Cold hardy figs

I have figs from Brooklyn too. Bryant Dark is really an unknown. I have other unknowns saved from Brooklyn.
Unknown Italian from Brooklyn (Unknown Sheepshead)
a dark fruit and the leaves are similar to Mount Etna varieties. From Italy, all that is known.
I got it from a guy trying to rescue figs in Brooklyn. He had this to say
“NYC has already lost many trees due to Sandy and severe winters, my goal is to try and preserve one more tree that has been in Brooklyn probably 40+ years and has a place in my heart.”
I’ll have cuttings if needed this winter.

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This does look just like a Verte leaf.

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Looking a verte pictures it does look like Verte. I will Have to go look at my Verte and see if it looks like CH. Thanks

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Yesterday, I got my first ever home-grown fig, from a Malta Black. But I cheated; @SteveMD donated this plant to me. It was good. I bet it gets even better in future years…



Thanks Steve!

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Looks good, Matt. But I agree that getting it in a larger container (or in the ground) and getting some maturity will make a big difference. I think the fruit will be larger too.

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I have heard many say that fig trees can get better with age. Even at 2 years I noticed that was true. I have had only one tree ripen more than one fig so far, but soon I will be swimming in figs. Florea was first and much better than last year. I’m very excited as Florea is a rather average fig, and dried, it’s pretty good, if this is the worst, wow! I have to get a Malta Black one that is highly reliable in my area.
I’m excited I added Red Lebanese Bekaa Valley as it is not a Mt Edna, similar to St Rita, is cold hardy and ripens early to mid season. It should work here, and yet be a different flavor profile to Florea or Hardy Chicago.
I just added Olympian, description from seller…
Introduced in 2014, the Olympian Fig produces truly huge purple skinned fruit with
a very sweet red to purple flesh. Its cold hardy breba crop can ripen
as early as May and is known to withstand temperatures into the teens.
The plant itself is hardy down to zero degrees once well established.
The Olympian Fig was discovered in Olympia, Washington and is a choice
variety for cool climates as well as warmer regions.

From the web:
“‘Olympian’ is a ultra cold
hardy fig & absolutely delicious. This fig produces very sweet
fruits with thin purple skin with a red to violet flesh. Discovered by
retired biologist Denny McGaughy, he named it after the city where he
found it in a sheltered location. Denny worked with Malli Aradhy, a
geneticist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Clonal
Germplasm Repository to conduct DNA test to find out if it was a known
cultivar. It did not match any of the 200+ figs in the repository. It
appears Denny has found a unique heirloom variety that produces well in
cool & coastal climates.”

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Okay, here is my other CH.

It has five figlets too

Here is my Verte. it has a few figlets too.

Here is my other Verte. It has a figlet half the way up the trunk. In fact evry fig tree I rooted this year has figs but Sucrette, and it may pop some out yet.

Here’s my tall CH. I might have to get a wider pic of this I thought I had the leaves in it. The leaf on the top right is starting to have the longer lobe in the middle.

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The picture shows the leaf better once posted. I’m thinking because of all the fertilizer and how much this one grew that maybe it grew a bunch of wide first set leaves first and might be starting to grow regular ones. What do you think? Maybe it’s not a fig that I even ordered? I’ll get a better picture of this one from the top.

Here is a better picture from the top.

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I harvested my first Lebanese Red (Bass) fig. Taste was OK. The tree was just rooted this winter, so I need for the tree to mature more to fairly evaluate taste.


Pretty early for fruit, but it was rooted early so tells us nothing really. Nice to have another fig! I think this one will work well here. I have an unknown producing yellow figs also.

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My CH figs are ripening fast. I ate one last week but most of the other figs were still green. 1 week later a bunch of them are ripening and doubled in size. I’ll finally get some decent sized figs. These are bigger than golf balls so the tree is making progress.

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I gave in to temptation and planted 4 of them. Since it has only been 9 days since I moved into much larger pots, I was very careful and figured that there wouldn’t have been that much root growth. So, I expected the new potting mix to fall off, but instead everything held together pretty well. In fact, you can see the new roots have extended all the way to the side of the pot, all in just 9 days!

Nero 600M in 1 gal:

Another example, Sumaki in 2-3 gal:

Since I’ve already got a Macool next to the wall, I figured that I would add a couple more. That way, I can use one tarp to protect all of them.

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Thanks for sharing. How close do you have those planted together? (I am wondering what I can get away with!)

In the above pic I have them a bit over 3 feet apart I’m not sure what I can get away with either, but I figure that for plants which suffer (or could suffer) significant dieback each year, they won’t get super big.

Here is a pic of my older figs (a year and a few months old). I think that they are 4’ spacing, but will check tomorrow. They were about 4’ tall when I took the picture. It is a SW facing wall, which is parallel to the one in the previous post (about 10’ away, and can just be seen in the background).

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Here are two of the Chicago Hardy I had ripening. They were delicious. My 6 year old wanted more.

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Bravo!

Good for you! Next year I’m putting mine in the ground. I put some of my extra Brunswick in the ground a few weeks ago and they immediately put on a good flush of growth. They were in small pots and bagging for more earth! I think in ground is the way to go even if it means digging them up and pruning back for winter. I’ll just keep mine in the ground and see what happens. I figure if I save cuttings and root them I will have back ups.

I’m starting to see ripe figs on everything, some unknowns even. Looks to me many varieties can be grown in zone 6a.

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The story of a cold hardy fig growers life. To little…to late …Disregard the ragweed you see by my fig it’s now mulch!



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You ought to graft that BT over to HC or something else that is precocious.

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