Plant info: Similar to HC (in ground) except planted next to a wall since he is reportedly more cold sensitive than others. Went in ground last year at 4feet tall also with a roof diverting much of the rain, his soil is consistently amongst my driest soil in the whole garden and reminds me of dry dirt in orchards in Shiraz!! 6-7 hrs of sun.

Performance: Woke up in spring with zero dieback. I think being against a wall really helps him in my zone 7a.  He's one of happiest plants and had no winter set back. Got his season and growth started very nicely. This is the only plant I did not pinch back as I heard he naturally grows as a petite dwarf bush and did not want to overdwarf him. I do see some nice natural branching on him but the dwarfing thing... maybe this is due to cold climate and dieback however because against the wall with no dieback he put on as vigorous growth as any and is a few feet taller now. 

Productive, zero splitting, 2 did get ever so slightly fermented because after being very ripe I let 2 sit on counter for 48 hours for friend to come in to town to taste and one ever so slightly started to ferment. Another did slightly spoil on tree. Again I let these go very ripe but it only 5% of crop spoiled. I would still say overall 10x more spoil resistant than Brown Turkey. Splitting and spoiling a non-issue but perhaps a 5% less reliable than Hardy Chicago. Well worth it.

Flavor: Excellent, very rich. Easy, easy, easy winner. The only fig my mom said reminded her of dark figs in Iran. He tasted great last year but this year even better. Also he has reportedly had some thick skin in some gardens but over here when allowed to ripen perfectly he does not have any coarse skin whatsoever. Perhaps not as ultra thin as Ronde but definitely perfectly nice skin.

BTW if you hover over image, the filename will let you know if a HC snuck into one of the photos. Same with the HC post--there was one pic where VdB snuck in.