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FIG tree ID/ Story

This probably should have been my first post, but on well. I am new to having fig trees and gardening in general. I became fascinated with figs, after going to Sicily this summer with my wife's family who is from Sicily and seeing the giant fig trees and eating figs that were near pear sized almost the entire time I was there. All you needed to do was tell them you liked something and they would disappear and come back with whatever it was and give it to you until you couldn't eat anymore.
So, when I came back home. I was on a mission to get some of my own figs. I am in Central New Jersey zone (Zone 6B I believe) so the cold weather/ wrapping is an issue. I had an anxiety about wrapping the tree, since I was sure I won't do it right. My wife's grandparents are hardcore gardeners, they have about 10 trees and he wraps them all even at 80 he is up on a ladder wrapping them up. He is the one who gave me the cuttings, which thanks to this website I am have very good success so far in rooting them. I am not sure what variety since he has a few and just gave me many unidentified cuttings in a bag one day... I will find out at some point...
Now for some back story and the ID question. a few months prior to him giving me the cuttings an avid gardener coworker who was familiar with my fig tree quest told me she saw an ad in the paper for cold hardy fig trees and gave me the number. I called and he was right down the road from me. He has three varieties only described as white, brown and purple/red. By the time I got there only the whites and browns were left. He was very nice and willing to give me all the info he had. He insisted that these trees to not need to be wrapped and I had said if they did it would be fine if they did, just let me know. He has never wrapped any of them. He had maybe 20 or 30 trees growing all around this giant barn and has been growing/ propagating /transplanting these for 40 years. He told me his fathers friend brought them back from a high mountain region of Italy 40 years ago. He even invited me to come back in the winter to see they will not be wrapped. He did say there would be some die back, but that but that is it. He just advised that it would be better to plant them near a something to give it some protect and it would limit the die back I bought a larger white tree and brown tree. The white figs were white and reddish. The browns were just brown. I have pictures of the leaves before they went dormant. Right now they are on the side of my house unwrapped and I am anxiously awaiting summer to see if they make it. Can anyone ID the trees from these pics? Does any of this sound reasonable?


It does have a pretty skinny leaf.  Would be helpful to see the ripe fruit, both interior and exterior, with a coin near it for reference.

I would say it looks line Negronne or Brunswick or something

Negronne:  http://figs4fun.com/Thumbnail_Negronne.html
Brunswick:  http://figs4fun.com/Thumbnail_Brunswick.html

Satellitehead, do you think that Negronne and Brunswick are actually hardy enough to be grown outside without protection in a zone 6, and only get some die back??????


71GTO, Thanks for posting the pictures and the and the information. Would you mine telling us the name of the place or person you bought your trees from. Also, your in luck living in New Jersey. There are two very knowledgeable fig growers in New Jersey, Gorgi and Herman2. They are also form figs 4 fun forum members. Once they see your post, they might be able to help in identifying your trees. If they are not unknowns. 

We have been growing figs outside in Connecticut now for around five years. All of our 12 trees or so are bent to the ground around the end of October and cover with soil. The only fig that we have we have left out without any winter protection is a tree that we purchased as Hardy Chicago. Half the time it gets killed to ground level and half the time it gets kill back to just a foot or so from the ground. We have never had any type of crop from it because of that. I think if you have been able to find fig trees that have been proven to grow outside without winter protection, your very lucky and far ahead of most people who are just starting to grow figs in the north, for the first time. 

Thanks for the pictures and hope to see more of your postings in the future

Bob

Thanks, Satellite. I don't have any pictures of the fruit. I bought the trees late in the season and they did not fruit. The trees he had with fruit on them looked like the Brunswick. It's hard to decide if the leaves were skinny without a reference, but I would think they might be on the skinnier side. Hopefully next year I will have some fruit to show you pictures.

Thanks for the info Too, Robert. I hope to hear from them. I really want to get good trees going here. I did actually find a fig nursery here. He had said some of the he has varieties only need to be wrapped for the first few years then they are good to go.
 I don't have the persons name I bought them from. It was just an ad in the paper. I don't know if he would be comfortable with me posting his information on the Internet. He was not a professional grower or anything like that. If these live I will go back and contact him to maybe pick up a few more trees I would certainly direct him to this site. I guess I can include you guys in with my Sicilian relatives who are all waiting to see what happens before they go get one. They are skeptical as well of a fig tree that doesn't need to be wrapped.

Robert, I have zero experience with z6.  If I were going to ask anyone, I would hit up Ed (ejp3) to inquire about his experiences.

How is your Hardy Hartford tree doing these days?  Do you have pics of the fruit?

Jason, I posted picture of Hardy Hartford fruit and leaf last year If you did not see them, let me know and I will email the pictures to you.


This year we have about 45 fruit on two trees. The in ground plant has around 30, and the in pot plant has about 14.

The in ground plant has not started ripening. The potted plant started ripening around the middle of August. The same time as Marseilles Black VS. In Hardy Hartford's first year i ground. it beat Marseilles Black VS in ripening, by 3 to 5 days. This year Marseilles Black VS beat Hardy Hartford by about 3 days.

The first year it ripened, Hardy Hartford had a figgy flavor. This year it's flavor is closer to Marseilles Black VS.

We sent cuttings out to about 20-30 collectors. But, so far no one has been able to identify it.

It appears to be maybe from the same family as Hardy Chicago. But, ripens earlier along with Marseilles Black VS. I do not think Hardy Hartford will be as cold hardy as Marseilles Black VS. But, It's being grown in Hartford, CT. without any winter protection.

71GTO, I'm impress that your plant had very little winter damage it's first winter in  ground without any protection. Did the guy you bought your plant from say how long he had been growing the original tree in hos present location?

Can you describe it's flavor?

Bob

Hi, Robert. I messaged you back the answer already. I got confused with this one and the other thread I had. I think he has had his trees in their current spot for about 20 years. They were sweat and I think they had a fig taste. They didn't taste like another fruit or anything. I am no fig taste expert. I was happy with the taste, but i'm sure it would have been better if it didn't rain so much this week and last.

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