I have a question. I have two young green figs, Strawberry Verte and Batagaila Green. The SV is a 3 year old strong grower and should make a good number of figs this year. The BG. is the same age, but has been very weak, less than half the size of the SV. Also, I think the BG might have FMV and I am worried about it transferring to my other figs.

I've heard the SV is good, but also that the BG is great. But the problem is I only really have space for one of them. If the BG is a sport of the SV, or very similar, am I better off just dumping the BG?

Any opinions?

I don't have SV but was given two skinny, small cuttings if BG. They both took in record time and outpaced 19 other fig cultivars to be the biggest baddest plants I ever rooted. It was started weeks later than others, yet outgrew them quickly! Not sure what happened to yours? So far I'm super impressed with BG. Scott the founder of growingfruit.org said it is his very best fig. I guess i would scrape yours and maybe at some other time seek it out somewhere else. I don't see any signs of FMV at all. I'm giving away my extra plant to a garden/cookbook author, Cynthia Gibson. I traded for one of her books. Well not really just giving it to her, and she was nice enough to give me a book, and also some peach scion.

I am with Drew on this one.My BG grew 4 ft first year and is off to a strong start this year.Very strong grower for me.I have not tasted the fig but it is very highly rated by other members

I have many yrs experience with SV. For me a strong grower with high yields and great flavor similar to my best nectarines. Those nectarines are my all time best fruit. Only complaint might be smallish fruit. Given high yield that seems minor. Brix up to 44 if allowed to shrivel on the bush, or off.

I've fruited Paradiso, and now Bronze Paradiso, a lesser time. Fruit is very similar to SV. You can't tell them apart by looks, flavor or sweetness. Fruit is about 50% bigger with slightly more spoilage.

Not really enough experience, one yrs fruit, with BG to compare flavor. Fruit looks somewhat different with size like Paradiso. So far I'd say it's similar to the other two but not sure if it's better or worse for flavor.

Some notes I took from the boards say the taste of the fruit of BG is very similar to Strawberry Verte and Adriatic JH. Adriatic JH has a breba crop whereas SV and BG do not. AJH will ripen better in a cold climate and be good to eat before it is dead ripe, but the flavor of BG and SV are best at peak ripeness. BG can take the blistering heat of the desert better than other fig trees.

All three of those trees are vigorous growers for me. BG especially grows fast and has to be cut back more. The cuttings root easily. Here is a picture of some BG cuttings that fell behind some stuff and I didn’t find them for weeks, possibly months. If there was ever a tree that refuses to die, it's BG. 

   

Thanks for all the input everyone. I think I will stick the Strawberry Verte in the ground, and leave the Battagalia Green over in a neglected spot and see what happens. The worst is it will continue to languish or die. In the best case it might take off this year and be a good tree. I have nothing to lose. But definitively I will junk the Bat. Green next fall if it continues like it has thus far.

I sure am hoping for some good figs off the Strawberry this year. It was a tissue culture tree, and the firs two years it produced only a few, poor tasting figs. But I have high hopes for this year.

My Strawberry Verte took more than 10-years to produce figs. Now it's my most productive tree.
Small. ugly fruits...BUT PROLIFIC! Mid-November I was still picking keepers. I now have Desert King and
Lattarula grafted onto it. Perhaps grafting, or budding BG's in a few months would be an option for you, too.

I agree with the other comments about Battaglia Green.  It is one of my most robust growers.  Mine came from Scott Smith who started the growingfruit.org discussion group; he got it from the now closed Paradise nursery which commercialized this variety.  The mother tree was found growing in Virginia.  Cold hardiness is good but not as good as some others.  Adriatic JH seems to be more suited to a climate with cool winters because it is a shorter season fig and has a better ability to come back after significant die-back and still produce a crop.

My BG is thus far a slower grower and tends to grow in a slightly weeping form. Last spring when I up potted it I re-positioned it so it's main trunk was perfectly upright, a month and a half later and the dang thing was drooping off to a side again.  It is healthy with no signs of FMV, but not at all aggressive. 2 years ago it ripened one really good fig. Last year all the BG figs were not impressive or really even edible, but then again neither were any of the other pure green figs with red centers either. I'm giving mine a couple more years, but if it was sickly looking with FMV I would give it the boot and try get a healthy one cause that's how I rolls.

Epson is good for many trees. But fig trees love it

Hello Gene and everyone. I have grown both SV and BG they taste very similar here in zone 9a Henderson NV right outside of Las Vegas NV. I taste my first figs on both around Memorial day. In this climate Battaglia green is a way more aggressive and prolific tree. Strawberry verte seems to do better in ground as it needs more root space to let it get bigger. Battaglia is a very aggressive grower that does well in pots (20 - 30 gallon) and is my favorite fig here. BG starts fruiting end of May early June and ripens fruit until maybe Thanksgiving. Adriatic and JH didn't do so well in my hotter summer heat. Smith is a good grower yet not as prolific or fruits as early in the year or in its life cycle. Most figs here do better with sun filtering in summer but the Battaglia Green loves the heat. I would pot it up to a 20 gallon plastic tub and give it another year.

This BG picture was taken May 29 2015. Not the first BG of the season either. https://www.facebook.com/JustFigs/photos/pb.296107943826288.-2207520000.1458712110./596527230451023/?type=3&theater

My understanding is that SV and Green Ischia are synonyms.  I have what I am pretty sure is a Green Ischia from Just Fruits and Exotics out of Florida which is my most aggressive grower and has be best figs that taste like strawberry jam.  I'm not 100% because the fig was labelled "Nero".  Well, it's obviously not a black fig and the figs fit the description of Green Ischia better than it does anything else in the Just Fruits catalogue. 

I bought another Green Ischia from Just Fruits, and so far this second one has been a slow grower.  In contrast, cuttings from my older tree have all been aggressive growers just like the mother tree. 

I don't have any experience with BG.  If it's an improvement over Green Ischia (Strawberry Vert), I would love to try it except for the fact that I'm out of space.  If I add a fig, I would have to rip one out.  Anyway, please keep us posted on how yours do this year.  God bless.

Marcus

Green ischia from what,i seen has really pretty 5 and 7 lobed leaves were as strawberry verte has three lobes. Can anyone tell me leaves there sv & gi

Marcus, I also purchased a Nero fig tree from Just fruits and Exotics which they also later admitted was a mislabeled Green Ischia. Green Ischia also called Verte is an older cultivar not the same as Strawberry Verte. The 2 tree are likely similar genetically as I am sure over time and the location of where the trees were planted in the US gradually mutated to adapt to a different climate etc.

The amount of leaves on any tree are not an exact way to determine variety. At least not while they are younger or the tree is stressed. I have had trees that have 1 lobe, 3 lobe and 5 lobe all on the same tree. Some people believe depending where you plant it and the amount of sun it gets could be a factor or maybe just FMV when younger? Some varieties have fingerlike leaves when they are younger and when they age they seem to grow out of somewhat.

Verte or Green Ischia is a better grower than SV for me and have more of a raspberry fruit flavor. I like the SV and Battaglia Green taste much more with BG being more aggressive grower in warmer climates. Both have a strong strawberry sweeter taste with a bit of an acidic bite at the finish on mine (breba).