Hello!

I am a new member, i live in FRANCE near Paris. I'm a fig lover, and my dream is to manage to grow rare and outstanding figs. My father and mother were born in Tunisia and i spent the 4 first years of my life in this country. Figs are extraordinary for me, and i found in figs4fun crazy figs lovers like me, in an other continent!!! In france you can get pears or apples fan clubs, maybe peaches...but figs...hum. You find yourself very lonely sometimes.

So, maybe i could make my contribution to this little community. But first, I need to learn and i think you'll be really helpful.

I am for the moment selecting the fig trees to grow for their taste. I m living in zone 8 and will grow some trees in pots under a green house. Some will be french, other italians, and tunisian too.

Well, I am not beggining by the easiest ones, but easy doesn't make the taste, i'am not afraid of working. So, let's begin by BLack Madeira and Zidi.
Seems Zidi needs to be caprified, What do you think? I saw in an old post that maybe there's a chance that Zidi is parthenocarpic. What about Black Madeira? An other question is about the size of those trres. Because if they are to big, Baud says that they can't stay a long time in pots.

My strategy will be to create the best condition (green house+pots?) to see if they can grow correctly, and see what happens.

I'm sorry for my english and thank you all!

Nadia.

Welcome Nadia to Figs4Fun.

Jon would probably be the best to talk on Blk Maderia. Mine is in its 1st year with one fruit. There are many excellent variants from where you are. Of course in North America we have a good share of great ones too like Excel, LSU Gold, O'Rourke, Ruby 4, Ital 258, Battalagia Green, Gypsy, Sal's, Paradiso, Aldo, 143-36, Beall etc. Unfortunately with figs, every variant differs in habits & taste from where they are grown. Thus growing figs for fun is a variable exercise like it will taste excellent & be very productive here but may not be in the next 50 miles. Anyway for now in my place near Vancouver, Canada the most flavourful taste  I like are Negronne & Celeste, maybe Adriano .  Note  --  all of these are small size fruit & I have to add these are not my top preferences as I like them more on the large juicy side with flavour. I like more than mouthful bite. This preference would change as many other variants in my collection comes to fruit bearing age. Not to forget I don't get to harvest too many main crop variants because of my zone 6/7. Others who are able to harvest 2 crops are better able to chime in as main crop(2nd crop) is supposedly best.

Good luck & have fun.

Paully22

Hello paully22,

Thank you for your answer. A very  juicy fig here is Dauphine, it's a big fig, the last time i ate one, a month ago it was full sirup, amber flesh, violet to brown skin, sugar fig. The flavor light, to me, remembered me of plaquminier tree, called kaki in France. My husband said' i want this fig', but to me to juicy, and not flavor enough. There's a fig called goutte d'or, or Dorée in france that Baud indicates for all regions in France (until rains come, says he), small tree, excellent flavour, and large size!!! Why not trying this one...this is an endemic tree in Provence. I think i will try this one. Ther is 'Dalmatie' too (San piero, in FFF varieties?), large to very large figs, small tree adapted to cool areas. Well, i can't tell for the taste of the last two ones.

I had the chance to taste noire de caromb, memorable fig but small, grise de saint jean, equilibrated fig, but sensitive to frost, violette de solies, with it's little acid taste but not adapted to my region.

Thank's
Nad'

Nad, I hope your hubby is doing all the planting & walkabouts on the fig trees for you. I am doing that for the wife like the Westminister guard in UK. She eat most of the fresh figs & only on Saturday I call my Italian supplier who had more than 200 in ground trees to check on his supply. My wife loves fresh figs &  my potted figs are not producing enough thus I have to buy.

I tried rooting 3 sticks of Dauphine this spring & sadly all "kaput". I think I may have found a source to get a Dauphine tree by next year. YES next year, too long. Strangely, its rare to find a Dauphine here yet there are lots of french people, 2nd biggest composition of the population mix.  So far I have not found one in British Columbia. My friend who was visiting France last year send me a picture of a Dauphine fruit. I like the apple size looks but golly his description of the fig taste was just unbearable that I must have it & now with your yummie description, I can't wait to add this to my collection pronto.  Thurs calling all fig friends anyone with Dauphine to spare cuttings, please get in touch. Thanks for the info on D'or. I am convinced now & will add this to my collection. I have Dalmatie.

Sure glad you found this forum & I hope you are aware of Garden Web figs Forum. There is good information there too.

Paully

bonjour Nadia, Ahlan wa Sahlan, je suis libanais et j'adore les figues.
There are some really good Tunisian figs out there. Have you heard of a fig called Salam from Tunisia?
What Tunisian figs do you currently grow?




bass
http://www.treesofjoy.com

Hello again!!!

Wonderful, i'm so glad i found answers!
Dauphine is a good fig Paully22, but be careful, Baud says it's a big tree. It's a round fig (100 to 200 g), shiny skin, 2 crops, i tasted brebas, very juicy (more like light sirup than honey), sugar sticks when plenty ripened. Light flavor, you can eat it with the skin. This tree is sensitive to botrytis in rainy conditions ('Baud's), cultivated near Paris but with protection (the tree was buried during winter). Paully, I could try to send you a little dauphine tree, but is it possible? Never done this before!!! For the moment, the nurseries don't sell fig trees, season begins in novembre to march. But, tell me (how to protect the tree?....)

Dan. I did not taste negronne, but it's in the first place of my selection. I just can't wait!

Bass, I did'nt taste this tunisian fig but i will remember the name, i'am going to tunisia this summer. The one i know by name is Biter Abiod and Biter Akhal (means early (or breba) white and early (or breba)black). The other is Zidi, but maybe needs to be caprified. (As they say in Tunisia too...). For the moment I have three little trees, but i don't know their names. (2 years old) The first has a breba fig big as a strawberry. The other, like a pea, the third is suffering and has no breba at all...). Well, as I said for the moment I feed my passion, tasting figs that i buy and taking care of my little pea-fig trees!!! I am going back to Paris this autumn, I'll be able to begin serious practice then. But before I take you advices, and search for good information).

Merci encore

Nadia,

Black Madiera: Good choice of fig tree.

Zidi: May require the fig wasp, mine is still to small to give figs, but next year I will find out. It may be a tree like Desert King in which one crop needs the fig wasp.

Doree: Recent genetic testing may indicate that this tree is the same as Brunswick, the leaves certainly match.


Size of fig trees in pots: All of my trees are in pots. You can keep them a smaller size and root prune approximately every 3 years.

If you look at Bauds site, Im not sure they are all that different. My brunswick was purchased locally, and my Doree is from Baud Nursery. The leaves even look the same/very close.

http://www.fig-baud.com/figuiers.html

Would love to hear your thoughts, here is a snippet of the study.

Results and Discussion

Genetic relationships among fig cultivars

Although most fig genotypes possessed unique multilocus fingerprints indicating a significant amount genetic variability in the collection, there was no obvious evidence for any significant genetic structure.  Fig being functionally dioecious and insect pollinated naturally maintains and circulates high levels of genetic variation within and among cultivar from Caprifig, Smyrna, San Pedro, and Common fig types.  However, the cluster analysis revealed a total of six clusters with three major and three minor ones within cluster 1 (Fig 1).   The cluster 1 contained mostly Common and San Pedro types with a concentration of San Pedro types (‘Pied de Boeuf’, ‘Dauphine’, ‘King’, ‘White San Pedro’) in subcluster 1a. There were several instances of identical genotypes with different cultivar names.  For example the cultivars ‘Brunswick’, ‘Capital Long’, ;Red Italian’, ‘Doree’, and ‘Rattlesnake’, all had identical fingerprints.  The popular Common type cultivars such as ‘Brown Turkey’, ‘Walker’, and Black Jack’ were genetically identical.  Overall the subclusters 1b and 1c contained mostly Common type figs.  Cluster 2 is the biggest cluster contained Common, Smyrna, and Caprifig clutivars.  The Smyrna types (eg. ‘Calimyrna’, Marabout Smyrna’, ‘Snowden’, ‘Karayaprak’) are basically confined to this cluster.  Cluster 3 and 4 contained some of the less known Common type figs except for the cultivars ‘zidi’, which is Smyrna type fig and ‘Ischia Black’, which is a Common type.  Cultivars and selections from Candit’s breeding program such as ‘Gulbun selection’, ‘Jurupa’, ‘Deanna’, and many UCR selections are scattered in different groups suggesting the diversity of material included in his program.   

GOUTTE D'OR
http://www.pommiers.com/figue/figue-goutte-or.htm
http://www.fig-baud.com/cataloguefiguiers/catgouttedor.html
http://vincentbey.club.fr/GoutteOr.html
http://www.jardin-des-senteurs.ch/catalogue/description.asp?art=FI029

BRUNSWICK
http://www.fig-baud.com/cataloguefiguiers/catbrunswick.html
http://www.pommiers.com/figue/images/figue-brunswick.jpg
http://www.pommiers.com/figue/figue-brunswick.htm

What says Baud: Madeleine des deux saisons, would be close to Brunswick.(Le Figuier Pas à Pas).

In all nurseries i saw for the moment in France, Brunswick and Goutte d'or are sold as a different tree.

Nadia,
Merci pour l'info
Thanks for clarifying

Nadia -- Will send you private mail sometime this evening on Dauphine. Thanks.

Black Madeira is the king of flavor in my book. Has a tendency to split, and is a very long season fig. Doesn't develop sweetness or flavor after first cold weather. If it warms up again, it will "ripen" by changing size and color, etc, but doesn't have flavor and sweetness. I put 80% of my crop in the trash last season. Even a few figs in a season are to die for.



Zidi is mentioned as a smyrna type in many place in the literature. Behaves accordingly here is San Diego, where we have some wasps, apparently, so I get maybe 30% fruit set on my small tree. One of the best tasting figs at USDA/UC Davis. Very large in size. I ate more of these than anything else when visiting Davis. Did seem to have a high souring/spoilage rate, even in the dry weather of Davis - not sure from what cause.

Hello!

Zidi seems to be a smyrna type, a lot of tunisian figs are. Grrr.Well that's awful! Madeira would be a commun type...So maybe there's a chance under a green house with care? Well, maybe this summer I will eat some zidi figs, I will think of you!

I did not know of your book :-), i looked at your posts, and the wonderful images you sent.

So I note,

Black figs: Madeira, (Zidi), Black Tuscan, Negronne, Vista...St Jérome, Black weeping, Pastilière...for me maybe Ronde de Bordeaux?

White figs: Paradiso, strawberry, or verte, or green ischia, and as i saw in the forum lattarulla, french figue de marseilles (not marseillaise), figue de marseilles is more like dottato, with the yellow pear shape. Mediterranean people like white figs, in those countries. Maybe because of the colour of the sun, figs get a great palette of colours, from violet, blue, to pale green and yellow, almost white. I saw black figs with red interiors.

Pastilière: how fun! I didn't think it would be a good fig tree even if Baud says so, some people said it was insipid, some others say it has less sugar but very tasty. As for me figs meant honey, i couldnt make this choice before i saw the photographs you made.

What do you think of Noire de CAROMB? It's a small fig, i ate it with the skin last time, it was a memorable experience!

Well I was waiting for you answer and I am not disappointed, it's 'un régal' for the eyes.

Nadia