Anyone have experience growing figs in San Jose? I will be moving there to open my business, unfortunately I wont have the time to take my 100+ plants only a handful of my best. Soon I'll have to sell off 75% of my fig trees :(

Howie,
I am sorry to hear about your figs and congratulations about your business.
I think Harvey would be one of the people to give you an advise.

Are you going to be selling any figs locally (no shipping )?

The figs will sort themselves out but my question to you is, do you know the way to San Jose?;) Sorry, couldn't resist.

Howie: San Jose, California is very good place to grow fig trees in the ground because the average minimum temperatures is between 45°F and 50°F degrees in the winter. The temperatures in the summer are between 82°F and 85°F degrees and sometimes, they reach 90°F or more too. Thanks for sharing and good luck on your business.

Best,
Tam

Howie: I came to San Jose, California 3 times a few years ago and each time, I stayed there for 7 days. San Jose has a well-defined summer dry season. So, I  think is very good place to grow figs in the ground. 

Best,
Tam

Howie, San Jose is a good place for figs, not great, but pretty good (maybe a 7 or 8 on a scale of 1-10).  It is not as warm as where I am and I'm cooler than Madera, the fig capital of the state.  The Emma Prusch Park has a nice collection of figs in San Jose but they seem to lack adequate irrigation/care.  You should really consider joining the Santa Clara Valley chapter of CRFG which is primarily responsible for maintaining the tree collection there.  They have some empty spots in the fig orchard and I was going to donate some extras to plant there but am somewhat hesitant until I know for sure the trees will receive adequate water.  They have a bid out right now to get some modifications made to the irrigation system but I'm wondering if the city has cut back on watering due to cost controls, etc.  I was told once that Panache did not ripen there at Prusch but there were some ripe figs when I visited with another forum member a couple of weeks ago.  Many of the figs were quite acidic, seemingly from stressed trees or something like that.  I'm about 75 minutes east of San Jose.

Please email me a list of what you will be selling.  You can bring it up here and visit it every year by visiting my farm! http://www.figaholics.com shows my new orchard. :)

HarveyC: I am sure you have fig wasps in San Jose, California right? So, you can grow Smyrna fig trees there. Thanks for sharing.

Best,
Tam

Howie, Good luck on your Business , and will be waiting to see your Fig List for sale...
Mark

Hi Howie, Tam and Harvey are spot-on with their assessment of San Jose (IMHO).  I live just outside San Jose in the Santa Cruz Mountains, but I'm in San Jose most every day.   I see so many fig trees during the week (I drive around a lot...) that my goal is to find a new one every week to potentially harvest some cuttings from.  Most of them turn out to be (what I believe to be) Missions, but I'm not complaining :)

There are a couple of forum members that I know of who live in San Jose, so you'll probably be getting some more responses.  There are a lot of common fig tree varieties at the nurseries, so I believe you can grow just about anything here.

I've had really good luck with gowing Missions (of course), but I also have a Panache that produced this year.  I've put in the ground a Sal's, an Ischia White, a Santa Cruz Dark, and a UCD Dauphine, which all seem to be doing well, though they've not produced any fruit yet.

Good luck with the move and maybe we can get together when you get a chance!  Feel free to PM me, if you want-

JR

JR: Have you seen any Smyrna fig trees or wasps there? Thanks for sharing.

Best,
Tam

JR: Do you grow Desert King fig tree? Please let me know about Desert King main crops, thanks for sharing.

Best,
Tam

Tam, I have not observed any caprifigs in San Jose but imagine there are some around.  I don't see evidence of the figs at Prusch being caprified nor have I seen or heard of Smyrna types being grown by any of the members of the CRFG chapter that meets there at Prusch.  That said, the old 1900 Year Book of Agriculture (published in 1901) that discusses the introduction of wasps into the U.S. mentions a collection of caprifig trees in Niles, CA.  Niles is now part of what is today called Hayward which is fairly close to San Jose.  The caprifig trees in Niles ripened something like a month later than those down near Fresno back in 1900.  I think mine are too early to be of help to send to growers back east but maybe folks in cooler areas (less hot, actually) like San Jose, etc. could become good buddies to some of the growers back east.

Harvey: Thanks for sharing.

Best,
Tam

Howie, sounds like a big move in several ways. Good luck to you, your family, and your figs. :)

Thanks for the info everyone. Well that's good news! I just wish I could take my whole collection! I wont have any time or room to take care of my plants! I have enough plants for someone to start their own orchard! I'm not sure why I kept cloning and growing so many plants, was soo much fun! I have 3 of my 8 bedrooms filled with fig plants lol. For instance I have almost 10 VdBs, 4 Tacoma Voilets, 10 Kathleen Black, 7 ginos Black, 7 desert kings etc etc! I'll have my brother to compile a list of the plants I wont be taking.

Wow! Howie73x, you have a very big house, thanks for sharing. You can grow Desert King with the second main crops successfully in San Jose. Very good for you.

Best,
Tam

Howie - I recently purchased a VDB from a local nursery, and it has 2 figs on it.  So, I think your VDB's will do well here.

Tam-  I can't answer your question about the Desert King simply because I've never had one, although I have recently up-potted a cutting to a 1 gallon pot.  I did find a tree a while ago that I was unsure of (thought it was a Kadota) and I posted pictures of it, and another member looked at it (a San Jose guy) and said he thought it was a Desert King. 

I haven't seen any wasps, but I believe I have run across a couple of caprifigs (they were hollow and dry inside with a slimy, rubbery, insipid meat).  Because of my lack of experience, I'm not even sure they were caprifigs, though they were definitely different than the common figs I've been finding.  Sorry I'm not much help!

There is a VdB at Prusch and it does well.  There is also a CdD Noir there (which I see on your wish list) which is doing pretty good.  Soils are mostly high in pH there so they should all do well, the season is just a bit later than in my area or in the San Joaquin Valley.

How's that Galicia Negra doing you bought last year.  If you don't have room for it, just let me know! lol

The Galicia Negra went dormant mid summer! I think the heat affected her. I put her inside and finally she started growing. She's big enough for 6-10 cuts. I promised Gorgi and Driveway cuts. Let me know if you want a clone.

Wait, did I miss what business?  I hope this is a 'want to' move and not a 'have to' move.  Good luck out there.

Howie, wow!  8 bedrooms.  sounds like a lot of stuff to move. i recommend that you start boxing early to help make it a bit easier.  label well.  i hope your business does great. take care.

Congrats on the business and I hope it all goes fantastic.  I think moving to Sand Jose will be a whole new experience.  Good luck!