Topics by jdsfrance

|

|

Encanto Farms Nursery > Topics > Search > All topics by jdsfrance

Note: Your browser does not have JavaScript enabled. Many features may not work properly without it. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

The search returned 17 posts

Find all posts by jdsfrance

|

Posts

1472245229

	Subject: cracks on the skin of ripe figs	Replies: 4
	Posted By: jdsfrance	Views: 107

Hi,

I like those cracks in ripe figs.
Those figs looked really good ! And they were !

1471469394

	Subject: Roots not pruned by the air	Replies: 6
	Posted By: jdsfrance	Views: 149

Hi,
I often read that air is supposed to prune the roots of our trees.
Well, this ufti (unknown from the Italian) does not know about that.
Of course there is a trick to that. For rodent protection, that tree is in a pot with bottom removed.
So the roots should escape under; but I guess that they had decided to go over the rim.

The blue thing is a tie, but the brown ones are roots ... When is air supposed to prune them ?
Funny that those roots explored the dirt by passing over the rim. I had expected the roots to hit the pot and sink .
This tree has two trunks (the one to the left is in fact a root-shoot), one to the left and the bigger behind the leaves of my raspberries and going straight up.

Well, at least rodents are not bothering the main roots.

1470172635

	Subject: Healthy Longue d aout brebas	Replies: 7
	Posted By: jdsfrance	Views: 221

Hi,

Figs started to ripen two weeks ago.
Healthy longue d'aout is ripening now.
Those are the first brebas I ever get from Longue d'aout.
They are huge but not that heavy.
Being brebas they don't taste as good as the maincrop, but still taste really good.

IMO, Every fig grower should have longue d'aout !
See pics :

1438794928

	Subject: The real BT, a workhorse.	Replies: 8
	Posted By: jdsfrance	Views: 302

Hi,

47 off the tree yesterday evening, plus 30 the week before, plus 10 or a bit more still waiting on the tree, that makes 87 brebas figs from my BT. That makes her the best producer for quantity. the tree has two trunks from the dirt and both are 2 meters/ 7' high.
That tree was planted in September 2011.
For quality, well, they are good, but they are no syrupy fig, like violet or dark figs can be.
Interesting is that are less sapy too !

Here goes your new wallpaper :

1413651586

	Subject: Ice crystal ripened	Replies: 7
	Posted By: jdsfrance	Views: 755

Hi,
Of some 20 figs, 18 dropped. But two kept on hanging on.
Finally they started swelling some 10 days ago, and yesterday one started to have more color on the skin, and that triggered the harvest.
They had a taste on their own, refreshing, but what surprised me was the good texture and the lack of seed crunch. The skin was a bit thick but hey, it is 18th October !

Here are the pics :

1410385064

	Subject: Longue d'aout figs.	Replies: 8
	Posted By: jdsfrance	Views: 715

Hi,
At last they did start to ripen ! 30 months of waiting to have something to snack on.
"Longue d'aout" is not as cold hardy as my "Dalmatie", nor does it have the same strength.
This last winter was the first with no die-back - That one beneficed from an empty 200 liters water barrel upside down protecting it.
I bought this tree in October 2010, and at last it reached 70 cm of height - My Dalmatie reached 200 cm in the same amount of time.
I haven't have enough material from the lda to propagate her !
The fig is as ever really good. An 11 on a 10 scale . Although not caprified, that fig has a good crunchy taste with thick solid interior.
The outside color is for me out of this world .

ok, some pics from this year :
A ripe fig:

The leaves and one of the two main buds.

Another fig for the impressive color violet on grren

One of the stems with the group of fruits for this year:

The two first fruits ... Yes, open eyed ! The green are the "Dalmatie"

Inside view

On that group of figs, the "Dalamtie" were watery with one having some mold inside due to the rain and colder weather that we have been having this year.
The 2 lda were really good !

And before you ask: I don't know !

... Brebas or main crop ... no idea. No brebas showed up this year - last year two showed up and dropped. I consider those a replacement crop .
I knocked some pea-sized figs that just started appearing on the stems last week.

Lda is a really good fig, but a master of a touchy strain !

1409609930

	Subject: Unknown green-Longue d'aout	Replies: 5
	Posted By: jdsfrance	Views: 509

Hi all,
Find attached two pics of that delicious unknown fig.
This is the first fig from that tree . I give it a 10++++ /10 or a 14/10 ( I won't use 13 :) ) .
I was really surprise with the global consistency of that fig and with the thick strawberry jam taste of the inside - 6hat fig is really dense and heavy. The skin was soft and easy to eat.
Of all the figs in my garden, that one is so far the best.

I bought that tree in a sale in the streets for 8€ . The tree looked exhausted, dying (well by September / October I guess that they all look like that, ok ...), root bound, poorly watered and cared. I told that to the seller: "Her boss did not care well of those small things !"
But I decided to take a chance ... That was a really good idea !
The guy had a pic, and the fruit is true to the photo that I saw.
This tree is a quick grower from 30 cm to 1m60 now and one year of time !

Here after a comparison with my Dalmatie maincrop :

The last 3 days I covered that fig with a piece of my shirt that I sacrificed for the fig trees.
The fig had a split at the eye, and the eye is on the open side.
Well I'll have to taste more figs from that strain and if they are all that good, I'll be replacing some of the ufti strain with that strain - I'm chocked by how good that fig tasted - especially since the fruit looks like a big BT and we've been having lots of rain since 1st August.
The reference of lda is for the leave shape.
I'll update later with some pics from last year and this year.

1408567445

	Subject: Let's build a castle !	Replies: 9
	Posted By: jdsfrance	Views: 443

Hi,
On Holiday in Portugal, I visited some castles there.
Entering that one, just passed the door, I just got disgusted.
That thing had 40 ripe figs hanging on or already on the floor.
Problem : her position is at 4 meters of height and even with my daughter on my shoulders
the tree was out of reach ... !
So, let's build a castle, as the walls are perfect spots for growing fig-trees.
Apparently variety is "Pingo de mel" - but not sure .
Enjoy !

1407795572

	Subject: BrownTurkey brebas	Replies: 5
	Posted By: jdsfrance	Views: 456

Hi,
Ok, this time lets face them. These are "true" Brownturkeys brebas. As supposed they have some brown on them :) .
The maincrop is less pear shaped.

This tree is 3 years old, and this year is the first year for the brebas production.
That tree is a true workhorse : some 50 figs from just that tree. No other tree in my garden can compete !
The brebas started ripening around 10th of July, this year.
The taste of the figs is good with some acidity, and with what I would call an acid wine after taste . This fig is really refreshing, no seed crunch, really fine skin.
The color shades go from green to grey and brown depending on the sun that hit the fruit.
The eye on most figs is closed, except for some for whatever the reason ...
Still worth the bite IMO, a 6/10 .
I'm glad if have that one in my garden !
That tree is a good grower .

1406844735

	Subject: Goutte d'or - dorée - brebas	Replies: 6
	Posted By: jdsfrance	Views: 821

Hi,

Here we go with the brebas of "Goutte d'or". The tree(s) is/are still young, but that is a good start for the biggest tree.

Here is the biggest tree showing the maincrop. The leaf is similar to "Dalmatie" ...

Here is a huge breba that I harvested a bit soon but I feared the birds would peck on it. That fig was huge, good, light in taste, and just enough sugary, but still good. No crunch, no seeds, the skin was soft and thin. A bit too yellow green to my likings, but it grew shadowed by the leaves and other stems...

Those two were already better looking, but the birds got them before I did the next day- so I can't tell how they tasted ... But from the pic ... They would have been fantastic especially the one in the front. The one on the back suffered a bit from the cold spring, but still developed to an acceptable level.

1406395537

	Subject: Sultane - Breba	Replies: 6
	Posted By: jdsfrance	Views: 628

Hi,
Here we go, my only sultane breba (dark outside ) for this year - the browns are BTs.
The tree was bought as a potted tree last Fall, so still a good result .
I was lucky, as the fig fell to the floor from ripeness, but was not damaged .
As usually, that fig was the best tasting I got from my garden - small but tasty !

Help! help! ... Hey, calm down, the others are just brownturkeys - BT .
I'll open another post later for my BT - a real workhorse !

1404753769

	Subject: Dalmatie brebas	Replies: 8
	Posted By: jdsfrance	Views: 789

Hey,
At last, my first figs this year.
They were good, crunchy, no honey, but still good huge figs.
Those are from my Dalmatie tree1 . I own it since September 2010.
It went through some set back due to February 2012. I always protect it for the winter, and it was my guinea pig to find the easier winter protection.
You can see that the maincrop already popped out.

Enjoy !

One of the six trunks with a not ripe hanging breba

One of the two ripe brebas of yesterday :

On concrete:

Open up, open up :) :

I have spotted two more for later this week ...

1404165267

	Subject: Testing an unknown and undocumented strain	Replies: 3
	Posted By: jdsfrance	Views: 333

Hi,
A friend swapped some cuttings with another gardener some ten years ago.
The root-shoot was planted at 30 km from my garden. That location/town has a shorter tomato grow season.
Eventually one year I could spot a fig that looked somehow ripe - but so dry ... I though ok just not enough watering here.
In the Fall of 2011, I decided to get some root-shoots and they survived the harsh 2012 winter and grew.
Last year, around the date of 1st September appeared some maincrops figs on my tree -none ripened last year.
The tree is now at two meters of height. To be precise they are three trees - from the 4 root-shoots I had taken.
This year the tree exposed some three brebas and some three old maincrops survived the winter.

This is what they look like now :

The fence is two meters tall ...
Sans titre 1.jpg

Sans titre 1.jpg

Some drinks hidden in the kitchen

Hum... Dead for sure, but unfortunately not "dead ripe" and never will :

Showing violet layer around ... But no wasp here !

Those brebas look like full of viable seeds ...

Taken from the tree - some fell in my hand ... But unfortunately not edible

So yes, you can have a figtree and be hungry ! And ANGRY !
Now, a thought came to me: what if the first tree was a grafted one (without the owner knowing about) and thus that strain of root-shoots that apparently will not produce any edible... because the first root-stock
was a caprifig perhaps ...
Well the 2014 maincrop has showed up on the tree, so I'll see later this year f the maincrop is edible ... else, I'll be burning that tree !
I like to propagate the trees via root-shoots ... So grafted trees are a pain for me !

Of course if that figtree had been better described by the former owner... but once again, if it came from a grafted tree ...
My friend is sure that the mother tree was making "such big figs" ...
Well, I'll wait until end of this or end next year before removing it - just to be sure ... and really sure ...

1400708785

	Subject: Winter protection	Replies: 4
	Posted By: jdsfrance	Views: 649

ok, so it seems that some of the members just suffered what I did in February 2012 with my -25°C.
As a result, that year, I lost 8 trees. Those trees were already productive and would have been fully productive in the summer of 2012 - the only problem was, they didn't wake up to see Summer 2012.
As a result, I started then searching for a winter protection that would be cheap, efficient, yet still handy to setup and to keep off somewhere during the Summer time when it is not in use.
In 2012, I had some protections in place, but they were just not efficient.

My protection is called the eighty liters trashcan protection :) .

Images being worth a thousand words. Here they go :
Pic1 : The trees are higher than the trashcan is deep . So work some way out for the stems.
Figuier-hiver.-webJPG.jpg

Figuier-hiver.-webJPG.jpg

Pic2: front : My three "goutte d'or" . with my bigger ufti behind.

Pic 3: Front right - the tree is small enough to fit in the trashcan.

Pic 4: one ufti tree. Trashcan is sealed to the ground with a stack. The eighty liters trashcan is filled with compost and the dark bag over is the bag from the compost :)

Pic 5: Is your tree too big in width ? use two trashcans. One for stems on the left, and one for the ones on the right.

Pic 6: Almost full of compost. That compost was spread in the garden at Spring time to be used as fertilizer for the dirt.
Sometimes you need to tie the stems for the trashcan to slide down with no injuries to the tree .

Hope that gives you ideas and hopes. I'm in Zone7 !
I often read people stating that after some years they'll stop the winter protections ... I'm planning to set them in place each winter !
At Summer time, simply stack the trashcans for reduced storage space :) .

1397944961

	Subject: Fig new criter - a caterpilar	Replies: 2
	Posted By: jdsfrance	Views: 436

Hi,
The last winter was mild here. Some figs stayed hanging on some trees.
On one of my unknown, I had noticed a web in between the trunk and a fruit. Removed it 3 times, but it kept on coming back.
I couldn't understand where the source of the silk was .
That fig looked odd and I decided to remove it. I then saw a hole where the fig was touching the trunk of the tree.
I crushed the fig, and saw I had crushed the culprit: a caterpillar !

So I found the hide of the culprit. Notice the caterpillar has eaten all the flesh of the fig .

I'm checking the other figs. But so far so good - no other critter was found .
So watch out if you see a web on your figtrees !

1395700919

	Subject: Root rioting !	Replies: 5
	Posted By: jdsfrance	Views: 521

Hi,
Some 2013/2014 cuttings progress:
On that cutting the roots just decided to grow to the light.
All of a sudden the roots started to surface. Why didn't they go to the bottom of the pot ?
Have they been listening to Alex H. ? But yes, I buried them ! I won't let them down !
See on the right of the pot, that root I'm burying her from the top most cutting ... Where is she heading ? Marseilles ?

1389907400

	Subject: Fig pollination - Myth kill	Replies: 19
	Posted By: jdsfrance	Views: 2,247

Hi,

I live in a region of France where we don't have the wasp - the area is too cold.
It is already sometimes hard to keep the figtrees alive through the winter.

Year 2013, October and November where unusually mild allowing lots of figs to ripen - if the figtree strain would allow.
Of course, some figs did not make it in time, and I did install the winter protections on the trees to cherish the trees - I put clear plastic bag over them - for some figtrees I added a dark bag over the first one.
After some days with morning freezing temps, the temps got a bit higher and I did a check on the figtrees to remove the remaining leaves ... Well I guess you know about this cleanup ...
My biggest figtree from the "unknown from the Italian" had some 4 figs that somehow made their way and did sort of ripen - and were kind of molding ... Well nothing really any longer edible -just to mention the skin was hard and too thick - I didn't even dare to taste.
I had read here about some people playing with seedlings and that gave me an idea.
... Why don't I give it a try with those lost figs - Somehow people seemed to think that only wasp pollinated figs could have viable seeds.

But as of today, 7 fig-weeds are born - and some more start seed-breaking .
Unfortunately, a tiny worm messed them up, but I have taken revenge for that.
The two on the photo were moved -just after the worm hit them- from the seeding pot to this pot which contains a -should be dead- sucker of the same strain ... Let me see if I can raise them.

But back to the fig theory : My figtree is self pollinated AND yes, the seeds are viable even without the wasp !
I have seeds of another strain in an other pot, but no signs of life for now.