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Sicilian Black unk (Robin's Sicilian Black)

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  • pino
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Hello
This fig came form an old Sicilian gentleman through a friend.  
The leaves have several shapes.
It produced some very promising looking medium to large breba.  The figs started out with bright red ribs and eventually turned black. 
Unfortunately the last week has been wet and humid and the figs split.
The taste was sweet and a hint of melon.

    sic black fiorone IMG_1514.jpg 

sic black breba IMG_1533.jpg 

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Pino:Trust me,your fig is no more no less ,but Sicilian Black as sold by James Robin in Louisiana .
This fig is known here in the us as:
Robin's Sicilian Black.
There was controversy as to,that this fig is identical to Sal Corleone,Palermo red,Sicilian red,etc,but:
Those fig cultivars are the red version of same Sicilian fig,while what you have is the Black version.
The Black version,has some entire shape leaves ,a lots of three lobes,and a few 5 lobes.
Sal Corleone has mostly 5 lobes leaves , a few three lobes leaves and no entire leaves.
Also S Blk,is better in the rain while ripening,darker inside,and better tasting.
If your tree was growing south of Delaware state it will be totally black outside,shiny black,while Sal Corleone will be totally red.

Pixies of my JR Sicilian Black,with fruits on rainy day and dry day.
Of course the fig is just a Sicilian Black,that got this name from James Robin Nursery.
The fig can have 10 local names,but ,the most common name is Sicilian Black!

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IMHO the skin color and woodiness of the stalk resembles Black Triana. I hear that that variety will set a breba crop too. Good looking fig 

Thanks Don and Vasile for your posts!

I also noticed the similarity with Sal's .  Noticed it doesn't split as much and it has more variable leaves. 

I have never seen Triana but will check it.  I read that Triana comes form Triana, Italy (between Florence and Rome). 

Darn! Another fig to add to my list.

Thanks Dale!

This fig is in 2nd year.  He started as a cutting 11/2013. 
The tree ended up with a funny shape so I planted him in ground.  Will try and train to low cordon (step over espalier).

sic black unk IMG_1481.jpg

Attached are some other photos as it started ripening the 2 breba.  The red in the ribs did not come out as bright in the photo.

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  • pino
  • · Edited

Update on this Sicilian Black fig.  Happy to report it has ripened 1 main crop fig so far.
Large fig over 60 grams.  Very sweet, juicy, chewy skin rich jammy taste  9/10 on my scale.

sicilian black jr 60 g IMG_2299.jpg 

Also interesting is how much it grew since I took it out of the pot and planted in ground July 1.  Compare photo n post July 20 to today's.

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Looks like a great fig Pino!
Tyler

My sicilian black did bear some fruits for me last year. But all of them dropped at around quarter size. Since then it never fruits on me. Can someone tell me if it is a common fig.

Thanks Tyler!
It does fill the fig gap for me with nice large size figs both early brebas and now main crop and both very sweet with rich flavour.

Norhayati,
There are several figs called Sicilian black.  I saw some postings with some mount etna type figs called Sicilian black (much smaller figs).
This fig is not a mount etna type.  It is very similar to Sal's Corleone in fruit size and appearance and ripening times but the leaves look  different to me.  

This fig variety appears to be a common type and I have not seen any figs drop yet. 

There are some good posts on F4F that talk about figs dropping. 
Most common reasons are lack of water availability or stress during fruit formation and of course San Pedro type figs without the wasp.

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