So figs originated in the area around Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Israel.  What's the closest climate to that in the US?  I'm originally from Florida and the heat is right, but it's way humid there.  Not at all like the aforementioned countries.  Is somewhere in the southwestern US the best place to grow figs?  Arizona?  New Mexico?  As long as you water them enough I'm guessing.

An earlier post by member Gina

From the post...



The Wiki Link with more info.

Is that from Los Angeles to San Jose?

Areas slightly north of Fresno, California (i.e., Madera) have a long history of successful fig-growing.  The latitude of Madera is 36°57' and they have hot summer days and warm nights.  I'm further north at 38°9' and have slightly longer days but most days are not as hot and evenings are cool but figs still do very well here.  The USDA repository at Wolfskill is located about 50 miles north of me and doesn't get as cool in the evenings.  I think figs grow up here as well as they do down in Madera but much of the commercial fig growing for figs is for drying so the warmer nights (and less dew) is makes that area better for dried figs.  We seldom have rain during the summer here in the Great Central Valley of California and humidity is low so that also helps figs do well.  5-6 days ago we had a very unusual rain storm for two days and I think we had maybe up to a quarter of inch of rain here.  One summer back in the late 1990s I had 5 of my 6 cuttings of alfalfa hay get rained on and that was extremely unusual.  We typically get small rains once or twice a summer.

Bob, San Diego has the "June gloom", as one friend calls it (foggy cool weather).  As of right now (3pm), it's 72F in San Diego and 104F in Madera, and 99F here according to The Weather Channel (my thermometer reads 106F.  Jon has said he has never produced a good breba but I've had many.  West of me in San Jose they have a Panache tree at Prusch Park and I've been told the figs won't ripen there but I picked main crop Panache last year on 7/23, I believe.  I didn't think San Jose was much cooler than here but I guess it makes a big difference.

As far as California real estate prices, it's not high everywhere.  Kingsburg is a very growing area and I heard from a CRFG member a few months ago that her family sold 8 acres with a house for $200,000 last year after her grandmother or grandfather died.  She said it wasn't a great house but okay.  Madera would be less expensive yet.

I would have to agree with Harvey. There is a reason why they are grown commercially, in California, in the Central Valley. That is an ideal climate. Doesn't mean that they can't be grown successfully other places, but that location is the "cat's meow".

I agree completely that the Central Valley is the best.

Over the past couple of days I was chatting with some folks from Texas and learned that Texas once had significant commercial production, reportedly even being the top-producing state (well over 100 years ago).  In 1930 there were 1 million trees reported in the Texas ag census.  I had no idea such production ever existed in Texas.  It's not clear what lead to the decline but several people in Texas still report good crops.

Texas is a great area but every once in a while it snows.

Well, I'm in Zone 19 according to Sunset, and Zone 9a according to others.  I live in the perfect climate!  HOT days, Cooler nights.  NO humidity.  No fog.  Lots of boulders for the Figs roots to enjoy the cool darkness.  It tries to snow, but the snow doesn't stick.  Lots of sunshine.

We moved here because the climate is not tropical.  It's truly Mediterranean.  All things that grow in Greece and Italy, grow well here.  All my in-ground figs are thriving now, except for the one that got hit with overspray from toxic paint chemicals for a wrought iron fence.  All it's leaves are gone, but I'm holding out hope.

Suzi

where i am isn't so bad. we have hot weather and figs do rather well. only thing is it has been raining like crazy for last two yrs. i've been down here for last 30 yr and i don't remember it raining this much before. typically summers are hot and humid, but not this much rain. rains are usually during the spring and thunderstorm or shower during the summer occationally. since late summer last yr, it's been raining like crazy. this yr, it's almost raining every week and last two weeks been almost daily thunderstorm.