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Encanto Farms Nursery > Topics > My nice "Marseillaise"¿?
 
 


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Axier

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Posted Reply with quote  #1 
I want to describe my (IMHO) excellent ¿Marseillaise? (edited on 02-02-11: it definitively is NOT a Marseillaise fig tree, I realized long time ago but I forgot to edit this post)
It is 10 years old and it already was in the orchard when I bought the house 4 years ago. The owner didn't know what variety it was.

The tree is slow growing and is very easy to keep in a manageable size without pruning or slight pruning. I prune it a bit every two or three years. My climate is mild and rainy and I can assure that fig trees grow a lot here!

It is the tree picture (sorry for the net!), it was slightly pruned the last winter. The child tricycle in the picture is for size comparison:



It is very productive for its size and the figs are excellent, very sweet and not watery with a good taste, small to medium size. It is not a plain sweet fig. It starts to ripen one week later than "Ronde de Bordeaux" ("Ronde de Bordeaux" ripens here in late August-early September).
So far it is my best fig, despite I am trying a lot of varieties. Anyway, many of my varieties are very young and it could be that I find a better one in the next years.

So far, the only fig variety which can compete in quality is Negronne. True, this also is an excellent fig!

We have had a quite dry summer and early September, but the past week it rained a lot during 3 days (150 mm / 6 inches of rain is really a lot for 3 days!), stormy weather! all the fig varieties in the point of ripening have been ruined. Only the greenest figs when the rains will can ripen in the next days. The following pictures has been taken few days ago and the figs still are a bit damaged for the bad weather.
But now is sunny again and I hope more figs will ripen in the next weeks, late September is the top ripening time here. October is a more complicated month but it still is a chance.
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Axier
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paully22

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Posted Reply with quote  #2 
Very nice tree - well managed. Thanks for the photos. I need to make a net like yours for the birds have discover my black figs for next season.
Dieseler

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Posted Reply with quote  #3 

Oh thats a beautiful shape tree, thanks for sharing that photo.
Italiangirl74

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Posted Reply with quote  #4 

Ciao Axier, your photo's are always so nice and fresh and clean,  you take very good care of your figs and it shows, I don't have this fig variety, but sure looks good.  Ciao
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Bass

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Posted Reply with quote  #5 
Beautiful fig. Looks very tasty, Regardless of what variety it is, as long as it's a tasty fig. I wouldn't call it Marseillaise, comparing it to the pictures from Baud book it looks a bit different.


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robertharper

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Posted Reply with quote  #6 
Axier, that is indeed a beautiful fig tree. What company did you buy the net from? Bob
Axier

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Posted Reply with quote  #7 
Thanks for the compliments!
Maggie, I am glad you like my photos, believe me, they have been taken with a modest compact camera (not SLR). Nowadays, any new camera take very good photos.
Bass, you are right, the figs look a bit different comparing it to the pictures from Baud's book (Le figuier pas a pas, right?). However this variety shows two different shapes of figs, ones with a long neck and others with a long stalk but not so big neck.

Anyway, there are some characteristics shared between Baud's Marseillaise (from "Figues" and "Le figuier pas a pas" books) and my fig:

- Branches with many nodes,
- Dark bark color when semi-hardwood.
- Soon in the spring, the branches show many small breva figs which fall off all in few days. Like Marseillaise, it is an strict unifere.
- It is a medium to small fig tree
- Similar leaf description
- Ripening time, one week or so after "Ronde de Bordeaux"

But still, I am not 100% convinced it is a true Marseillaise, but if not, it is a close related variety. As you say, regardless of what variety it is, it is an excellent variety for me.

Bob, I live in Spain, so unfortunately I don't believe the brand of the net has any utility for you. Anyway, if you are interested in it, I will tell you (I don't remember now). I bought the net in a local gardening store.
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Axier
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Bass

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Posted Reply with quote  #8 
Axier,
I would love to try this fig in our climate since it's not a late fig.

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Axier

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Posted Reply with quote  #9 
Several days later the three days of very heavy rain, the weather is dry and mild (around 20º C / 70º F), not the best, but good for figs. Excellent for me taking into account my rainy climate!

My Marseillaise fig tree and figs are in its peak and is producing like in the picture every 4 or 5 days. The flesh is denser now and it tastes like fig jam!

However other varieties didn't overcome the past rains and are watery or souring.
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Axier
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Axier

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Posted Reply with quote  #10 
This year I have finally concluded that my tree is not a Marseillaise. I grafted a Marseillaise branch and I can compare the figs.
My fig has green-bluish figs when unripened, however Marseillaise are pale green, clearly different. So it is so far an unknown variety, but an excellent variety.
This week, after a drier summer than usual, it rains in alternated days, accumulating a total of 30 mm (1.18 inches). Well, the figs of this tree remain without splitting, undaunted, highly sweet and good tasting.
The figs are somewhat small and easily near dry on the tree. Believe me, my climate is humid and is near impossible a fig dries on the tree.
Look the fig in the picture (sorry for the poor quality, I took them with my mobile phone), there are a lot like it and, needless to say, when a fig near dries on the tree, it is delicious! They keep on the tree day by day and don't sour, never split.
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Axier
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Posted Reply with quote  #11 
Madorn a Mia !
Axier the picture right above this post is one to stare at , what a beautiful looking fig inside and out.
One of the best fig pictures of the year in my opinion i have seen.
Thanks for posting this - a true enjoyment for my eyes at least.
Axier

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Posted Reply with quote  #12 
Thanks again Martin! Believe or not, both were taken with my HTC mobile phone, the first picture is the typical poor picture of a mobile phone but the second looks very nice for a mobile picture, I was surprised too! but it tasted better! ;-)
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Axier
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Posted Reply with quote  #13 
very interesting for its resistance to rainy and cold weather!
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Posted Reply with quote  #14 

Thanks for the update. Bakio is a good name for it.
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loslunasfarms

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Posted Reply with quote  #15 
This fig looks very promising Axier. 
Herman2

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Posted Reply with quote  #16 
Your fig is Celeste,in my opinion,thow it looks a little diferent than Celeste in the USA climate.
The leaf and fruit are consistent to Celeste,and the resistance to rain and getting ripe outside ideal climateis also like Celeste.
Axier

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Posted Reply with quote  #17 
Herman, I always read your comments with interest and I know that you are an experienced and wise fig grower. You usually have an excellent marksmanship identifying varieties, but in this occasion I don't agree with you.
I haven't celeste in my collection but according to pictures and descriptions, in my opinion, my fig tree is not a celeste.
I have to admit that my figs resemble celeste, but celeste are darker skin. According to Condit's description, celeste are color violet-bronze to chocolate
brown, my figs don't have so dark color.
Celeste can have breba crop "small, or mostly none", my fig never have brebas, it is an strict unifere. In 10 years never had one breva. Like Marseillaise, in spring, it has a lot of pea size brebas but they all soon drop without exception.
Another difference, I have read that sometimes celeste drops a considerable percentage of their crop. My tree doesn't drop figs.
Of course, all the above is only my opinion, I can be wrong.
Thanks for your help to identify my tree.
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Axier
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loslunasfarms

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Posted Reply with quote  #18 
I have to agree with Axier, it does not look like my Celestess.
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Posted Reply with quote  #19 
OK Axier no Offense,if we do not agree to disagre then we all,will only have to loose at the end.Just take a look at my pix of Celeste I done this Sommer. Celeste differ in outside color every year depending how much sun and how much rain it gets.Yet they are the most resistent to rain of all varieties.
The leaves on your fig are 3 lobes type just like Celeste.
As for the dropping of fruits Celeste drops only in some climates,and only when young,wich is not the case with your fig.
Best Regards

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jpeg Celeste_frts.jpg (62.85 KB, 144 views)
Axier

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Posted Reply with quote  #20 
Thanks Herman for the picture and help.
I agree that Celeste resembles my variety and shares characteristics with it but, in my opinion, they are different varieties.
My figs never takes that dark bronze color and can be sure that we had unusual hot and sunny summers in the past, for example, in year 2003 the summer was the hottest in decades in SW Europe. As a token of it, I had not Coll de Dama at that time, but I know people in my region with excellent Coll de Dama crops in September 2003. Take into account that usually CdD doesn't ripen here.
Well, after that scorcher summer, I don't remember my unknown fig with other color than that showed in the above pictures.
(I have to clarify that the orchard was not our in 2003, but it was of a close familiar and I know that tree since it was an small plant, we always enjoyed the peculiar and tasty figs of this tree)
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Axier
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Axier

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Posted Reply with quote  #21 
I don't want to be a pest with my fig tree but I only want to add that it has been, one year again, by far, my best fig variety.

It has uninterruptedly produced excellent figs since late August, specially these days, with dry south winds, they dry on tree and are honey textured, flavored sweet.

Today, ending the fig season, it has been my best fig together with Ronde de Bordeaux and Longue d'Aout (these to a far distance).

An advisable variety for humid climates.
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Axier
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Bass

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Posted Reply with quote  #22 
Thanks Axier, Sounds like a promising variety. I wonder how it will do in cold climate with hot and humid summers. 
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Axier

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Posted Reply with quote  #23 
Bass, I don't know how winter hardy it is, because my winters are very mild, but I think that a hot and humid summer won't be a problem for it.
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Axier
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