Hello,

I'm terribly excited to find a forum dedicated exclusively to figs. I am especially glad (and surprised) that there seem to be several Portuguese members. I am Duarte, and I'm a heirloom fruit entusiast. I like figs, but my commitment to preserve local varieties of fruits extends to other crops as well. My orchard is located near Coimbra, central Portugal, but I'm temporarily living in the Algarve for professional reasons.

Regarding figs, my collection currently includes one young tree, labelled 'São João Preto' when I bought it. I'm waiting on it to fruit to hopefully confirm its identity. I'm also planning to air-layer some old 'Pingo de Mel' trees from what used to be my grandparents' house, in a village called Seixo de Mira. They seem to be a slighly different strain for those I've seen in other photos around here. I'm planning to take photos later on this year to share here. There are also a few other black varieties around that I would like to discuss.

I'm looking to expand my collection with other traditional Portuguese varieties. Can any of the other Portuguese members recommend any places or websites for local varieties (even if for fruits other than figs)? I'm aware of Castromil alone.

Also, in Seixo de Mira there seemed to be a old local variety called 'Figo de Aveiro' (Aveiro is a city nearby). People I talked to mentioned good eating but large numbers of 'insects' in the fruits after rainfall, which I think might suggest this is/was an edible caprifig. However, I haven't been able to locate any remaining trees in cultivation, neither in Seixo nor in Aveiro. What do you think? Has any of you heard of it? Is this a local name for other variety, or is this something new? Any tips on locating surviving trees? If it's any help, there are a few varieties of other fruits (plums and apples) that I have never seen or heard of outside of Seixo.

Thank you for your help,

Duarte

EDIT: I also have a few wild caprifigs growing around the orchard but those don't really count.

Welcome aboard!

Hello Duarte,
Welcome to the forum. I'm sure you'll meet some great Portuguese Fig enthusiasts here. Francisco and Jaime have got great knowledge about Portuguese Figs. Looking forward to see your future posts and pictures.
Cheers

Hi Duarte
Welcome to the forum
Glad to see a fig collector from the Portuguese Northern area and the coming prospect to enlighten us on great/unknown fig varieties from those  colder regions.
What you say about 'figo de Aveiro' is very interesting and deserves further investigation
Can't remember exactly when but 2 or 3 years ago there was talk in this forum about a red skinned/red pulp fig found by a holiday visitor in the Mira area. It was not identified
Nurseries around here are very limited on the number of varieties they sell. All seem to concentrate on 'Pingo de Mel' and Lampa Preta.
I remember buying a couple of young 'Dauphine' rooted plants at a nursery called Plantula near Torres Novas... At that time they had an interesting selection of figs.

Francisco

Seja bem vindo aqui tem varios Portuguese e brasileiro tambem ... welcome to the forum

Bem vindo ao fórum, Duarte.

It would be great to be able to discuss a bit more in detail the wonderful portuguese varieties that we have. Francisco his the man regarding those precious rarities from Algarve that are almost impossible to find in nurseries. But there are many more interesting varieties in other parts of the country and it's always good to know people from different areas who can search locally for great varieties, like the one you mentioned - Figo de Aveiro. It would be nice to find a local tree of that variety.

Regarding nurseries, the one's that have interesting fig varieties and know what they are selling (not the usual black and white fig label of most of them) are very limited. There's Castromil and Albar that have a few varieties and there is Plântula but it usually doesn't have stock (only when it has a big order from a farmer and some trees are left behind), but their list is one of the most interesting.

You mentioned that you have wild caprifigs nearby. You are in luck, there's not a single one where i have my orchard. That's interesting as i am looking for colder region caprifigs. Thanks to Francisco i already have some from Algarve that i will be planting this year but they may find it difficult to adapt to a more colder region in terms of crop dates for instance. By the way, do you know if you have a colony of Blastophaga psenes in those caprifigs? That would be really interesting as i am trying to establish a colony in my area.

Thank you for your warm reception. I am looking forward to future conversations.

Francisco, 
I've just checked that post about the tree from Mira. I am unaware of any trees around with that strong red colour, but the leaves seem very similar to the black S. Pedro types that we see around. Anyway, 'de Aveiro' is supposed to be a light-coloured fig, so that can't be it. It fell out of favour due to the increasing popularity of the 'Pingo de Mel' around here, but seems to have been the main crop in Seixo previously. I think I'll try taking cuttings from the oldest trees I can find and then ask family members for feedback on whether any of them fits the description. May end up finding other types, who knows. Hopefully I'll be sharing 'de Aveiro' cuttings soon...

I'll be in Faro for some time in the coming months. Can you suggest any places with particularly interesting trees or orchards that are close by?

Jaime,
I'm not entirely sure about the wasps, but some seedlings pop up from time to time so I suppose they must be around. As I mentioned, I haven't paid much attention to the caprifigs, but I will check them out this year. Anyway, I'd be glad to send you some cuttings of those caprifigs (or fruits with wasps if possible) if you're interested. Seedlings may also be available if I can find any. I'm going abroad for some time starting next week, but I'll give you feedback over the next months.

Duarte,

May be we get a happy surprise with some nice variety from the Mira county.
Talking of nurseries, it's always the same problem ... limited number of varieties as well as no knowledge of what is up for sale..The great majority of places rooting fig scions is located around Coimbra and further north   They  usually distribute the young plants throughout the country some with labels others not. Plenty of people (buyers) do not care for any variety.. if it is a fig.. that's fine!-  I shall dig my files and notes to give you some guidance on the known nurseries

Francisco

Hi Duarte.
Welcome to the forum.
Hop in and enjoy the fig adventure.
Lot's of knowledge from members here.

Francisco,

Although I would obviously appreciate knowing good nurseries in the Algarve, I actually meant noteworthy orchards and unusual trees that you may know of. I'd like to taste and photograph the local varieties in situ, see the growth pattern, the leaves, etc, and try to make a personal database of reference photos, to make ID easier in the future.

Welcome to the forum Duarte! I had a few hours stopover in Portugal on my flight to Paris visiting family in France last November. I was itching to go outside and go looking for fig trees, but there wasn't enough time and my wife wasn't letting me out of her sight. Happy figging.

Hy dgfrade and welcome!

I just recently started a topic pretty much asking the same question, there is already a lot of information on this topic: http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/portuguese-fig-varieties-8415517
And if you finde some of the mentioned varieties, especially Violeta and Carvalhal, let me know! ;)

also Jsacadura, you wrote that you're looking for colder climate caprifig, a bulgarian nursery sells (most likely) caprifig seedlings of their more cold hardy varieties: http://palmi.bg/en/category/67/fig-varieties.html
Maybe this is what you're looking for? I might most likely the case, that I buy one myself this year and could send you a cutting, if I buy one.

Max