Hello to all,
This is my first message so forgive my english, my name is Yves, I live on the north west coast of Brittany, there the climate is oceanic, with a very cool summer at 14-21°C/58-70°F on average for the low/high and a mild winter at 5-10°C/41-50°F. The USDA zone is 9B with -2,5°C/27,5°F at the lowest expected every year. 800mm/31" of rain with 2/3 fall between october and march.
I'm looking for figs varieties that would give a good crop of figs in such climate.
Here we have a very popular fig called "Croisic" (Gillette) for the figs are juicy and fairly sweet here. Croisic is a town in south Brittany where that fig was first described.
I have Ronde de Bordeaux in ground for three years now, it bears around 30 figs for the first time this year but figs are just ripening right now with a bland taste, a bit to late especially this year which is the coolest for ten years.
In pot I have Dalmatie (Stella), Goutte dorée, Pastillière, Brown Turkey, give no figs or to late.
I planted this year: Dauphine gave one nice big juicy fig in august!! Osborne's prolific, Desert King, Grise de Saint Jean.
I think I should look for The San Pedro type figs like Desert king or common type with an abundant and good Breba crop like Grise de Saint Jean, a cold tender but very early and excellent breba crop, the most famous breba of France.
As a San Pedro I found Lampeira in addition to Desert king, it's a portuguese variety with an excellent breba crop also called figue des confiseurs (Confectioner's fig) and very early too! It produces the first week of june, two weeks earlier than Dauphine in Portugal.
Do you have any experience of figs varieties for cool areas?, I'm thinking about the people from the Pacific northwest, North California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia.
Thank you very much.
Yves

Welcome and hope U can share more insights on fig growing in your area.

I am from Pacific North West, Canada and lived not far from the coast(south). Desert King is the best variety grown here. Others that have done fairly well are Osborne Prolific, Gilette and latarulla. At the moment I am trialing Ronde d Bordeaux, Dauphine & Lamperia. My Barbillone, Nebo, Marseillies VS, Longue d'Aout have been giving me main crop figs. Hope this trend continues to improve for these variants. The most promising variant right now are Granthams Royal & Gino. These are young plant and its 1st year productivity may not be a true indicators but so far they have been good news from these variants. Others in my trials are Florea & Takoma Violet. I hope my other variants like Falicciano and coming Doree would add to a bountiful plus flavorful harvest in the short term. Other variants that would do well with the aid of a green house are hardy Chicago, Sal's El, Negronne, Hollier as these variants tend to ripen around mid Oct. I have not trial Grise St Jean but I have plans to acquire some cuttings soon.

Dear Yves,

I, like Paully, live in Vancouver BC where summer temperatures are similar to the ones you describe (I am a little cooler than Paully). Like with your climate, Croisic/Gillette ripens well here and usually a week or 2 after Desert King in
mid August. Although it can be sweet, it is not rich and in my opinion is an inferior fig. Once your Desert King begins to bear in earnest I think you will find that it produces almost as many figs as Croisic (as many as 8-10 breba) figs on some branches) with a flavour that is far superior to the latter variety.  The other fig that many people plant here is Lattarula (also known as Blanche) that can give a reasonable breba crop (up to 2-4 breba per branch) but it is not as good tasting as Desert King.

I am interested in hearing about your successes/failures with breba bearing figs.  Baud s writes that Dauphine produces more breba figs than main crop figs. I have never seen a mature Dauphine fig tree here in Vancouver, but I have a  2 year old tree in the ground that I hope will begin to produce next spring. Do you know any other people in France who grow Dauphine,  Lampera or Grise de St Jean? If so, how many brebas per branch can one expect from these 3 varieties?

I attach an article I wrote for a local exotic plant magazine on my thoughts for figs in cool climates.


Geofiz

Thank you for your answers,

Paully, I never heard of those varieties: Barbillone, Nebo, Marseilles VS, Granthams Royal,  Gino, Florea, Takoma Violet, Falicciano.
Dorée rot easily here. Longue d'août is a good bet in dry soil.

Geofiz (Michael?),
I enjoyed your article! It seems that DK is the best for cool area, I didn't know the taste was that good! a good new.
Dauphine as you know is a San Pedro type, it can make some autumn figs without Blastophaga but the Breba is much more abundant. It is quite common in south Brittany (warmer and sunnier than here) where I saw trees with eavy crop the first days of last august, they are vigourous and get quite tall. I remember one particular tree that was big enough to cover half a garden and some part of the street, the sidewalk was sticky with smashed figs, the figs on the tree were leaking, with many birds and insect buzzing around including me :-).
The taste is good, juicy but not overwhelming, not the best fig for me, a bit to juicy.
Lampeira is not very known in France, there is not report about it. I red a report from the portuguese department of agriculture for the fruits growers saying that it was the best bearer of brebas and two weeks earlier than Dauphine
And Grise de Saint Jean is not recommended out of the mediterranean area, it is one of the most cold sensitive fig tree and freeze badly at -12°C/10°F. In Provence it is famous and grown for its abundant breba crop which is said to have the best taste of all the french varieties. Cuttings are difficult to root. It is fussy when young to acclimatise, need a moist soil and makes a large tree, not for a small garden!

I'm a bit intrigued about Marseilles VS, never heard about it. It seems an early variety, is there any document about it?
In France we only have Figue de Marseille and Marseillaise, both white figs.
Cheers

Yves, A search in this forum will bring up most of the figs mentioned with exception to Nebo and Barbillone. There's a small description of Barbillone over at Adriano's fig website.

Nebo is a small colored fig. Taste is not bad. I am not sure whether I have pic's of it. Its quite productive inspite of the neglect it received.

Hello Yves,

Hello Bass
No I never did it.
Cheers

Hi Yves,

do you post as Kelern on growing on the edge forum? If so, I too am a tree fern enthusiast - you mention you have C australis growing - what is your annual growth rate like in Britany. I started about 30(!) of these from spore and will be trying some in the ground this coming spring. I am hoping that they will prove as hardy as D anarctica that I have kept alive through our winters with not to much problem. I also have a few C medullaris in pots though I think are winters will be too tough for them to go into the ground, even with protection - do you have medullaris in the ground? do you have any recommendations for keeping C australis happy?

MB

Hello Michael,
Yes it is me Kelern ;-)
My C australis planted in 2008 was rather small in a 2l pot and one foot tall is now triple as big, it started slowly and speed up once bigger. It is in a cold spot, has sun in morning only till 11h. It is a bit faster than D antarctica and is as much cold hardy, last winter saw -3°C and a foot of snow that last for a week, it didn't burn the foliage. A D squarrosa beside had its leaves burned. You should plant many, they are strong, I find them less fussy than D antarctica, squarrosa and C smithii standing better the sun, but water them!
I don't have medullaris yet but a friend of mine has a 2,5 metters tall (stipe) one in a much colder area than me, 9a. He wraps the stipe in the fall, the leaves freeze in winter and bounce back every spring.
Cheers

Grise de Saint Jean was awfull tasting here and I discarded it .It also have an open eye and it sour and spoil very badly at the first drop of rain.
Marseilles Black ,is a cultivar that was imported,from France by Hugh Starnes a reasercher for Maryland University,Departament of Agriculture,and grown in a test plot,on the premises,for many years.
At the end of the program Marseilles black,wich is also called Black Provence,was the most precocious,tree there,but the size of the fruits were not large enough for the requirement of the American market place.
Of course cuttings were distributed,for backyard growing and the fig is alive and well here, thow many people do not know the name of this cultivar.

Yves,

Michael's article was one of the best I've seen for cool maritime climates.  Concentrate on the San Pedro types and on those Common types that are known to produce good Breba crops as you likely won't get the Main crop to ripen on most varieties!

Check my website:  http://sites.google.com/site/kiwifruitsalad2
to see what I'm doing in a similar microclimate.  Also download the PDF of Ira Condit's "Fig Varieties: A Monograph" from my website and check the Common types to see which do good Breba crops.

Happy Growing,   kiwibob,   Seattle

Hello Yves,

Thank you for your answers!

Herman2,
It is weird the way figs react depending the climate because Grise de St Jean here doesn't have an open eye and stand well the rain! Are you sure you had the true Grise de St Jean?

Kiwibob,
I know your excellent website, very interesting! Do you know the name of Dan's favorite? will you do other tests? they are many varieties to try!

Bob,
There is nearly nothing about Olympian, it seems promising!

Is there anyway to have some cutings of it and also Marseilles VS too?

Yves

Yves,

No, I haven't been able to determine the true variety name for "Dan's Favorite" but hope to eventually find out.

Burnt Ridge Nursery is starting to propagate "Olympian" but it hasn't undergone any trials yet.  I hope to obtain starts to add to the Puget Sound Regional Fig Variety Test in the next year.  Denny told me in August that it looks very much like "Gene's Vashon" but the only way we'll find out is to have "Gene's Vashon" genetically fingerprinted for comparison.

Sorry, I don't send any Figs out of the country.

kiwibob
Seattle

Hi Yves,

I sent you a private message using the Figs4Fun private email facility a
few days ago. Did you get it? If you did get it, then fine. If you didn't get it, please email me at  bostock@eos.ubc.ca.

Michael
Vancouver

I re-discovered this PDF from CRFG.

Jon, that link didn't work (and it looked interesting)

~Chills

Here is that http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBMQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crfg.org%2Fchapters%2Fgolden_gate%2FFigs%2C%2520Jujube%2520for%2520cool.pdf&rct=j&q=figs%20cool%20climate%20crfg&ei=447pTLbWDoTsOfy23K4K&usg=AFQjCNF1Dlsgyc29nYzqrTNoWjJHHRNyOg&cad=rja

Or directly as Figs 4 Fun Link 612.

Apparently it is not currently available on the CRFG site, but findable through Google.

And another link I found in the process