Just enjoyed an evening snack, first of the season. These young trees are finally loaded with figs, some ripe. Now that's worth waiting for. Anyone else love 'em?
First Figs
A week of drought when we were away from home and a sneaky hungry fox means that I won't be getting any figs this year. : ( I don't know many people who love figs - - maybe because they didn't grow up with them like I did. Nothing is better than a handful of figs straight off the bush, unless it's fig preserves. Looking forward to next year's crop!
I love figs and also have a tree that is about 30 years old. It has frozen to the ground three times and come back strong, every time from the roots. I love it.
This is what it looks like now.
One of our dogs was eating blueberries off the bush two evenings ago and aquired a taste for figs yesterday. I planted extra fig trees for the birds, didn't plan for the four footed creatures.
Lovely pic, Josey. And I haven't seen a fig trained up like that. I now know what to do with a fig too close to the house.
Oh, and have you priced figs at the farmers market?!
I love figs also mine are almost done for now...........lol
Could someone give me some advice on figs? I inherited a small fig tree from a neighbor who was moving out of state a few years ago. It's about 4 ft tall in about a five gallon plastic pot. I don't know the variety -- the tag is too weather faded to read. The past few years it has gotten a few small, marble-sized, light green fruit that have not lasted very long before dropping off. I think I got one fruit last summer that seemed "ripe" when I cut it open. This year it had a really good crop of fruit on it (still marble-sized) and then one day, all the fruit dropped off almost at the same time. I think I had neglected to water it for a day or two and it seems to be really sensitive to watering needs, especially in this heat. The leaves go from looking great one day, to turning yellow and drooping or falling off the next day. Then it will pick back up and look decent again.
The fig tree is on our deck and gets a lot of full sun every day. It has also survived on the deck over the winter up close to the house's brick wall.
I would greatly appreciate any advice. I might become a fig lover, if I ever get a chance to try one off this tree.
Here you go:
www.nafex.org/figs
I tried the posted link and it didn't work. Google: North American Fruit Explorers
my lil fig tree that I got at the RU last fall bit the dust ....dot' know why it was doin real well sending out leaves and the next thing I knew it was dead..I had it in a pot though as it was still small and I didn't want DH to mow it over by mistake.
Man, y'all ought to go to Melvatoo's she has a huge tree loaded with them...me, I'm not a fig person...and I sure don't like to pick them. She has a hundreds of figs on that thing...She was telling me how someone in OK wanted her to mail them some...
"eyes"
Wow, the nafex.org site has a lot of info. Thank you! I've got lot's of reading to do.
Phyllis, I will have another fig for you this fall, remind me when we get closer.
Josephine.
thanks Josephine I'll try and remember myself LOL
For a nutritional profile of figs, type: whfoods figs in your google search.
This will quickly get you to the desired page of the site www.whfoods.org You'll see these fruits are amazingly healthful in many ways, especially for women. A combo of figs and bluberries just about has it covered for us. Happy snacking!
mmmm guess I better find some figs to eat already have blueberries in the freezer we picked when my folks were here LOL
My mother made fig preserves and added either strawberry or blackberry jello. Defy you to tell the difference. If anyone wants her recipe, just let me know.
Christi
My little fig trees are baring fruit too. I didn't get too many off the Turkey fig tree, the Lemon figs are more plentiful but don't appear to be ripening. I think next year i am going to fertilize them more.
I've found that figs are another plant that survives w/benign neglect. Plant it in the ground - any kind of ground in the sun, fertilize, water and stand back. When I was a kid a long time ago we raised 50 cockralls (can't spell but they are baby chicks that are male only) at a time in the brooder.. My little brother and I had to clean those drip pans of the brooder everynight and it was a loathsome job and took us from our playing for a while. What we had to do was take the pan, wash it w/a hose and scrape the crap off w/an old shingle (not a brush - that would have been too civilized and easy). All this was done at the base of the figs trees (2) and some horrid old pear trees (2) to "fertilize" them. All the chicks and trees grew beautifully and the figs never froze but produced for 3-4 weeks a year profusely even after the time of their daily infusion of stuff. I remember Mother going into the fig trees - they were short (about 5'6" or so but very wide - about 6-7' to pick figs for Daddy, come in itching from the leaves and sitting down to peal those stupid figs so that his tender mouth wouldn't hurt from the fuzz on the figs. She never ate them - didn't like them. What dedication from a wife and mother.
Other than the aforementioned infusion we didn't water them or do anything else to them. Those figs went in the ground in 1942 when my little brother was 8 years old and after our parents died he got the house in the early 1980's. Those infernal fig trees and horrible pear trees were still there. My little brother did away w/those things saying the pears never had been any good and although the figs were delicious his wife wasn't about the go out there and brush up against the leaves and come in and peel those things. On the really dumb side, tho, he also cut down a great big climbing Cecile Brunner rose vine that was way overgrown but beautiful especially in the spring saying that the thing was too overgrown. Later he realized that he could have judiciously pruned that vine and gotten it into shape. Anyway, he had to go buy and plant another Cecile Brunner Climber because his wife threatened to divorce him because he had cut down the first one.
Pardon me for going on but the memories started flowing .
Ann. . . . . .
Sounds like figs don't like to be in pots. I LOVE them. We have one in the back yard. Doesn't produce as much as I'd like (yet), but they sure are good. Something gets to them sometimes...I wonder if it's coons. This year, there's a family of five around.
I can't imagine why you would put fig trees in a pot except if the only place you had for them was on a hard - concrete, brick, etc surface. Seems they need to spread out but there are all kinds so maybe some of them need to be confined.
Ann
I was overloaded with figs about a month ago. I made preserves, I dried some and I froze some. The rest were for the birds.
The birds and the squirrels get most of them here, but i sure love them, and I don't peel them either.
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Ann, that was a neat story about you and your brother and the chicken poop, it really is excellent fertilizer.
Josephine.
Ann I loved your story :)