Two years ago I purchased a fig from Dalton called Green Greek.  I potted it and last year I was surprised to see how fast it grew.  Since I only had one of these trees, I potted in a 5 gallon container and left it adjacent to the end of my wall.  When summer hit, the tree took off and grew very fast then out popped the figs.  The figs were a light green in color and medium in size.  As summer went by, I noticed the limbs were hanging close to the ground.  When I touch one of the figs, it just fell into my hand.  I did not think the fig was ripe so I sliced it open and was amazed at the color of the pulp, bright red.  I grabbed my camera and took a few pictures below.  These figs were excellent in flavor and not one bird touched them!  The flavor was very sweet and rich, not watery or acidic.  This fig is a late bearer and does not split.  So, get yourself a Green Greek. You will be glad you did!  cheers,

Yummy!!!

Dennis, very nice. Looks delicious, I'll have to add it to my Durio want list.

Send Martin one........;-))

HA!  Very funny Cecil!  Martin won't even take a second look at this fig.  Hehehe

:-)).........:-))

Should Martin ever eat a Col De Dame white or a Smith fig..........he will have a better appreciation for a white fig.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

I hope it is as good as you say, Dan.  I am anxious to eat a Col de Dame, if my plant survives recent damage.

Waht about white triana?  What about Atreano?  Gotta grab my bib to protect the keyboard.....

noss

Dennis,

I'll be picking this up when I return from my trip.
This three is about 25 or 30 years old. The canopy is well over 6' wide

It produces huge crops from what I was told.

Hope we can identify it it this Summer

Dennis
Do you mean late ripening when you say "This fig is a late bearer"?

Noss,

My White Triana was killed to the ground too this past winter......only one tiny little branch made it. I am beginning to believe that it (as some of my other varieties) exhausted its energy reserves last season with all of the figs that it produced.  Quite a few unripe figs were still hanging on the tree into the spring. That is one variable I will pay more attention to this coming season. My Col De Dame died all the way to the ground......I "believe" for the same reason.......too many unripe figs at first frost along with an early leaf drop long BEFORE frost arrived.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

Yes Dan:I also noted that when a young fig tree produces a lot of fruits and all of them are left to mature ,the next Spring the plant dies to soil level,doesn't matter the frost protection.
I think we should thin the fruits,in the situation above.
The same exact thing happened to My Maltese Falcon,when in third year,and after that ,it took 2 extra years to save it from certain death.
Now in the sixth Spring,finally it is back ,with enough live wood as it had,when it was 3 years old.
I am not going to make that mistake again.

Herman, I think that's what happened to 2 of my Black Madeira trees.  Both were in containers and full of figs.  One produced several ripe figs.  Then one day and on the same day, the leaves just dried up leaving all the figs on both trees.  I removed all the figs on both trees and set the trees in the shade until the other day.  I repotted both trees.  I'm not sure they will make it but I repotted them anyway.  I hope they do.

Thanks for that confirmation.

I am going to "thin" some of the figs off of my fig trees to keep this from happening again. The exact same thing happened to my very nice Blue Bingo fig tree.  That really ticked me off. My Blue Bingo's mother tree is hardy down here and I was very surprised to see my tree had died to the ground. My Black Triana and St. Jerome also died to the ground too. Yep........ these had produced too many figs as well. That seems to be the link that ties these "dyings'" together. I pay close attention to the "no fertilizer late in the season" rule. 

I have heard of this happening to other fruit trees. When a tree tries to ripen too many fruit they can die very easily when they go dormant.  Did not realize that this could happen with figs as well. I TOO AM NOT GOING TO MAKE THAT MISTAKE AGAIN!!!

------------------------------------------------
Jason,

I am lucky enough to have tasted many different varieties of figs (maybe one hundred). Hands down the best "tasting" is Col De Dame Blanc and Smith ranks real high in the taste department too. Smith is a Louisiana heirloom Italian fig; and so far, I have not seen it pictured in any collection of Italian fig pictures. 

Dan
Semper Fi-cus  

Questions from a concerned fig newbie: what qualifies as a "young" fig tree, how much is too much fruit, and how much should we thin?

Thanks,
MK

Here it is:
New Spring Rooted plant: Less than 5 fruits,to be left.
Second year rooted plant Less than 12 fruits left.
Third year:24 fruits or less
Forth year:36  fruits or less
Fifth Year:60 fruits or less
Sixth year:90 fruits or less
Seventh year:150 fruits or less
This  table does not apply in ideal climate as Central California,but is for cold climates,where plant needs to remain strong to make it trough the winter.
Note:The above number are ,for a cultivar that makes small size fruits(1 ounce).
For cultivars with Large fruits(2+ ounces),reduce the number of fruits,to Half!
The above Table is what I consider safe,for maintaining good health, of the young tree.

I would add one other thing to that Herman. Should all of the leaves drop off of my plant......I will remove all the figs ASAP. I have a longer season than in the North east and sometimes the leaves fall from my in ground fig trees when cooler weather arrives and BEFORE frost comes. I have left some figs on the tree hoping they would ripen. They did not ripen and my tree got winter damaged.....even though I live in zone 9.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

Thank you so much, Herman. That is great information.

Dan - I am very excited. I really wanted a Smith after reading your posts, and I found and ordered one this week. I feel blessed!

MK

Dan, I'm so sorry your trees died back over the winter.  I hope they come back well for you.

I'll have to be sure to watch my White Triana carefully next winter.  I got a nice one from Joe Morle and it arrived yesterday beautifully packed. 

I hate that your tree died back, but it's still alive, so that's good and you have been able to post your thoughts about not leaving figs on the trees late in the season when they're young.  Thanks for that and thanks to you, as well, Herman.

Just because it's hot as all getout down here doesn't mean fig trees will make it through the winter.  Because you told me the Black Celeste is tender to cold, I sheltered it on the carport for the cold weather and it did well.  I sawed it in half and potted up both halves and they are doing well, so far.  I just put them back out in the front garden to get sun.  They've been getting some sun from under the carport this past week.'

Now I need to remember the White Triana will be tender, maybe and I'll watch how many figs I leave on the trees through the summer.

Thanks,

noss

Noss,

It is all good......part of trialling figs is to learn about their growing habits. Mother nature knows what is best. My LSU Scott's Yellow produced lots of figs last year too. It is a heavy producer of figs. In October/November  it had at least one hundred breba figs growing every couple of inches on the old wood. These came out AFTER the main crop figs. In a shorter growing season than mine, these would have been this year's breba crop.  I have never heard of a fig giving TWO BREBA crops. But, this tree was smart enough to drop all of those figs as soon as the cool weather arrived.  AND it was smart enough NOT TO DROP its leaves. It made it through the winter intact. However, there are no breba figs this year. Last year, Scott's Yellow gave me some excellent tasting breba figs that ripened the second week of June.....three to four weeks before Celeste figs ripen. That is what is so interesting about this particular cultivar.....excellent tasting early breba figs.

Dan,

It's good, then.  You have more information to write down.

Glad your BCeleste did well this past winter.  My one, that became two seem to be doing well out in the sun.  The twins are a good size and growing well.

The LSU Scott's Yellow sounds like a real winner, but one that got mixed up a little...  What are its parents?

noss

Last year I planted (in-ground)

Hardy Chicago (the LSU strain) produced a lot of figs for me and it had zero winter damage. My nice sized VdB died to the ground too......ticks me off because it is soooo good.   It had produced lots of figs last year. Green Greek did fine; but, it was not very productive last year. So was unknown Late Green, Stawberry Adriatic, JH Adriatic, and Battaglia green. Damatie had zero damage.

Thought I lost my little heirloom unknown black Italian and my larger Black Italian fig (in the retail trade?).......yesterday I saw that both were coming up from the roots. Even my LSU Late Black and Quantico fig were killed to the ground .....I am guessing because they had too many late season figs. GM Sicilian Dark #11 had lots of damaged too......produced lots of late season figs. This cultivar seems to be bird resistant in my yard. Maybe if the birds had eaten some of those figs, it would have less damage.

.........live and learn from bad experiences. It is all good experience when you have plenty of trees. It is a real pain in the buttox when you only have one or two trees that you are depending on.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus