Hi Everyone 

I'm new to growing Figs. Being originally from the Mediterranean, I've always loved figs since I was a child, but I never thought it would be possible to grow my own in the Toronto area until last year. I started off with a Brown turkey and after tasting one of the figs I fell in love. I now have 16 different varieties, 7 of which I will get to taste this year.

My question is... What would be the Best Fig variety for Toronto area?

Are you planning to grow them in ground or in containers?

Currently they're all in pots. I would like to try one in the ground though and I was told Hardy Chicago would be the best choice please let me know your opinion on this.

Thank you
Richard

any of the mount etnas would work, as would rdb n others listed here as cold hardy.
if you wish to leave the tree in place n are willing to work, bury the roots deep. i have not lost a tree since i started putting
roots below the soil freeze line.
that's a heck of a hole but you are guarantied  survival if you start with a healthy tree.
if it has fmv, it will die regardless.

Thats a heck of a hole. Here the frost line is 2 to 3 feet deep, OP is north of me so probably deeper
That's a whole tree underground

That's one deep hole lol in Toronto I think the frost line is 4 feet down.

yup. i never said it would be easy.
i forget who told me that he was successful with 4' deep holes in toronto.
pete, maybe?

mind you, 3' deep plus 1' mulch = 4'.
pons plants 6' deep, using a backhoe.

I don't think it has anything to do with frozen ground.  How cold does frozen earth get -- 30 F?  28F?  The unfrozen earth is too deep a heat sink for it to get much colder.  I guarantee that it is warmer in the frozen earth than in the cold air just above.  In relative terms, the frozen earth is a warm blanket.

Besides, I have a friend who stores potted figs in an unheated detached garage in Z5 that gets 0 F or lower.  The root balls freeze solid.  She opens the garage in mid April, and the root balls are often still frozen.  She loses very few trees.

yeah, i know about your friend, joe.
thing is, i haven't lost a tree since i started deep planting.
did you look at that pons vid?
remember, he is considered perhaps the best fig guy on earth.

something good happens when they are deep planted. might not be just temperature.

Right, we've had this conversation.  I'm willing to accept that planting deep may have benefits.  It's just needlessly discouraging to people who live in cold areas to tell them that they have to plant below the frost line.  

joe, i kinda think i offered it as a workable option.
i don't tell people what to do with their own property.
i actually know someone in toronto who's doing this.

Adriano grows Desert King & LSU Hollier in the ground. Must be something good
for him to put it into ground.

i just remembered. i was taught deep planting by ascpete.
he lives in toronto, which is why i thot you mightlike a proven method for your area.
you need to contact pete for any info on figs in toronto.

Thanks for the responses guys. It's great to see this community!! Here are the varieties i have.

Brown Turkey
Paradiso Nero
Verte
Atreano
Lattarula
Italian Honey
Hardy Chicago
Bolzano
Sucrett
Lebanese Bekka
Desert King
Cypress
Osbourne Prolific
Negrone

I would love to get Ronde de Bordeaux (RdB) and i hear Kadota is a good fig to have because it's very prolific

I am not sure. He is a good guy, informative. You are in a different zone from him. Better to seek someone
From your zone to find out what would ripen bountifully.

I just realized from looking at his website that he does not respond to folks outside of Canada because he cannot ship to them. The website now says, "Due to export regulations and inquiries, Adriano will only sell to customers in Canada and due to the volume of inquiries will only provide advice and information on the cultivation of fig trees to those customers."


I emailed him a few months ago and never got a response. I think I missed this note on his home page. He probably gets inundated.

Dont fret, It took a long time for me to get ahold of adriano, he responded to my email over a month after i sent it and told me to call him, I called several times, left voicemails, never heard back.. Gave up on him, there are enough people sharing cuttings

Ask member pino and get cuttings from his Ciccio Nero.

Hi Maureen.  I'd recommend you also try Florea.  Greetings from another Mainer.  Your collection sounds great!

This guy seems to have a lot of success w/ figs in the GTA and could probably answer your question.

https://steven-biggs-uqio.squarespace.com/home 

Toronto area is one of the major centres with huge numbers of fig collectors.  Lucky for us probably the majority of quality fig cultivars in circulation (outside of the smyrna & capri types) are growing here by some fig collector that was one time on this forum.

IMO if you are growing your figs in containers then any common and san pedro type fig will grow here.

Toronto has nice hot relatively dry summers so you don't have to worry so much about figs splitting.
Some cautions to consider;
- stay away from smyrna and capri type figs since we are outside the wasp zone
- and avoid the real late ripening figs or you will need to do gymnastics to get them to ripen properly.

If you grow your figs in ground then you are better off staying with early, mid ripening figs and breba producers.

Bottom line you don't need to get fixated on any specific variety there are many fig varieties that will grow in this area from each of the flavour groups so you can have lots of taste varieties. 

The link below summarizes some growers results of in ground figs grown in cool climates.  There are several other topics on this subject as well (use the search).

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/favourite-in-ground-figs-for-cold-climates-7892590?&trail=50