Hello everybody, I'm a new fig enthusiast and it's my first time posting. I thought some of you might be interested in hearing about my experience growing figs in Zone 13. 

I'm an ex-pat living in Haiti and in my spare time I like to grow tree seedlings in my little rooftop tree nursery. I especially like to grow trees that aren't commonly found in Haiti so if the locals like the fruit, I can give away seedlings and bring something new and different to my little part of the country. I first bought some White Italian fig cuttings on ebay in May 2012 not knowing if I would have any success. The cuttings shot up and started giving some small fruits that were SO good. The little trees went in the ground a year later and here are some pics of the biggest one from this week:

 
 
I'm a guy who eats mangos and bananas and soursop out of my own garden all the time, but these homegrown figs have become my fast favorite. You can see I even get figs in January/February!

The climate here is pretty much hot all the time. This winter has been the coldest we have had in several years, and the lowest temperature we had was about 73-74*. The hottest it will get in the summer is maximum 94-95* and very humid. We have a dry season from December through March/April. Sometimes there won't be a drop of rain during that time. We typically get sun every day unless there's a hurricane. 

In addition to the White Italian, I have a half dozen Brown Turkeys in pots that a friend made as air layers and gave to me. They don't have any figs on this winter but a few weeks ago they started pushing out new leaves again. 

 
I have met a total of 3 other people growing figs in Haiti, all American ex-pats. The Haitian Creole word for "banana" is "fig", which can cause a certain amount of confusion. The true Creole term refers to "french figs". 

I'm interested in expanding my new collection to include other varieties that are likely to perform better in this climate. I would love to receive some wisdom from more experienced members of this group in regards to what varieties to plant and how to get the best results in my climate. To get new varieties, if we have someone flying in soon I can make an order online and they can bring scions in their luggage. There are no restrictions for agricultural products coming into Haiti. 

The idea of trading scions sounds like fun to me, but I don't think I'm allowed to bring scions back to the US, and they wouldn't be dormant anyway. The best I could do would be to send mango or other tropical seeds, of which Haiti has many delicious varieties. I've also been homebrewing for a long time and I've made an art form out of it. Anybody willing to make a bottle/scion swap would not be disappointed. Patience required - we have to coordinate this kind of thing with friends and family flying back and forth from the states. 

Great story, and welcome to the forum.   Bravo for you to introduce some new fruit to your neighbors, and always interesting to know how adaptive figs are.   I'm sure your quest for new varieties will be fruitful here- just be careful of fig fever, it's contagious!

A wonderful, fig story Chris. Welcome to the forum. As far as varieties for you in Haiti, I think our members from Florida and the South will be able to point you in the right direction. Best of luck, it's very nice to meet you!

Great job, thank you for sharing your pictures and story. I would think many of the LSU varieties would suit your area well.

Welcome to the forum Chris, I am sure you would get plenty of cuttings if you visit the states, I am, and maybe other members are not willing to send them outside the US. Good luck and good growing.

A reminder to keep everything clean and sterile!  Nobody needs anymore new exotic pests!

I didn't mean to scare anybody. I have no intention of spreading diseases in either the USA or Haiti :)

Thanks for posting. Sounds like your figs never go dormant and drop all their leaves, correct? Best of luck!

Hey! I'm from Miami and I think your and my climates share some things in common. I've been growing figs for about 3 years now and here's what I've noticed so far: 

LSU Scott's Black, Kadota, and Hollier have not split on me yet, even in excessive rain. Granted, my figs are all in containers with decent drainage but they've held up well. LSU SB and Hollier are both from this fig development research program thing at LSU, where, I'm sure you can guess, the air is basically steam. As someone mentioned earlier, these might end up being some of the most reliable varieties for climates like ours.

The only figs that have split on me so far are Texas Blue Giant and Violette de Bordeaux. VdB has been a slow grower and it might take another few years before I let it fruit again, so maybe someone else has more insight on older VdBs in rainy weather.

Texas Blue Giant has performed well but it's kind of a pain. It's extremely similar to Brown Turkey in terms of flavor and if overwatered, it's either really bland or it just splits. Not to mention, with its huge eye, it's not uncommon to find the fruits full of ants. You're probably better off passing on this one unless you're reaaaally into Brown Turkey.

I'm testing out many more varieties and I'll make a post about their performances later this year. My other varieties I have listed in my signature are still too young to get a good idea of whether they'll work in this climate. However, JH Adriatic and Ronde de Bordeaux held up very well last year. I think JHA shows a lot of promise. Also, I've heard that Col de Dame Grise has a closed eye, requires a long, hot growing season, and ripens late in the year. Not to mention, it's apparently one of the most delicious figs around. I'm still growing that one so I'll keep you updated.

I have to say, if Haiti's winters are dry and you still get figs around this time of year, it'd be an interesting experiment to test varieties that are susceptible to splitting. 

I'm really interested in hearing how your experiments go. Just make sure to keep rust fungus in check.

Take care.

P.S. I see you grow soursop. Do you grow atemoya or sugar apple? I just got a tree of each and I can't find any definitive info on whether growing two trees of each species improves fruit quality. I know that's true for lychee but idk for annona.

Cool story! Zone 13...oh man...

Welcome!

Welcome and thanks for sharing.  My son-in-law is in Haiti right now, sending some nice photo's of his journey. 

Welcome to the forum Chris. You as well Levar.

I lived in Naples, FL for 10 years. The weather patterns of south FL are fairly similar to what you experience in Haiti. With a couple exceptions. Haiti never really cools down much in "winter" and definitely doesn't get any frost. While S. FL will see a rare frost every few years. But the dry sunny winters are typical in S. FL, much like Haiti. As was mentioned, this could be a blessing when growing figs of just about any variety.

Might be worth your effort to just experiment with whatever varieties you can get your hands on.

But you could also get in touch with some folks who have experience at growing figs in an area of FL that's just about as tropical as it gets in the state - the Fruit and Spice Park in Homestead. Apparently they've been growing figs there for awhile now. I'm sure they've built up some experience and that would prove very useful to you. They're much about educating folks on the various tropical fruits and how to grow them. So, I'm sure they'd be happy to help. You may have to be patient though while someone gets back to you. They're usually pretty busy.

I visited there once many years ago. I asked if they would ever share any seeds from the Jackfruit they grow. They said sure. I just had to leave my name & address & they'd send me some seed once the fruit were ripe. Honestly, I didn't think I'd ever hear from them again. But sure enough, a few weeks later, I got some big seeds in the mail. I got one seed to germinate. As far as I know, that tree is still growing in a back yard in Naples Manor.

I doubt the Fruit and Spice Park will be able to send you any plant material. But they should be able to, at least, put you onto some varieties that have done well for them.

Anyway, here's the link to their site: http://www.fruitandspicepark.org/

Hope this helps. 

Yes, the little fig trees keep their leaves throughout the year, although it seems they stop growing for a while in November/December.

Levar, I noticed what you mean about the Brown Turkey and ants. Inevitably, by the time they are at perfect ripeness there are a bunch of ants inside and I have to convince them to leave before eating. The White Italian, however, don't have that problem. Having grown/eaten only two types of figs in total, I would say the White Italian is my favorite. I bought the scions from a seller in Brooklyn, so they made a big change in climate! Neither variety has split on me yet. I'm not sure if I have had a main crop yet or just brebas - I need to read some more on the forums to understand the difference between the two. 

I have a sugar-apple tree but I had to look up Atemoya online. I have never seen one before. Haiti's whole agricultural sector is very under-developed, to the point where most fruit trees simply grow up where someone dropped a fruit seed after eating the fruit. A hybrid tree like the Atemoya would be very rare indeed. The exception is the Francique mango, which Haitians plant and graft onto existing trees, and have become Haiti's biggest export. 

I went to Fruit and Spice Park's website and noticed they have Persimmons in season. Does anyone know if they might grow in the tropics? I was under the impression that they were a temperate climate fruit, so I haven't tried to grow it yet. 

One time I tried to grow rhubarb here and failed miserably! I should have known better but I just had to try! 

I haven't written an update in a year and a half so I guess it's overdue. 

It turns out it's real easy to grow figs in this climate. I have about a dozen trees in the ground now. The original White Italian, Brown Turkey and "Unknown Calderwood". Levar was kind enough to send me cuttings of several different varieties but I failed to keep any of them alive :(

Haiti finally came out of its 3 year drought and now that all the little fig trees have rain, they just keep growing and fruiting. One small tree I thought was dying a year ago shot up new growth from the roots and now it's taller than I am and still growing. 

 

I'm not sure how good the fruit quality is because I know so little about figs. However, the White Italian figs that were so sweet last year during the drought are now less sweet and tend to split. The open eye sometimes draws ants. One of the Brown Turkey figs will start giving fruit next week, and the "Unknown Calderwoods" will give fruit before the end of the year. 

Over the past several years I've put a lot of work into the yard and it's starting to pay off in fresh fruit. Out of the trees I raised up, mostly from seed, I'm now enjoying Suriname cherries, egg fruit, star fruit, june plums, rum berries (guavaberries), sour sop and of course my favorite figs :) We're drowning in avocados at the moment but I can't take credit for those old trees.