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ohjustaguy

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Posted Reply with quote  #1 
Thought some of you might find this interesting:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/04/24/306248108/california-farmers-finagle-a-fig-for-all-seasons?ft=1&f=1001
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FrozenJoe

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Posted Reply with quote  #2 
Thanks for posting this.  Very interesting.  Here I have to force the fig trees to go dormant most winters by cutting back on their water in the fall.  Frosts do occur most winters in this area so I choose not to risk the damage.  We don't have enough heat here past mid-November to make it worth ripening winter figs.  They don't taste sweet once it gets cool.  It must be a little warmer in the Imperial Valley in the winter time compared to here.
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Joe
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rafaelissimmo

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Posted Reply with quote  #3 
Great story-very interesting. Frozen figs are supposed to keep nicely too Alan. Bill Muzychko freezes a lot of his enormous fig crop. I hope to have enough extra to try freezing this year.
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bullet08

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Posted Reply with quote  #4 
i can wait also, and there are dried figs if i get desperate.
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Pete
Durham, NC
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"don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash." - sir winston churchill
"the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money." - the baroness thatcher

***** all my figs have FMV/FMD, in case you're wondering. *****
***** and... i don't sell things. what little i have will be posted here in winter for first come first serve base to be shared. no, i'm not a socialist...*****
Figaro

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Posted Reply with quote  #5 
Interesting.  At $15/lb. I'd wait to buy, but be rushing to harvest my own!
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[B]Figaro Zone 10b - South Florida[/I]
Growing: Black Mission, Strawberry Verte, LSU Hollier, LSU Purple, LSU Scotts Black, Cajun Gold, Panachee, Excel, UCR 291-4, UCR 143-36, Violette de Bordeaux, Ronde de Bordeaux, Calvert,  Black Madeira, Col De Dame Blanc
Wish List: CdDN, CdDG, Ischia Black, Galicia Negra
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fignutty

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Posted Reply with quote  #6 
I'm going to try fruiting both blueberries and figs next winter. I've got a very bright 6,000 ft candle sunroom and 1200W of 3000 ft candle lights. The plants will get the sunroom by day and the lights half the night. Days at 80-90F and nights 60F. That might do the trick. Did it once before and the blueberries were better than the figs in Jan/Febr. Have better plants this year.

Don't think I can fruit the same plant all year but might cover most of the year by rotating plants.

My plan down the road would be a Desert King chilled in November and then brought inside sunroom to force early spring production. Fall and winter production would come from something like Strawberry Verte that produces main crop as late as it's kept growing. Then chill those plants in March or carry through another summer unchilled.
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Steve in Alpine TX 7b/8a
Wish list:  Sangue Dolce, Siblawi, Victoria, Emalyn's Purple, Colonel Littman's Black Cross
fignutty

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Posted Reply with quote  #7 
Has anyone carried figs through two summers and the winter in between without going dormant? Did they produce the second summer? May need a new topic for this.
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Steve in Alpine TX 7b/8a
Wish list:  Sangue Dolce, Siblawi, Victoria, Emalyn's Purple, Colonel Littman's Black Cross
mgginva

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Posted Reply with quote  #8 
fignutty,
Normally I put all my figs in the garage but last year I brought a dozen and a half or so plants into the house as I wanted to see if they'd continue to grow with and without a MH lighting system or in my plant room. They didn't do much and were very sluggish come spring. Not one single fig was produced by any of them. They were young trees (one to 1 1/2 years old) however, so I'm not sure what older trees would have done, but my other trees of the same age that went through dormancy in my unheated garage (with windows) produced quite a few figs.
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Michael in Virginia (zone 7a) Wish list:   Perretta, 
fignutty

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Posted Reply with quote  #9 
Michael:

Thanks for your response. It seems trying to fruit a fig for two yrs right thru winter is a long shot. We do get enough cold weather Nov thru March that I think I can chill early or late and still get some off season fruit. I'm going to try it this winter and push all the light and heat I can muster in winter. I'll post if anything interesting happens.

I also have a freezer I could set up at 40F to get off season chilling. That might be interesting for both figs and blueberry.
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Steve in Alpine TX 7b/8a
Wish list:  Sangue Dolce, Siblawi, Victoria, Emalyn's Purple, Colonel Littman's Black Cross
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