it's been raining again. VdB is doing still fine. the eyes are still closed.. but it's getting filled with water and the taste is not there.

but Paradiso Gene is just going nuts. it's not blowing up.. but it's getting huge eye. so big that you can put your finger inside the fig. i think i ate a spider or two due to this.

Now that is funny! Sorry to hear about the crop loss. Send some rain my way, please!

So sounds like you got a little protein with your figs Bullet08 - breakfast of champions !

Had a lot of rain here (L.I) and a few of my figs blasted open- ants completely got one the others I washed off.

I noticed when there was more rain the eyes were opening, but I only had a couple varities ripening, The Colisanti Dark keeps a tight eye but the Colisanti #3 gets bigger and splits a bit, DiRedo will split open too with a bigger eye from the rain, but it is very solid inside so a bigger eye doesn't mean much as far as opening, just not much flavour to start with.  None have have a big eye that I can put more than a pencil tip in though.

Sorry to hear about your figs, Pete. 

The better to see you with, my dear...

What a mess.  All that hard work ruined in such a short time.

oh.. it's not too bad. i'm not too picky about what i eat. only problem is there are more bugs going into it. funny enough.. the taste is still good. it just looks nasty.

i grew up in nyc hanging around with my friends while my parents were working till midnight. that taught me to eat what i can get my hands on. my taste has improved since then. but any fig is good as long as it doesn't taste like supermarket figs.

Rain question:

Is the damage to the figs from excess water being absorbed through the roots, or the rain literally on the tree/on the figs?

If I"m growing figs in containers and the trees have ripening figs can I prevent the crop loss by either covering the root area with black plastic or covering the trees with a tarp when the rain is due?  Or both?

I realize on a huge tree (or covering the roots if the tree is in the ground) this is impractical, but I'm years and years away from that type of problem.

Thanks for the info.

Andrew

i think it's both to some degree, but with some variety, it's the water being drawn up from the root. like my Paradiso Gene and VdB... VdB has less issue they are both in 10 gal tub in the back of my house. Paradiso Gene on the other hand, soaks up water like sponge. but they are not bursting open... just huge eye. from what i have heard, some other varieies will blow up.