I will re-introduce myself, I am Armando from Hot California, living in the city of Exeter. My goal is to have about 25 of the top varieties. I have about 60 at the moment, part of my collection is at my Mom's house. I am waiting for some to fruit to see which will stay in my collection. OK, now its your turn....LOL   Tell us who you are..???

Hi Armando93223,
We are still missing half of the story : Why did you start growing fig trees ?
When did you start ? - Are your trees old enough to fruit ?
Are fig trees common around you ? Or is acquiring each fig tree a quest, especially for the (supposed well) named varieties ?

I wanted the members new and old to re-introduce themselves.......... Since you asked. My dad had a tree when I was a teen and we loved this Black Mission, a couple of years later he chopped it down, the family was in shock. Why he did it, no clear answer. As an adult I moved into an apartment and a wild fig grew from under the fence, it was a hybrid originating from a seed. After a few years is produced a Mission fig with green skin to my amazement. My landlord saw that it was growing big and she felt it would break the cement and the fence. So one day she came and knocked it down. I was traumatized again...LOL   So I found a fig tree at a swap meet and the guy explained there were different fig trees, so I googled and found the forum and the world of figs.....I think, its been 3 years of having a few trees, Mission, Kadota, VDB, Panache they are 4-6 feet in pots. I just recently bought a collection of around 35 trees (2-3 feet) and I have only tasted about half of them.   My Quest is to have the top flavors, not top names,   Preto, Zidi, VDB, Flanders, Jarupa, Col de Dames, Black Greek, Janice Kadota, Celeste and etc.
The most recent problem, is that someone is always bringing up a new variety or awesome photos and its hard to not want them...LOL

 I've been reading this forum for quite some time and never introduced myself so i'll take this opportunity.

I'm Rob, i live in Rotterdam/ the Netherlands and this is my second year of growing figs.
Fresh figs are a rarity in Holland, i got infected with the fig virus last year when i was on a vacation in Morocco where figs are grown in abundance. ( My wife is Moroccan)
I liked the taste so much that i wanted to try and grow some in Holland.
Last year i started with 4 varieties  and now i'm growing 12 varieties, currently rooting 6 more.
Most of my trees are of French origin and i recently got into Italian varieties with a particular interest in the ones that originate from the north or do well there.
All my trees are grown in pots but i will plant about 3 in ground this upcoming spring.
Acquiring trees is a huge problem over here, most nurseries just sell Brown Turkey and Rouge de Bordeaux (Pastilliere). There are about 2 in Holland that list  30 varieties but  many of those are mislabeled.
Luckily i found a nursery in Belgium only an hour drive from where i live that sells Baud's varieties, from them i can order any tree that is listed on Baud's site, although i do prefer to start them myself from cuttings.
My goal is to select those trees that perform well here in our climatic conditions (zone 8) and show Dutch gardeners there's more to figs than Brown Turkey or Pastiliere.
I've learned a lot from reading this forum, there's so much knowledge to be found here and i would like to thank you all for making it publicly accessible.

Regards,
Rob

Welcome to the forum Rob, sounds like you have a plan, I like your goal.

Welcome Rob! Can I assume that your zone 8 is different than ours?  Here zone 8 is little or no protection needed.

Hi,
My name is Norhayati. I am from Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. And I am addicted to fig. Sounds like an AA meeting!

Norhayati

welcome to the forum Rob and good luck rooting your new varieties!!!

Norhayati welcome to the "figoholics" anonymous forum.

Rob,
Thanks for that fine introduction and welcome to the forum. I was wondering how your climate compares to the Lugano-Ponte Tresa area you recently visited, and how your cuttings are doing.
It would be nice if you posted pictures of your Lake Como discovery for a more specific ID.

I think i already introduced my self, but i am bored...

My name is Eli i am from central Israel, Im married with two kids
i am working in the medical science. growing figs for 2 years now.
my family liked to grow fruit tree's in soviet georgia and every family there has at least 3 varieties of fig trees.
wasn't at all into fruit tree's until two years ago when i was going through some some life stuff and found this hobby with which i can enjoy outdoor being and relax (lower my BP too).
in the start fruit trees were expensive but still i bought the few ones loved by my family which is from Georgia - mainly jujubes and izabella grape and one brown turkey fig. kiled one loquat and a guava tree since. :(

After some head banging how can my brown turkey be not so tasty and the local varieties are at least 5 times as good i wondered how many varieties are there for figs.
I found the f4f forum and things roller-coasted from here - i got to know cool members which sent me cuttings as a collection starter and with this initial push in one year i have more than 50 varieties ( needed some fence jumping but i got there- probably thats how many members here find UNK varieties).  
I hope to show the forum some of my own trees in the next years to come and share some cuttings in the process so i can share the taste .

Norhayati i believe it is an FigaHolic anonymous meeting :)

Phil: I do not think that zone 8 in Europe differs from the USA zone 8, however i found that the ripening time from the trees regions of origin do differ from the conditions i grow them in. For example, Negronne ripens in august and september in southern France, while here in Holland it has been october for the second year in a row. Fico Filacciano brebas ripen from the end of june in Italy, while over here they ripen from the start of august. I found this to be the case with many varieties. Although the temperatures are still ok here in october (daytime between 16 and 21 celsius) we do have lots of rain. So i'm trying to select those varieties that ripen main crop before the end of september, or the ones that ripen in october without being affected by the rain.

Andreas: Thanks again brother, they're rooting as we speak so hopefully i get to taste the best that Greece has to offer in a few years!

Frank: From what i saw there's not a lot of difference in temperature, on average about 2 or 3 degrees celsius all  months. However they have much more days with clear skies compared to the most days partly cloudy weather we have here in the Dutch coastal region. I think this is the main reason why the same varieties ripen about a month later over here compared to northern Italy. I will start a topic with some pics of my lake Como/Lugano trip tomorrow. And thanks again for the coordinates!

Rob

Rob, Welcome. We are concentrating on figs from the south of France. We use Baud's list as a reference.

I never really introduced myself, I always kind of felt odd about it.
Im travis I live just outside of pittsburgh pa in zone 6b. I work in a nursing home kitchen and i help my dad do kitchen install on weekends
I used to work on a berry farm for 5 years pulling weeds and planting things and all that and it always was neat to see the result of my work every day. Id say i got my gardening interest from my mom.
I got interested in figs as I was bored with putting raisins In my oatmeal, and I stumbled across figs and this site and I became very Intrigued. After finding bass' website I thought if he can grow all those things in pa I can too. 2 years later i have a dozen or so figs, a pawpaw, persimmon, currants, goji berries, a jujube and a small patch of alpine strawberries. a few of my figs had fruits this year, most of which were eaten by squirrels. A am not really looking for any more figs at the moment unless I lose a few. I plan on planting a few next spring and see how it goes. Id also like to add a gooseberry and juneberry, and that should be it.

Happy to be here and have learned plenty from so many.

Great to know you Travis,......Frank you said What Type Fig (WTF)....  A little of this and a little of that....LOL   Actually getting the Black Madiera and Preto this year put me up with the elite...LOL    Any more introductions, anyone..????

Armando. I'm glad that you explained that for Frank. Looked like he was having a problem with it.

LOL... Frank's honest reaction is just priceless.

I'm just a lurker on the forum listening and learning. I l'm also a jet engine mechanic in the USAF. Been to Japan for two years and Korea one. I now live in Spokane, WA going on five years. I'm probably the youngest member here it seems at 24 years old.

I don't have any trees because I don't have a home with a yard. So I'm waiting to move into a home after my deployment next year if all goes well.

The trees I did have in my apartment were taken and destroyed by USDA agents since one tree came from Turkey.

I haven't met anyone in eastern Washington yet that likes figs also. Still looking.

Something I always wanted to do was take a bunch of cold hardy figs and plant them around in the hills and mountains. So many places to hid them and see how they adapt in the wild. Maybe that's something I could do when I get back from the middle east.

Armando,
  I may have passed within 2 or 3 miles of you two days ago!  I am from NJ but I was out in CA for a wedding in the Fresno area over the weekend.  It was an "in and out" kind of thing (not the burger) and I had some relatives in tow...  On Monday we drove through Sequoia National Park along "the 198", passing just north of Exeter.  I recalled seeing previous postings where you said you were from the Fresno area and I wished I had had more free time to look you up...
Jim
PS -- That is a beautiful part of the state and I was envious of your fig growing climate the whole time I was there.  The other occupants of the car grew tired of my calling out every fig tree I saw, whether in someone's yard or growing wild near the streambeds ;-)

Jim, since California is so big, yea I put down the nearest big city that most people may know.  It would of been great to talk about figs. We have some beautifula parts here in California.  The heat is good for figs, but my skin gets hot easy, my brother says I am well insulated....LOL

I am Dave and IM a figaholic,

Army vet of the 2ND battalion 75th ranger regiment. Did a but of time south of the boarder with the 7th special operation group on joint ops.

After I rotated back to the world did a but of drywall work. Met my wife, had three kids, got shot by a man that broke Into my home.

The economy went in the toilet so I went back to school. I work two full time jobs now as a CNA in a long term care center And at a psychiatric unit in the hospitAl here. Getting ready to head back to school for nursing.

As a hobby I grow plants and sell many on Ebay in spring and summer. A % goes to charities like the wounded worrier project, and children of fallen soldiers.

That's me in a nutshell

I'm new to fig growing this year.

I started growing fruit partly because I enjoy growing edibles and partly because I have two young boys who I want to grow up eating flavorful, nutritious food.  When I had to cut down several hedge arbor vitaes which mysteriously died, I had the perfect excuse to kickstart my edible landscape plans.  During my research, I stumbled across an article about growing figs in Pennsylvania, and I got excited about growing them.

I originally planned on planting only a couple of fig trees along the south wall of my house, but I discovered the vast world of figs via Bass's website and this forum.  My plan for 1 or 2 fig plants has managed to grow into 8 varieties spread across 19 plants (with plans for another 1-2 trial varieties).  Long-term I plan on planting 6-ish plants in ground and keep a small handful of plants in pots which I can overwinter in my limited garage storage space.