I have a 3 year old nursery purchased VDB. It was a year old when put in ground. This is the first year that it has put out 30 or so figs. I've been picking them over the past few weeks and they have some sweetness but an unpleasant sour/slightly bitter taste as well. For those growing it, what is your experience on taste and is this normal? They are just a little over 1 1/2 the size of a quarter. Thank you. Noel



 

Mine are in pots. I was very happy with my VDB. One of the very first ripe breba of the year and I thought the taste was quite good. We had a few very hot days before they ripened. Perhaps that helped. Maybe soil or fertilizer? Whatever it was I would certainly recommend VDB. 8/10

Mine is very good quality, never noted any bitterness.  Are you getting some kind of fermentation?  Are they truly ripe?

VDB is the first fig flavor that I've loved from the very first bite. Our June & July weather in Waddell, AZ were extremely hot -- long spells of 108˚+ high temperatures for several weeks. Our figs are small, about the size of a nickel, and their skins are tough probably due to prolonged exposure to  dry, high heat. I'm picking figs when they are soft and droopy, but not dried out. Now that I'm tasting the few figs that our VDB tree set this year as they ripen I'd describe their flavor as almost like berry jam combined with a tiny bit of raisin; sweet, rich, but no bitterness. Maybe I suffer from some kind of VDB deficiency and that's why I'm such a big fan! 

VDB is on my radar screen for evaluation later...So there are cases of sour/bitterness, not quite sweet to the taste, while others highly praise it.  Hmmmm.  

What is in a name, again?

Figs run from all sweet/no richness to all rich/no sweetness. VDB is on the rich side. Mine is  about 15 years old and I've never noticed any sour/bitterness.

One of the best VdB I have tasted was a visit to Marius place. Weather was very hot.
I am convinced.VdB needs hot weather to ripen awesomely. I kept mine in a greenhouse
to ensure it gets lots of heat to ripen nicely. My VdB is over 11 yrs old & has no bitter taste.

  With our temps here running between 104* and 114* this summer, I've found that I need to pick the fruit from my VdB a day or two prior to its being dead ripe...  in this way, it doesn't have time to condense the intense flavors which will here present themselves reminiscent of a strong dried-molasses/musty Iron taste.  

I have few VdB from different source in pots with ripening figs, our temperature is hardly more then 80F, fig has rich berry taste, good firm texture but low sweet level for me, If I leave it too long, it has wine taste and still not sweet.

My soil have very high nitrogen, If I feed my green Italian fig tree with sheep manure, Its fig have dark green color under strong sun, and figs had bitter taste as Zucchini's dark green skin, This year, I feed it low nitrogen fertilizer, its fig is slightly smaller and yellow green, very sweet without bitter green taste.






 

Inconsistant watering or uneven water distribution in the pot?

From my experience the cause is the fertiliser. Excess of nitrogen according to Ricky above. If the weather was dry it even worsens the bitterness.