Napolitana Negra does split in any heavy rain. But most varieties do. I think they are worth protecting in greenhouses.

I have a space prepared for 1,200 seedling fig trees in ground. The ones that are nonpersistent or just taste bad will be used for grafting rootstock.

Alright, thank you! That's quite the land setup you have, and quite the operation. You are well on your way to a world class orchard.

Some more first time fruiting varieties.

Regular Celeste:  Small figs, sweet flavor. Had 500 or so drop before 1 ripened. 




Italian Black Becnel:  A medium size, elongated brown fig, red interior, berry/dark plum flavored.  



Violet De Bordeaux: Medium size, dark black, red interior, creamy rich berry flavor.



And a few more Peter's Honey figs. 





A surpirse Figo Preto that I did not see hiding under a leaf.  Very ripe, skin hard like leather, inside was packed with syrup. The crack on the top was from internal syrup pressure buildup.  I will try to wait longer to pick them from now on... :)

The Preto looks awesome! 500 dropped fruits,wow that just have been disappointing

Final 2016 update.

Winner's list.

1. Figo Preto: Best overall fig, attractive, productive, vigorous, healthy, great tasting. I had around 2000 figs form, on 14 first year trees in 25gal pots. I removed most of them, I left 10 on each tree. I am planning to plant 200 more in 25 gal pots in 2017.
Fig size ranged from 60-100 grams.

2. Violet De Bordeaux: Very productive, vigorous grower, good flavor. Fig size ranged from 40-60 grams. I currently have 50 trees that will be grown in 10gal pots.

3. Grise Olivette: Vigorous grower, productive, large figs, unique flavor/texture. Has carmel brown skin, syrupy, light sugar/berry flavor. Sized ranged from 60-100+ grams. Will plant 40 trees in 25 gal pots.

4. LSU Hollier: My favorite tasting LSU fig, so far... Has very sweet, smooth, creamy, rich, sugar/berry flavored figs. Requires hot, dry conditions for figs to ripen without splitting, or getting watered down flavor.
Fig size ranged from 40-70 grams. I have 80 trees in 5gal pots, will transplant them into 20gal pots in spring.

5. Napolitana Negra: Very productive, vigorous grower, large figs. Very similar to black mission figs, but larger size on average. My black mission is also not nearly as productive.
Size ranges from 70-100+ grams. My black mission figs were 40-70 grams. Will plant 40 tree in 25gal pots.

6. Panache: Vigorous grower, attractive fruit, good flavor, not very productive first year, but hopefully will be next year. I currently have 200 panache trees growing. They will all be planted in 20 gal pots in the spring.

Figs showing potential for 2017.

Raspberry latte: Very vigorous, productive attractive fruit shape/color. Might have a few ripening in the next week or two. Have 20 trees growing.

JH Adriatic: Have heard mostly good things about this fig. I have 50 trees growing at the moment, looking forward to trying the figs this summer.

Ronde De Bordeaux: Very vigorous, productive, easy to root. Also a fig that has many positive reviews. I have 20 trees but am propagating more.

LSU Scott's Yellow: Very healthy, vigorous growing, a fig on every node. Might have a few ripening in a month or so. Have 25 trees growing.

Loser figs:

Celeste, Celeste and Celeste.

I have 3 different regular Celeste trees, have multiple copies of each. All 3 have slightly different leaves and figs, but are clearly very closely related.

Terrible in the rain, leaves seem to just melt off the tree, like they are made out of witches skin.

99.9% of the figs will get to the stagnant stage then fall off.

Thank you for sharing! I thought of you last month when I was reading an article about commercial fig culture in Hawaii.

Mele Kalikimaka Sid. My daughter is currently visiting the Big Island. I just set her up with her first fig tree. She lives on Oahu.