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Encanto Farms Nursery > Topics > Dark figs 2013: Hardy Chicago
 
 


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persianmd2orchard

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Posted Reply with quote  #1 
Hey guys I'm finally getting around to posting these pictures. I was away from garden in another city working in hospital for most of fig season. My family was awesome enough to bring me one crop, and then I got to go to the garden after 5 weeks of exile from the garden just a few days ago. I compressed all the images for quick upload/download.

I'm zone 7a I would say in a protected microclimate for hardiness as there are lots of walls around everywhere. I like to let my figs truly ripen for max flavor and am having good luck after a couple tries with organza bags. My goal with most figs is to let them shrivel up to a raisin on the tree whenever possible.

Plant info: Hardy Chicago went in ground last year at about 4 feet tall and put on couple feet of growth this year... he woke up in spring with zero dieback. Since he's one of my earliest cultivars (although not super early), I put him in the most shade and he probably receives only 5-6 hrs of sun a day. I pretty much give all my late cultivars more sun and early cultivars less sun so they all catch up to about to ripen about the same time together. I also have HC under the edge of a little driveway roof so much of the rain is diverted.

Performance: Fantastic. Productive. No splitting, no spoiling. Seem to ripen about 3 at a time. Allows shrivel to raisin effect the best of all my trees I think.

Flavor: Pretty good. Way more consistent and solid than a Brown Turkey in my climate at least--that is for sure. Was better last year and matched the Sal's Gene I had at Gene's old place last year for flavor. This year still good and very reliable, but I wouldn't say it was especially rich like VdB. I did like some of them that were fully ripe but not shrivel to a raisin ripe. But letting these shrivel to a raisin is the default as the tree cooperates so nicely.

Attached Images
jpeg 1-_2_VdB_on_right,_rest_HC.jpg (69.30 KB, 24 views)
jpeg 2-_HC_ripe_skin.jpg (71.13 KB, 20 views)
jpeg 3-_HC.jpg (74.17 KB, 23 views)
jpeg 4-_HC_interior.jpg (77.83 KB, 21 views)
Dieseler

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Posted Reply with quote  #2 
Hardy Chicago a great fig and underated in my opinion at least the 1 from the closed paradise nursery.
Vdb also a great fig.

The way i taste on personal palate.

Both have different taste profiles as Vdb has that berry flavor and Hardy Chicago has a rich figgy flavor per Ray Given and fully agree and Sals EL -edible landscaping same as Genes is much less in rich figgy department than Hc but has more sweetness on palate.

 
persianmd2orchard

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Posts: 431
Posted Reply with quote  #3 
I agree--probably the most underrated fig. I think this should be planted very widely in my climate as the no brainer default in place of Brown Turkey.
Sal's EL is sometimes sweeter and HC is a tad more of a regular figgy taste--my palate pretty much agrees with that. More pics of dark ones to come :).
Tam

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Posted Reply with quote  #4 
Very nice, thanks for sharing.

Best,
Tam
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