Hello, everyone!  Just a quick update for Sweet Diana (Unknown).

My in-ground Sweet Di (Unk) bounced right back and put on some massive growth.  Took about 7 air layers from her this year and there are still 4 more cooking right now.  I know, I know... but I couldn't help myself.  :)  Going to do another heavy prune after she drops her leaves so there should be lots of cuttings.  

She sprouted hundreds of small main crop figs on almost every branch and she's still putting new ones on at an astonishing rate.  Had about 8 to 10 ripe ones (used organza bags to ward off the evil birds) over the last 3 days and they are leaps and bounds ahead of what they were last year.  They are small and average 18 grams each.  The skin is thin and very soft.  Interior is red/purple.  Pulp is a little juicy with a strong fig flavor and fine texture.  Very sweet.  Not off the charts sweet, but definitely sweeter than last year and just enough to catch your attention.

Enjoy the pics!

    


 

Extra large leaf.
  

Air layer 1 of 4.
     

Air layer 2 of 4.
 

First fig.  No pics of whole fig... sorry, couldn't wait.  18g.
   

Second fig.  18g.
 

Average size of leaves.
     

 

Third fig.  18g.
     


   

Shailesh - She shook off this past harsh northeastern winter pretty good.  I wrapped her and lost a tip here and there but otherwise had no dieback.  The parent tree is huge, about 2 stories tall and just as wide.  She is never wrapped and does just fine.  The parent tree, in a neighbors yard across the street, had some dieback this winter but rebounded well.  I have property upstate NY in Z5b.  All the air layers that I took this year are doing well and growing strong.  Going to bring a few of those upstate next year to put in-ground.  We'll see how it works out.

Good looking fig pics.....I think I will go fig hunting tomorrow...LOL

Great tree and figs. Makes me wish I was your neighbor. The tree is so big it's on their side of the fence as well!

Yeah... The neighbors love it too.

Hey Danny, Great looking tree and Figs! Glad I got some cuttings from you (have several, growing great) Will plant mine in the ground next Spring! Thanks for posting!

Beautiful tree, Danny.   Enjoy your bountiful harvest- do I see fig preserves in your future?

Is this the same as Deanna? Or not even close?

Waynea - Not the same as Deanna.  This is an unknown, most likely a Celeste variant.

Frank - Glad they're going good for you.  You won't be disappointed. 

The cuttings were super vigorous, too.

I started my cuttings in March. My thickest one has 6 or 8 figs on it now. I will probably take a couple off but I will taste these this year. :).

[QUOTE=figherder]I started my cuttings in March. My thickest one has 6 or 8 figs on it now. I will probably take a couple off but I will taste these this year. :).[/QUOTE]

Very nice.  Congrats, Jeff.

Wow! Very nice. Sounds extremely cold hardy and vigorous. Might have to try to get one these days.

Thanks Danny, This looks like its going to be a good one.
Don I just did some up potting this morning and realized I have 5 of these.

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Looks delicious. Is that the breba or main crop

I think Danny's photos were main crop.

Ben - Yes, photos of figs are the main crop.

My Wife and I got to eat 4 Figs off "Sweet Diana" today and they were Outstanding, sweet as candy! My wife said she picked up a hint of Peach in the ones she ate. Thanks so much Danny, for such a great Fig. Photos, the next time, if we can wait! : )

Absolutely gorgeous fig!! Congrats. Nice job!

I have two plants, thanks for this one. the figs look great! I have some developing, but my plants are first leaf, next year for sure some ripe ones will be there.
I put one in the ground, see what happens? I will protect the best I can. I know I need to wait a few years for the best tasting figs, thanks again!!

[QUOTE=Frankallen]My Wife and I got to eat 4 Figs off "Sweet Diana" today and they were Outstanding, sweet as candy! My wife said she picked up a hint of Peach in the ones she ate. Thanks so much Danny, for such a great Fig. Photos, the next time, if we can wait! : )[/QUOTE]

Very nice Frank.  So happy you guys are enjoying Sweet Diana!  :)

Did a hard prune last year as SD was getting wild and out of control.  Was a little worried before taking the shears to her and posted about it here:

Fall Pruning Question

By the time we got around to it the tree had put on another 3 or 4 feet of growth and was closing in on 20 feet tall.  Decided to do the hard prune and took her down to this:

 

Not worried about breba crop so we cut everything down to the mains trunks.  I'm so happy we decided to do it.  She's come back exactly the way I wanted.  Healthy and vigorous as ever with a thick, tight, low canopy, open in the center and covered with hundreds and hundreds of figs right now!  Leaves are all uniform, beautiful and HUGE!  Will prune back to the main trunks at the end of every season from now on.  Going to remove one more 'main' at the end of this season.  It's the one that pokes above the fence in the pic above.  If anyone wants to propagate a 'fig log' let me know, it's yours.  See you at the next cuttings giveaway!  Enjoy the pics!


      

I would like to take up the challenge of rooting the fig log. It should be interesting. The green colors of the leaves are beautiful.

[QUOTE=Figinfever]I would like to take up the challenge of rooting the fig log. It should be interesting. The green colors of the leaves are beautiful.[/QUOTE]

Congrats, it's your Dan.  PM your address and I'll send a section or two to you when it comes off.  Anyone else?

Awesome! PM sent. Thanks for your generosity.

[QUOTE=nycfig]

Congrats, it's your Dan.  PM your address and I'll send a section or two to you when it comes off.  Anyone else?[/QUOTE]
Rooting log sounds scary, but I'd be happy with a couple cuttings. :)

Theses are the logs of the USS Carica on its several month mission to grow some roots. LoL. Mario, when I read 'rooting log', that phrase just popped in the forefront of my mind. Hopefully, we'll both be successful on our mission when the time comes.

I harvested a few fruit. It is from a cutting last winter, the figs are a little small, but they were very good, and held up well to heavy rains. The plant is young, so I can only expect better size and taste in the future. it was stressed a touch from under than over watering from heavy rains.
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Very nice Drew.  That's a beauty!

That's a great looking tree Danny, how old?

Dom

I have a couple plants and one I put in the ground. It produced a few figs but mostly just grew like crazy. It's 7 feet tall. I will most likely lose top growth though. I will try and protect somewhat. Thanks again for the cuttings. A very good fig for sure

@DomGardens - Thank you!  She is going on 8 years old.  Mother tree is 37-40 years old.

@drew51 - I guess she was busy putting down roots.  There has been a massive amount of growth here too but will be easy to control because of the hard prune we did at the end of last season.

I know that I posted somewhere that we planted a Sweet Diana in-ground in the northern garden, Oneonta, NY, zone 5b.  Although we are zone 5b, temperatures are still regularly recorded in the -20F and -30F range.  I think the low in town was recorded as -23F last winter.  We're on the very top of the mountain and get much colder so going to guess we were -30F or colder.  But we regularly sustain negative single digit temps for days at a time.  Last year we planted a Hardy Chicago, Florea and Sweet Diana all in-ground with no protection.  All three varieties were 2 years old and healthy.  The location for planting wasn't ideal but they do receive 9+ hours of direct sunlight every day.  The HC and Florea did not make it.  Sweet Diana died to the ground but pulled through.  Came back strong and healthy and is a little over 2 feet tall now.  Definitely a testament to the good genes of this variety.  This is a pic of how she looked a week or so ago.



Looking forward to seeing how she does this winter.

Yes, I was actually growing it to root well by feeding it well. As most say to plant in ground 2nd or 3rd year plants. I wanted to skip that. Thanks for the info. I'm in 5b so I guess I made a good choice to trial this plant here. It is close to the house and some ambient ground heat from the house should help this winter. I will protect it as best possible.