dame Blanc is productive and a late fig for me and the flavor is on top of the charts. 
 
This variety may have smaller fruits than others perhaps, but What it lacks in fruit size, it makes it up in superior flavor.

Hi DonCentralTexas,
Today, I just tasted a second true Brownturkey main crop ... I'm surprised at how good both were. See my thread on the brebas, and you'll see the leaves of my BT.
I'll post later when I have more figs from my real BT .
So try a true BT .
I'm in Zone7... In Zone8, perhaps they will ripen earlier.

Sas,

I did a lot of reading on Col de Dame Blanc, sounds like most everyone raves about it's taste.  I read differing reports on how well it grows.  How well does yours grow here?  Do you need to remove any unripe figs before winter? 

I have it on my UC Davis list for next year, but I'm not known for my patience. Too bad it would cost me an arm to plant 10 clones :)

jdsfrance,

I can't say I have tasted a real Brown Turkey.  Most big box stores carry a fig called Brown Turkey here, I'm not sure if this is the same fig your speaking of, and I can't comment on them, as I've never tasted them, but they are plentiful alright, even our local grocery stores sell the potted figs in spring.  I'll read your thread to see if it is the same.

Honestly I was thinking in the class of Violette Sollies, I don't have enough land for large production, so I was thinking something that most people around here can't easily find, and could bring a premium.  We do have a plethora of "upscale" grocery stores in Austin.

Don, I'm experimenting with many varieties mainly in pots.

I just picked a third fig of the season today from my Col de Dame Blanc which I put into the ground last summer.

It is ripening slowly and may continue to ripen for another month.

It is not the most attractive looking fig when totally ripe. i.e. it might not look great on a supermarket shelf, but when it comes to flavor it belongs to a class by itself.

If I don't have any other variety, I really don't care right now. I'm hoping that I get a good production from my tree in a few years so that I could satisfy my fig crave.

I have three other small trees in the ground, namely Col de Dame Gris and Noir and a Black Madeira, but they are still too small to evaluate.

I'm sure they are late too as they seem to have the same growth habits as the Col de Dame Blanc. The Black Madeira also needs a lot of heat to ripen.

Here's some snapshots of the  Col de Dame fig I picked today.

     

Sas it sounds like you went straight to the hardest to find most unique varieties. Seems like you are only missing UC Black Ischia. Time to try a good fig that does not need so much time to ripen. Don, there is a fig orchard in Rhode Island, they harvest Brown Turkeys (yuk!) into November under a hoop house. My crop ends first week of October outdoors here. It would be nice to know which varieties ripen later but you have warmth late into the season. There is an italian fig that ripens a third crop around christmas, can't remember the name. The California growers have some kind of huge Brown Turkey variant that ripens in November and there are always some regular Brown Turkeys that come on sale from thanksgiving into December here.

I think it's beautiful, but I bet your right, if someone unfamiliar with figs saw it in the store they might pass it by.  I bet that some restaurants would be interested to get a few of those.  I'm not looking to get rich, just add to my products I provide, every little bit adds up.

I wonder if either the Gris or Noir would have more visual appeal.  I recently traded for a Bourjasotte Noir hoping it would produce very late, but like you I'm a long ways from trying it's fruit.  Best I can hope for is next year.

I'm not sure 4-5 trees could satisfy my fig craving, well maybe really big ones. :)

Please keep the pics coming, looks scrumptious.

Don, I would try to experiment with grafting. I grafted a Preto Cutting onto a Black Mission and I got 2 Pretos, they were great had a grape/punch flavor. I did the graft in January and got the figs in August.  I am still new to grafting, will attempt this fall when the temps drop. The grafts like to be cool. Lost most of my grafts to RKN and some due to Heat.

rafaelissimmo,
 

I guess I'm going to trial a Brown Turkey, like Celestes though there seems to be lots of taste, growing variations, mis-labelings.  
Surely someone has a BT that they really love, and would suite my needs.  That would be my luck, I think I'm coming up with a great idea, and bam,
someone else starts flooding the Texas market with figs for Thanksgiving.  None the less, I want my figs for Thanksgiving :)

Armando,

What type of graft works best for you?  I've only tried Mulberry, I think it was a cleft graft, my first and only failed, but I do plan on trying again this winter.
Preto is on my list, but it's also on a lot of others as well...

Rafael, Don ...

I am big on French varieties, but my plants are new.

Here's a shot of a fig that could be a winner at restaurants.

I'm still researching productivity, Hardiness and ripening schedule. It is too early to tell.

This summer, my tree produced three figs only. As of today, two of them are still not ripe. As soon as I get a chance, this tree definitely belongs in the ground. 


   



 
   

I grew a Monrovia Brown Turkey in NJ. It was quite good.

Howard at Davis said that some growers in the southern end of the Central Valley and maybe in the desert had very late crops of Verdal Longue and I have it on trial (first year tree).  Bass has Shtawi which is also supposed to be a late fig and I'm trying it also.

How about Abebereira and Verdone?
Nice color combination, too.

Sas,
Is that CdDN?  Yes, it definitely has some eye candy appeal.

Everyone, thanks for those varieties suggestions, I appreciate them, not a single one have I thought of.  Gives me something much better to read about than the news.

Unless your season is switchlight on and off, figs that ripen in Oct may well lack taste because of cooler temps.

A lot of figs that ripens in Oct Nov in genuine Medit-type climes seems to ripen earlier in other hot climes.  Then again, we're mostly talking about pot culture.

You'll have much better chances of market penetration with early figs than with late.  There are a number of them, like Pastilliere (and brebas + San Pedro types) that should plaster all of the Celeste type stuff that is also ripe at the time.  Or Pastilliere should be an early fig.

Search the blog for the fig ripening thread, and you should get a decent idea of which figs are most likely to fruit when (barring climate differences).

Watch out for figs that really won't ship well.