Cold figs...

Figgin' A

Figgin' A

Well-known member
It's nice outside today, the sun is shining... effiing birds - a bunch of Great T-i-t-s - instead of chirping, are pecking at my precious figs. I got closer to one of the figs they tried to molest, touched it with my fingers and... woah, the fig felt so cold. It's 62F outside, the sun makes me feel quite warm. I thought the figs would be too, but no, they are dead cold. They can't ripen like that, can they? I still have a few really great unripe figs on my first-year trees and grafts that are so close... so close...

So, I pushed a bunch of trees with some figs still on them closer to each other, lined them up, and covered them with a large piece of greenhouse plastic. Literally, 20 minutes of work. The figs don't feel cold no more... and are protected from the little peckers... :)

figs-386.jpg

figs-385.jpg

That's 80F. Perfect fig ripening temp.


figs-382.jpg

figs-383.jpg

figs-384.jpg
 
TorontoJoe said:
I'm just glad you were referring to birds 😰 😅

I've been doing the same... I need to think of a better solution long term. The weather has just been so erratic.
Click to expand...
There is only one solution, Joe. Start them figs really early so they ripen by mid-September or late September at the latest. Now it's a whole crap load of issues to deal with - short days, low temps, low sun intensity, trees blocking the sun because it's way too low now, rain, clouds, and, above all, I am just too tired by this late in the season to care much about it. Besides, we've been eating fresh figs since May this year. Had enough. Sure, I am trying to squeeze out a few more figs, but that's just for fun and out of my innate frugality. I don't like anything to go to waste. Doing something like this long-term... nah... I'll pass.
 
Figgin' A said:
There is only one solution, Joe. Start them figs really early so they ripen by mid-September or late September at the latest. Now it's a whole crap load of issues to deal with - short days, low temps, low sun intensity, trees blocking the sun because it's way too low now, rain, clouds, and, above all, I am just too tired by this late in the season to care much about it. Besides, we've been eating fresh figs since May this year. Had enough. Sure, I am trying to squeeze out a few more figs, but that's just for fun and out of my innate frugality. I don't like anything to go to waste. Doing something like this long-term... nah... I'll pass.
Click to expand...
I agree...start them early.
 
GoodFriendMike said:
We have a similar bird here. The black capped chickadee. But it is the cardinals that really tear up my figs.
Click to expand...
Interesting. My neighbor has a couple of bird feeders that attract a whole slew of bird species, including cardinals, but they never bother my figs. At least not that I've noticed. But I saw them stripping my dill and coriander plants of seeds. Had to cover those with insect nets.
 
Figgin' A said:
Interesting. My neighbor has a couple of bird feeders that attract a whole slew of bird species, including cardinals, but they never bother my figs. At least not that I've noticed. But I saw them stripping my dill and coriander plants of seeds. Had to cover those with insect nets.
Click to expand...
That is interesting. Here the cardinals will choose the figs over just about anything else. They sometimes are nice and leave half.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top