I was wondering - have many of you sampled the fruit of a given tree before trying to grow it yourselves?  Or have you just relied on the descriptions from catalogs and other fig fanatics?

I have been seriously thinking of creating a fig hedge just on the inside of my property line.  I don't have a fence and don't foresee putting a fence up in the future even though it is open to the alley (garage is n the back of the house-rear entry with a small road for access).  All of my neighbors have fences and the one next to me is in poor shape - slats missing, rotting on the bottom etc.   This area is in full sun all day till about 3:30 when my neighbors tree starts shading from the fence line.

I was thinking of a variety of figs and looking for suggestions of what your favorites are and why. 

Thanks for the suggestions in advance, and looking forward to hear how you chose to the figs you grow.

I attached a few pictures of the back yard/driveway,alley to give you an idea of my plan.  The hedge would be to the left side of the flags. 
(I would have done thumbnails, but the file is too large for f4f to upload, I have since changed my camera settings)
 

Learned my lesson to be there when they dump dirt!  Too bad I have to work for a living lol

I like the idea of a fig hedge!  I'm planing one myself, but not on the property line.  Don't want the neighbor's stealing MY figs!  I'm thinking of planting fast growing tree cuttings, letting them grow 2 or 3 years, and grafting their cut branches onto their trunks to make the cross boards for the fence, braiding them across, and then whacking them off at about 5' tall with a good dose of stump killer.  So a living fence with no post holes should result from that, until the fence is big enough to hold before it grows no more. 

I plan to plant prickly pears against that fence for 3 reasons: 1) To keep out critters and fence climbing humans.  2) The pads taste like green beans/asparagus, and are a nice vegetable year round.  3) The cactus pear is delicious fruit.

To answer your question, I went by the rave's of fig fanatics to decide which varieties of figs to plant.  They were right on VdB.  It will take time for the newer figs in my collection to give me their taste test!

Suzi

17 varieties...31 plants. I only tasted 2 of them. I just went by what the members said about the fig and what it looks like. I like deep red inside of the fig...

Pete

Pete, I'm with you on the deep red insides.  They seem to be great, but my mind is open, and Catherine's Nacido, which Catherine swears is the BEST is green out and white inside, so I have 20 cuttings.  If 3 or 9 make it, I'll be thrilled!  When someone tells you their fig is better than all their friend's figs, you should listen!
Suzi

Since we are mostly scattered around the country it isn't very often we can get together with another serious fig grower to taste specific varieties and if we do it is usually only 1 or 2 others near by so tasting is limited and word of mouth is the rule. Especially on this forum since there are several knowledgeable people with years of experience who can steer us to the best of the best. I did have the priveleage to visit one of them last year. Celt and I went to see Herman in NJ. Herman shared JH Adriatic with us, wow!! I was offered cuttings this past winter and yes I am now growing that one. Gene Hosey recommended Kathleen's Black so I bought the plant from him a few years back and another wow, a fantastic fig. Word of mouth works fine. Wish I had the room for a fig hedge!!

Thanks for the input!  I've been wondering about it for months - after I joined the forum and was informed about the dozens of fig varieties available!

I don't know my neighbors very well - The ones with the fence next door - I met the man twice while discussing tree pruning last year, and spoke with his wife on the phone twice, again about the tree.  They never took care of the limb so I had it done by the neighbor on the other side.  I know a couple of people across the alley but not the ones directly across.  Everybody seems to stay within their fence line and that's it! 

There is a house about 6 doors down with peach trees near the alley, I think there are 3.  They don't have a fence either, and they also had a garden at one time, maybe I'll knock on their door and ask if they have had people take their fruit and veggies.

Besides most of the people I speak with don't know what a fresh fig is!!  Can you believe that?!

Love to hear from more fig fanatics from the forum.

I started with a Brown Turkey and a Black Mission from local nurseries. The BT had souring problems, so I searched online for "closed-eye fig varieties" and found F4F. I requested recommendations for the five (ha!) best figs, and now have almost 30. Most are still pretty young, and none of the newcomers have produced what I would consider fully mature fruit yet, although a few varieties ripened tasty figs last year. So, my selections have all been based on what I've read or various people have recommended, and I'm still waiting to find out how they'll perform in my climate.