Fig season is coming along nicely in Tucson!  

Wow! I'm amazed how you have so many ropes figs so early! What's your secret?

Yes, I want to know  your secret too :)  It is so much warmer here in Phoenix area, but I do not have that many figs ripe yet , just couple of them here and there. Are you doing anything special ?

Who knows--maybe the heat? Frozen Joe's trees up in Phoenix were ripening several weeks earlier than mine, and Phoenix is usually about ten degrees hotter than Tucson.

How does the Georgia White Hybrid taste? What variety is it close to?

How was Excel for you?  I have a few I'm waiting on.

Do you eat that many fresh or do you make fig jam?  How old are your trees?  Very impressive!

My taste buds aren't very sophisticated, so I can't give you a very detailed assessment. To me the Georgia White Hybrid is sweet and juicy with a very delicate skin. It's one of my favorites, and seems similar to Conadria.

Frank, I like Excel but don't find it particularly outstanding. I've planted a variety of different figs mostly to see which ones work best in my area. I may not keep them all once I can evaluate them based on their long-term experience. They all seem to have drawbacks and advantages. Like everybody else, I'm looking for flavor, high production over a long season, good adaptation to local climate & soil, size, pest resistance, etc. I've had the Black Mission longest--probably around 18 years. I bought it and a Brown Turkey about the same time; the BT was prolific but after several years proved unsuitable because the open eye and internal void led to souring, due to insect activity--so I began looking for closed-eye varieties to take its place. That's when I discovered F4F and the dizzying number of figs out there. I kicked off my "collecting phase" in 2010 with a sizable UCD order and with beginner's luck had many of them survive; the rest of my figs came from subsequent trades and sharing from generous forum members and friends. I've discarded a few trees on purpose, had others die or perform poorly, and seen a few thrive; several are still too young for me to form an opinion.

Greenbud, my family eats quite a few figs, but I also share them with friends and dry them. I haven't made jam. All of my trees are still pretty small, either due to pruning or young age. Even the Black Mission is only 6 or 7 feet high having suffered a lot of frost damage, and looks more like a bush than a tree.

Katerina, I missed your response earlier. I don't think I'm doing anything special with my trees. I give them mulch, water, and not much else. I occasionally throw some fertilizer (whatever I happen to have on hand) under them if they look like they need it (mostly the Black Madeira, which remains stunted with FMV) but I don't notice much of a response. Mainly they want all the water I can give them.

After a few years, the ones that look healthiest/lushest in my yard are the Georgia White Hybrid, LSU Purple, Black Mission, Violette de Bordeaux, Hardy Chicago, and Marseilles Black VS (I can't tell any difference between the last two); others look promising but are still young. The differences in performance could be due to something as simple as local soil conditions--even moving a few feet can mean huge variations in the number of rocks or the depth of an impermeable caliche layer. Or, variations in watering, shade from adjacent trees, or who-knows-what-else could account for how my trees differ--I don't think it's all necessarily due to the variety.

I love the way Conadria looks, 

Ken, is Conadria a sweet fig? I think I want to have that variety soon, :)

nice haul. enjoy

Your figs look so delicious... I suspect that my problem in fewer fruits is in some of my older fig trees that are 6-10 feet tall having too much shade from the fence next to them and some that are in the open area are still too young to produce many fruits and have too much AZ sun that stuns their growth.  I do get fruits from my trees, but not as many as I wish to...Mine did start ripening in May.  I dream someday to have buckets and buckets of ripe delicious figs of different colors to give away, to dry and to make jams and also eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner :) Seems like my jujube trees are growing and producing much better right now  then figs.  Enjoy :)

 Aaron,  my Conadria fig is also one my favorites and one of the best tasting figs in my  garden. Fruits look exactly like Ken's. It is juicy, very sweet and tender variety... Yumm... I am drooling just thinking of it :)  It has closed eye and grows fast and likes the heat. I would highly recommend it !   I got mine at Edible Landscaping nursery and am happy with it. Hope it helps :)

Thanks Katerina, it did help to decide. :)
This goes up to my wish list!

Nice display of very good and sweet  figs.
Wonder if in that climate figs ever become truly dormant ??

Francisco

Very nice haul....looks delicious! !! Ive been dreaming about mine ripening!

Ken,
Good work and a haul for sure. Fresh, preserves, grilled with this and that, pizza, shared or all of the above? Another question: How did they taste?

Nice Ken, is it possible that your Improved Celeste is an O'Rourke? I see the elongated fruit and the presence of striped ribs or veins. That is what my O'Rourke looks like.
"gene"

Hi Tucsonken,
Nice harvest !
How many Black Mission trees do you have ? 
For just one tree, that many fruit, looks almost incredible ! Do you have a photo of that Christmas tree with hanging balls/ ripe figs ?

Jdsfrance, all of those figs are from just one Black Mission, in the photo below. I also have a small Black Mission NL, but it's still small and struggling. I don't think it's a problem with the tree, but with the location--I may airlayer a branch of it and try it in a new spot. The BMNL produces the biggest and tastiest fruit, but the whole tree only has about 10 figs on it.

Here is the Black Mission, somewhat damaged and stunted by several hard freezes over the years, but still very productive (although it has a fairly short season):
 
It is my only fig tree located outside the big cage, so I have to protect each fig individually by clothes-pinning a newspaper shield around it and its adjacent leaf (like the "cone of shame" worn by dogs after a visit to the vet). There's also a branch protected by a little left-over netting from the big cage--I'll probably build a PVC netting frame for this one tree next year, so as not to have to mess with all that newspaper.

Gene, I got my LSUIC from JD in 2012, and as far as I know, that's what it is. The tree is still only 3 1/2 feet high by as wide, but is very healthy and productive. I should have included it on my earlier list of healthy trees.

Lampo, yes they do go dormant--we occasionally get winter lows in the upper teens. Unfortunately, I usually have to force dormancy by cutting off the irrigation in late fall, or they will still be green and growing when frost hits--which really damages them.

Aaron, I agree with Katerina about Conadria. I decided to buy it after talking with a cooperative extension guy in an adjacent county, who raved about his. It took a couple of years to get going, but it seems very good for the desert.

Thanks, All, for your comments.

I believe the IC, BM, and Tena are all fairly molassesy...I'm wondering how you like Tena, compared to Celeste, Ken?

Gene,
I have O'Rourke (from you) and LSU IC (from Just Fruits & Exotics). They are different. They also support the improved Celeste/LSU IC/O'Rourke 1/3/5 lobe discussions that have occured on the forum.

nice.. i might get something like that in few weeks. but won't be as many. 

Very nice, a haul like that in a day is what we all dream of.

Shah8, it depends on the weather. Prior to our rainy season, the Tenas don't really seem to get fully ripe; instead they get a tough, tan, sunburned patch on top, and are just passable in flavor. After the rain starts they turn yellow and stop burning, and are much sweeter, however, if it rains a lot, then they split. At least in my yard, the IC isn't as sweet, but it's a good fig. I'd probably rather have it than Tena, because the IC seems to tolerate the climate better. Both are heavy producers.