Native de Argentile was shockingly good. It was a 2011 UC Davis cutting that was cut into thirds and each third rooted. If not for two unsuccessful attempts to ship it a place that it could not be shipped and should not be shipped (according to the authorities), I would not have cared for this last cutting/tree as well as I have.

It has an incredible layered tropical flavor which means that it is not berry but comparable to a blend of fresh tropical juices and yes it is juicy with each fig having a honey drip from the eye. The initial taste is surprising because it is (like the early years Carlos Santana) uncommon. Then there are additional flavors that I was unable to describe. The three of us had two each and we each had the same Wow! look in our eyes. I almost forgot about the nuttiness from the crunch. A good fig here in 8B.

Native de Argentile, you are moving on up to a deluxe 30 gallon pot.



   

Mmm, tropical flavors! Sounds very different and worth growing. Keep the great reviews coming JD. Mike in Hanover, VA

Super! Mine was very good too!

OH MY!  I have a cutting that has popped up from the earth from this years UC Davis order, and it's far surpassed the others in growth!  Even after a critter bit it to the ground!  It's protected now, and I can't wait till it gets some figs!  It's got 5 leaves compared to the two of the rest.

Love your description!

Suzi

That looks very yummy. She deserves the deluxe 30-gallon upgrade for sure.

Why has NdA gotten such noncommital earlier reviews?--I remember Jason and Martin being unenthusiastic about this fig in 2011.  Now, there's so much ooh-ing and ah-ing.

Shah, a lot depends on the climate and care of any particular fig.  I like to go to the UC Davis site, and choose figs from other countries that are native to the climate in which I dwell.  Also, this was a 2011 acquisition.  The tree is 3 years old.  It's not even yet in it's prime!

Mine is a baby.  It suffered a critter bite, and I thought it was gone, but there are roots in the earth, and it's growing like the weed it is.  I have now protected it from those rabbits and voles with a cage.  But it shows me that it is vigorous and happy in this climate.  It is in ground outside.  It will be moved when it goes dormant out of the nursery and into life.  I will say this post has motivated me to give it extra care for sure!

Suzi

I am very pleased this variety is good, nice photos.

shah8,
Why were Jason and Martin noncommittal in their 2011 reviews? I don't know. Was your question rhetorical? 

I offer the following for your consideration:

• In 2011, I believe that Jason had an immature NdA and it produced a less than desirable first fig. Like most figs, I think his tree would be [much] better 3+ years later.
• I did not post about NdA last season although I could have. What Martin and Jason wrote, however, gave me reason to wait another season before I posted about it.
• I did wait and you have read what I wrote.

Just placed an order for cuttings. If I can get figs as delicious as yours look, I will be a happy camper indeed. Thank-you for the photos and review Mr. JD.









Regards,
billy

Well, it wasn't rhetorical, so much as I was sort of wondering whether there have been changes in the philosophy of fig care or something.  I believe Dennis really liked them at the Wolfskill orchard at the time, but I think that was really kind of the only really positive review from around that time, so I had always had that variety as part of just another fig.  Today, there are more people enthusiastic about how this fig tastes, I wasn't just talking about JD's review.  Although, I have to say, were I just another fig hunter with lots of land to plant lots of figs, I'd probably still be dubious, because all decent fig (especially if not large) have their day in the sun, given enough a fortuitous series of event.  BM and Smith and the like have their value because for the most part, things don't have to be too too perfect to get great fruit all the time, as opposed to Atreano or California Brown Turkey.  Special different flavor would almost have to be Kid's Orange Red special just so, otherwise, you'd be chasing fig after fig after fig, and still wind up having to cull.

Shah, I suppose your arguments are the reason so many of us justify getting so many varieties to test out in each of our yards.  A fig may do well in one location (soil, sun, heat, etc) but a couple hundred miles away not do so well.  And then there's year to year variation in a given location to take into account.  So hearing reports on how well figs do in other forum member's yards is immensely valuable but to find out how a variety does where you live in the end requires testing.  You make a good point that some fig varieties (like VdB) seem to do well almost anywhere, and any given year, while others are more hit and miss.  Anyway, thanks JD for your informative posts!

shah8,
I see your perspective. Thanks for the follow up.

I searched this forum and Garden Web and there are an order of magnitude more posts about struggles with tree growth than there are descriptions of the fruit. Concerning fig care philosophy, I believe it is "better now" than it was four years ago. I believe that Tapla's Soil Management thread (and Dan_La philosophical discussions with him) educated many and made folks think about care more than they may have ever considered in the past. I also believe it is incrementally "better" now than it was in 2011.

Finally, I waited almost two years before posting about NdA. Akram and then Martin were the first to mark NdA for me. I'll say it again, in the special flavor category, I would present two figs for taste testing: 1) NdA and 2) Camuna Small Black. I appreciate your skepticism and I also accept your proposition that it is just another fig. Time will tell.

The measure of good anywhere is interesting. Here's why: Consider your example of BM and Smith, Smith takes several years to produce but when it does, it produces OUTSTANDING figs. I have yet to read reports of successful Black Madeira harvests in the South. I have both potted and grounded BMs with no success. So for me in 8B, BM is a cull/new home candidate. Like Smith but without the fanfare, NdA has taken several years to produce and it has produced fruits of superior taste (I think) to other fig trees that I am growing and have sampled fruit.

I am interested in learning more about your fig hunting.

Well now I feel really bad.  I managed to kill my NdA and have not gotten around to replacing it yet.

Great review. Thanks for it.

This fig looks great.

I am only posting cuz mine went dormant, but this one makes me drool.  It's coming out of dormancy (bummer... wanted to put it in a big pot first), but gonna still pot it up for a year.  After that, it will go in ground.  Might do an air layer for back up.  gophers, ya know?

I think it's a prolific producer and an aggressive grower.  Needs space.

Suzi

Yes, it was one the best figs I tried last year. I wouldn’t say it is an aggressive grower but it is quite a prolific producer.

Greenfig, really?  Mine seems to be an aggressive grower, but it's a baby.  Started from a UC Davis cutting last year.  It seems to be a big grower.  I'll pot it up for a year, and figure out where to put it in ground.  There is one more aggressive grower.  You won't know it, but a member here sent me cuttings, and I have two really big aggressive baby trees named Norman's Yellow.

Suzi

It hasn't grown very vigorously for me but branches are thick and strong.  Look forward to fruit this year if I can keep the birds away.

Great! Now I have 2 more figs move to larger pots. :-)

Suzi,
I concur. NdA is special here as well.

NdA is an excellent fig.  The figs are beautiful.  They taste amazing too.  Jon and I made a visit to UCD last August (2014) again and I gorged myself with them again!

Suzi, have you tried Zidi?  I wish everyone could taste Zidi.  Man what a fig!  That is one fig ---I would have if I lived in California!  It's a complete fig!  Huge in size....very sweet....very rich.  Too bad it requires pollination.

Dennis, I pretty much doubt we have the fig wasp here in my isolated climate.  I have only been able to find one fig tree in this entire area, and it's in someone's back yard.  I think I'm the only one on this mountain with figs! 

I never tried Zidi.  Maybe one day I'll get some UC Davis cuttings and try it and see if we have the wasp.  Got bees coming out our ears!  The whole mountain buzzes!

Gonna stay happy and look forward to my first taste of NdA.

Suzi

Suzi, even if you don't have the wasp yet, you can get it there eventually, though a pretty good sized potted tree or airlayer is probably the best way to do it.  Zidi is great like Dennis says, I am starting several more for myself now.  If I do farmer market fruit sales i might want 50 trees of it.  Your other fruits would taste even better with caprification.

Suzi, meet Zidi! :)
 

Lordy Harvey those look good!
Suzi, you have the ability to have the wasp like Harvey said, you could have a caprifig somewhere in the way back out of the way and reap the benefits.

That photo looks 3-D, Harvey. Nice! I'm happy I have Zidi, now I just need the wasps.

So if I purchase a Zidi tree, it just carries the wasp with it? 

Suzi

I haven't studied the caprifig process a whole lot because it won't work for me here without a greenhouse. The answer to your question is no, Zidi doesn't come with the wasp. You get a caprifig, which for the most part are a crappy leathery fig which are no good for eating(usually), but they (I think this is how it goes, not 100%) are the male flower and have 2 crops per year, I think one they over-winter inside the figs and the next they lay eggs in, which hatch and carry pollen to the common and san pedro type figs. The thing I'm not sure about is why they even need the figs we eat, maybe it's a gathering place for breeding(?), like I said before they won't work for me so I'm not going to study up too much on it.
You could either keep your caprifig in a pot, or you could plant it somewhere out of the way and supplement it with some water until it is rooted strong enough to forget about.

Oh, I forgot the potentially most important part. If you start one from a cutting, when yours is big enough to make figs at a certain time of the year(not sure about that either) you have someone send you figs containg wasps and hang them in your fig trees. They will do their thing and then find your caprifig to continue their cycle in. Or, as Harvey mentioned, you can have someone airlayer a branch from a caprifig which has figs on it already, and they should be ready to do their thing when the time comes. I think.  :)

Suzi, ditto to exactly what Calvin said.  Contact Harvey....he will be happy to help you get started in your area.

OK, first I need to get some Zidi cuttings.  I didn't even order from UCDavis this year, but I'll do it next year.  Once I have a couple trees producing figs, I'll contact Harvey.  Here's to the wasp!!

Suzi

Hi DesertDance,
In your area, since you're in Cali, there should be wild fig trees and some are caprifigs - it can be 50 km away , but still there should be some.
If you find some in the wild now - usually near rivers or a source of water - , In May or June, go there for some branches with figs and put them in a jar of water in a shady spot near your trees, the time for them to release the wasps.
Once the job is done, you can either go ahead and root them or just discard them and go back next year to the same source.
You could as well ask for "croisic" at UCDavis. "Croisic" is a caprifig that is supposed to have edible figs at some point .
So, take your bike tomorrow and go caprifig riding .

Aren't all persistent caprifigs edible?

Anyways, I think Suzi should get UCD 200-28 caprifig.  That way, she'll be likely to have awesome volunteer figs.

Suzi, I should be able to help out next year.  The few cuttings I got from my tree this year are being grown for myself to expand my herd.  I don't know that I'll ever get to 50, but I know I want a lot more than 1.  Along with some Bursa and Lampeira Preta, I'm hoping these may be top market figs.

For persistent caprifigs, I don't know how good 220-28 is.  When I met with the fig breeder a year ago he suggested hobbyists work with 271-1 which has 228-20 in it's pedigree.  See http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1000411  I have it ordered.

I also ordered Capri Q which is also persistent, after having tasted it at the Wolfskill tasting last August.  See http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1003190

If breeding isn't in someone's plans, I suggest trying to find a caprifig that just bears fruit the best so that you don't need a particularly large tree to meet your caprification needs.

Thank you Harvey!  I'll get in touch with you next year on the caprifig issue.  Thanks to the rest of you who gave caprifig suggestions.

But this thread is actually about the excellent Native de Argentile which needs no wasp to be delicious.  On this Valentines day 2015, my well rooted cutting went into it's own 5 gallon container along with one LSU Scotts Black and two Norman's Yellow.  They will receive morning sun and afternoon shade while it gets used to life.  When they go dormant, they will go into a gopher basket on the property to live life in that spot in full sun.

When you root cuttings in ground, you can't really see how many roots it has.  This one had plenty!  The two Norman's Yellow had roots, but kinda sparse.  LSU Scott's black was also well rooted.

Suzi

Hope we both get fruit on our plants, Suzi.  Someone correct me if I'm wrong...but isn't the correct spelling Hative and Davis just got it wrong somehow?

Not sure Harvey.  I just bought it off their list by that name, and JD made me drool with his photos of the fig with the same name.  I do live in the correct climate, so it should do well.  If you have some source for that name, I'll call it that or AKA.  I just love really good figs, whatever they are called.

Suzi

Suzi, see this discussion at http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=6099097

Seems like folks in less than ideal climates haven't done well with this fig but it grows well enough for me and comments from those who have eaten it (don't recall if I ate it at Wolfskill or not), support it is very worthwhile to grow if you have the climate.

Suzi,

I ordered several Capri cuttings from UCD last year and all are growing well. I do not need this many capri trees. I also have 3 Zidi trees. If you are interested in them, PM me.

Sue

Would like to thank Sue for her generous offer.  At the restaurant last night, enjoying our Valentines dinner, I gave JD a lesson on caprifigs.  He seemed to understand except he knows how scared I am of bees, so why would I think wasps would be safe?  LOL!  Anyway, he agreed to take that nice drive to Ramona, pick up two 5 gallon trees, and stop to taste wine in Temecula on our way home.  I sent Sue the message, and we agreed I will pick them up.  They are too heavy to ship for sure!  I'm taking one Zidi and one Capri.

It would be great if I could get some fertilized figs, and not mind if the birds dropped the seed on the big ravine.  Be nice to view wild figs instead of tumbleweeds!

I'll be in touch, Harvey C!

Suzi

Since this discussion has veered into another lane, will someone (Dennis, Harvey, Suzi) please start a Carpi fig and/or Zidi thread? This is one of just a few threads about NdA - principally by Martin (Dieseler) - so it would be nice to keep this thread focused on NdA. Thanks.

Okay, Dennis, you got me in trouble!

I wish had been able to remember to taste this fig while at Wolfskill last August.  I need to plan my attack better next time.

No trouble for you Harvey.
Maj DJ, you sir, are the one in trouble.

Ha ha ha ha ha!  So!

He hehehehehehehe!

Sorry JD!  I am sitting here laughing trying to type this note.  Yeah, we did get side tracked off the subject line.  Well, Harvey, I did not miss NdA last August!  I think you missed a lot of trees there!  The second day there was great!  I think I took some more photos of NdA.  Let me look around and see if I can find my pics.  At the moment, I got pics scattered everywhere!  Bought an iMAC a few months ago and between it my phone, my IPAD, and my camera....the pics are some where.  I'm in the process of moving all my pics and files onto my Apple 2T time capsule.

NdA figs' exterior color look a lot like UCR 160-50 and St Jean at UCD.  They have a greyish red color when ripe.  But the NdA at UCD is a dwarf tree.  It's not as small as Black Maderia or Black Ischia but pretty close.  Both UCR 160-50 and St Jean are huge 20 foot tall trees are UCD so I know they are not the same.  I just wanted to share what I noticed at UCD.

Dennis, I didn't know it's a dwarf tree.  Thanks for the info.  Mine is so aggressive, but still a baby, and I thought it would be big like Verte.  How tall is dwarf in your thinking?  That will help me decide where to plant it. 

I never answered Harvey's question about it's name Hative or Native.  Since all of us obtain ours from UC Davis, and that's what it's called, I'm sticking with Native de Argentile.  Less confusion that way.

Do post your photos ASAP!

Suzi

I've been watching my one and only fig on this year one Native De Argentile gradually ripen, and today it was gone.  Upon further looking, I noticed it lying on the ground under the leaves.  I grabbed it, rinsed it off, and tasted it.  An explosion of jammy nutty flavor!  I'm LOVING this variety!!

Suzi

I also had the tree and had ripe fruits,and as other people living in the north east and north,I can attest,that,it was not tasty nor flavorful here,and i know why:
Our climate is not enough warm sunny and dry for this cultivar.
It will grow very ,very slow here due to lack of adaption,in cool climates.
Edit note:
Had to add:
Some figs are good almost everywhere,(Ex:,Hardy Chicago,Marseilles black vs),some are ,only good in ideal climates for fig tree.

Yes, I understand, Herman.  Not all varieties are good everywhere.  I'm just thrilled that this one is a keeper in my climate.

It's so rich, nutty and jammy!

Suzi

I had some recently as well, very good!


 

Wow, those are pretty!