Perhaps a silly question, but one that has intrigued me. I mostly ask because I'm trying to get a half decent selection of the flavor/color spectrum to try out in my little orchard; there seem to be far fewer light figs than dark that are shown to do well in my zone.

Are light figs, especially 'hardy' varieties, less common than dark figs? Most of the hardy fig lists show 2-3x as many dark figs as light. That being said, it seems many Unknowns are light, at least from the NY area.

Is this a natural occurrence that light figs are less prevalent, or are they less often good figs? I'm sure some will chime in that light figs are simply not good, but that's for another thread, hahah.

dark figs tend to have stronger, more sharp taste. some people prefer that over more mellow taste of light figs. however, it all depends on the variety and condition also. CdDB is very strong berry flavored light figs. Calvert, when condition is just right, will give very tart flavor. but most others that i have tasted, and not too many of it, are more mellow and in some cases bland. some are very sweet, but lacking in complexity. Paradiso Gene is a rather good light fig. sweet, and has nice complex taste. JHA is also another good one, i'm hoping to taste that this yr. JHA last yr was lacking in lot of things, but so did lot of other figs due to non stop rain. 

In addition to Pete's points, certain groups of dark figs simply seem to be more cold able than light figs. (And they may tend to ripen earlier and be more productive.) Anecdotally, last season I put a number of rooted cuttings into the ground in 6b. The ones coming back from the ground the earliest and most vigorously in this cool spring have been dark figs: Hardy Chicago, Celeste, and Brunswick/Magnolia. That said, a couple light figs, Italian Honey/Latarulla and Binello are doing well early, also Emerald Strawberry and Brooklyn White and Desert King (all said to be reasonably cold hardy) but not as well at least initially as the three dark cultivars. Aside from Hardy Chicago I put few Mount Etna rooted cuttings into the ground last year but assume that when I do this year they will also do well. So it seems to me no coincidence that the very few years-established in-ground fig tree/bushes that I'm aware of in this area all happen to have Mount Etna or Brunswick shaped leaves. As I recall Brunswick is a relatively late fruit bearer, so it may be grown more for its ornamental value in this area, at least as compared to the more early ripening Etna cultivars, and maybe Celeste. I have found it odd that very many light figs seem to be grown in the NYC area given that they would not seem to be the most cold hardy, but the ocean is a great extreme temperature moderating force, from which those of us far inland cannot benefit.

But are light figs any more or less common in general? I guess that was my main question.

I think it depends what you mean by "in general." There are so many light and dark figs that the split seems 50/50 light to dark but may not be. And take a look at this taste categorization below that uses 8 categories: 2 light, 5 dark, and 1 mixed:

Dennis "snaglpus" sweetest figs by color:

And take a look at these Fig Flavor groupings, also pulled off F4F threads, I think. The first grouping has 5 categories: 2 light and 3 dark. The second grouping uses 10 categories: 2 light, 8 dark. These 3 tables may get back to what Pete says about the dark figs containing more complex flavors than light figs. May be as many light figs as dark figs, may not. Regardless, may be a greater range of flavors within the dark figs. ...or? Young fig fruits stay green for so long that it is refreshing to me to see the dark ones turn away from the light, so to speak.

 FIG FLAVOR GROUPS

Sugar...Improved Celeste, Eastern Brown Turkey, O'Rourke, Etc.
Honey...Italian Honey,White Marseilles, Atreano, Etc.
Adriatic...Adriatic JH, Conadria, Green Ischia, Etc.
Bordeaux...VDB, Mission, Vista, Etc.
Dark(Black)... Sals EL, Hardy Chicago, Dark Sicilian, Etc

Sugar (Malta and friends) Preto
Honey (Kadota and friends, Italian Honey and friends, Marseilles and friends,...)
Adriatic (Adriatic, Conadria, Smith, Monstreuse, Verte, Bataglia green, Calvert...)
Mt Etna (Hardy Chicago, Sal's, Gino, Dark Porteguese...)
Bordreaux (VdB, RdB, PN, Valle Negra...)
Parsotte (Violette de Soliés...)
Mission types (Mission, Coll de Dames?, Noire de Caromb, Maltese Falcon?) Panache
Brunswick types (Magnolia, Castle Kennedy,...)
Cali Brown Turkey types (Aubique,...)
Black Madeira types (Black Tuscan, Fico Preto,...)

Thanks Tony, interesting charts!

I was largely wondering from your Mountain Fig thread, since there are about 3x more dark than light that are deemed Mountain Figs.

If you look through Jon's varieties list  ( http://figs4fun.com/Varieties.html )not all figs are identified as light or dark but you can get a general idea.

Hi Ampersand,
It all depends on where from the figtrees you're looking at do come from.
Spanish and Portuguese love them dark and dark only.
Italian people, Greeks and eastern Europe countries seem to have both as well.
So if you're in a former Iberian region, you're more likely to only find dark figs.

Funny, as looking at Baud's site got me thinking the opposite. He lists more pale figs as cold hardy: Dalmatie, "Goutte d'or", Tena, "Madeleine des deux saisons" ... to mention a few.

With the qualifier that fig growth and fruit production can vary much by climate region and quality of care given, an exciting feature of the fig chart by such an experienced grower as Dennis is that it reveals the possibility of obtaining very sweet figs at reasonable prices across a full fig color spectrum, with the exception of the black category. At least one fig in each of the 7 other color categories are typically readily available at reasonable prices either at nurseries or on Ebay: Hardy Chicago obviously as purple, Alma as brown, Celeste as red, TX-BA1 as mulatto, Votata/Kadota or Peter's Honey and Excel as yellow, and Strawberry as green (if we take Strawberry to be synonymous with Green Ischia). For blue fig, either a Gino's, Blue Celeste, or Pastiliere can usually be turned up. That leaves those 5 sweetest black figs, which seem to be the most difficult to obtain for a decent price.

Apart from this being probably a tentative list, there is another issue that might provide for some extensive bone picking - not to mention endless philosophical speculation, or scientific testing: Are these colors always or even in some cases often true to cultivar? Are the red figs not sometimes blue, purple, or brown? Are the purple figs not sometimes brown or blue or red? Should a gold fig be in the same color category as a yellow fig? How to categorize figs whose flavor profiles cross color boundaries, or vice versa? What to do with a cultivar named Malta Purple Red....

These quibbles aside, a wide color spectrum of figs seem more or less readily available. Probably the same could be said for flavor profiles as well.

Relative cold hardiness is another field of worms.

To clarify, the lists that I included in response #5 are not my lists. I copied them off I think F4F threads a while back without recording the URLs or even the identities of the list creators in the case of the 2nd and 3rd lists. A quick search did not turn up the original threads. It occurs to me now that I may have added to or amended those 2nd and 3rd lists somewhat based on additional information, possibly including additional information that others posted in those same threads, wherever they may be, not sure. Perhaps the creators of those lists could self identify or others could point to the original threads so that anyone interested could read more about the topic.

There used to be more light fig, a lot more! Martin has been eradicating them slowly but surely for the benefit of all. LOL

What ? Pastiliere is classified as a smurf fig ? Man, I bought one for having a dark fig ...