Angelito - holy smokes!

Figgin' A said:
My tree was rooted last winter, so it's a first-year tree. I noticed that when I root them early enough and up-pot sooner than later - most of my first year trees end up in 8g to 15g pots by July-August of the first year - they taste excellent in their first season. Make them grow a robust rootball, feed them well and give them plenty of sun, and there will be no reason for them not to taste great in the first year.
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@Figgin' A When do you start your cuttings in winter?
 
Figgin' A said:
That depends on when I get them, but, normally, I like to start late ripening varieties in November and mid-ripening in December. Early ripening ones are started in January. This past season, I got most of my new cuttings only at the end of February. That was too late for my liking.
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You don't care for doing it outdoors when it's warm?
 
Figgin' A said:
That's another way to do it, but our season is very short... my way, I get a pretty large tree and lots of ripe figs by the end of their 1st season.
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Fair. I just love the ease of burying them to the soil line, dropping the pot under a tree and walking away... but yes, I don't get figs the same season this way.
 
I was moving some trees last night and finally came across my Angelito.... I was plucking what I thought were unripe figs and one felt soft... to my surprise... this unreal specimen. It was up against my house so I suppose that kept it a bit warmer.... Or it got cold after it ripened but I can't imagine how it would have kept. Regardless, it was glorious!

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TorontoJoe said:
I was moving some trees last night and finally came across my Angelito.... I was plucking what I thought were unripe figs and one felt soft... to my surprise... this unreal specimen. It was up against my house so I suppose that kept it a bit warmer.... Or it got cold after it ripened but I can't imagine how it would have kept. Regardless, it was glorious!

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If I didn't experience this myself, I wouldn't have believed you :) But I did. I know, it's hard to believe that this fig can ripen in this cold, gloomy weather to such an amazing quality. I am going to root a couple more Angelito trees. What ripened for me on Nov 8 set fruit on about July 16th. With a short headstart, maybe a makeshift greenhouse, and no pruning, I can easily have fruit set by mid-June, which would ripen by early to late October. Easy way to get a lot of very tasty figs here :)
 
Figgin' A said:
If I didn't experience this myself, I wouldn't have believed you :) But I did. I know, it's hard to believe that this fig can ripen in this cold, gloomy weather to such an amazing quality. I am going to root a couple more Angelito trees. What ripened for me on Nov 8 set fruit on about July 16th. With a short headstart, maybe a makeshift greenhouse, and no pruning, I can easily have fruit set by mid-June, which would ripen by early to late October. Easy way to get a lot of very tasty figs here :)
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I don't know if its an Adriatic thing perhaps.... Prosciutto has been great for ripening in cold weather for me for years... .and that mother tree is a big in ground in NJ

I wont jump to any conclusions. It's all good info for growers in the NE

@Figgin' A - you've revived in me an idea I had a few years ago... In my case with BMKK. Suppose there's a variety that's really great but you cant get more than 15 or 20 figs because they're late. I'd like to thing of a process, to keep several more smaller trees to get the desired yield. The idea being to manage the expections of quality over number of trees vs just heavy, early producers
 
TorontoJoe said:
I don't know if its an Adriatic thing perhaps.... Prosciutto has been great for ripening in cold weather for me for years... .and that mother tree is a big in ground in NJ

I wont jump to any conclusions. It's all good info for growers in the NE

@Figgin' A - you've revived in me an idea I had a few years ago... In my case with BMKK. Suppose there's a variety that's really great but you cant get more than 15 or 20 figs because they're late. I'd like to thing of a process, to keep several more smaller trees to get the desired yield. The idea being to manage the expections of quality over number of trees vs just heavy, early producers
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For sure, Adriatics typically ripen well in cold weather. Last two seasons, I've been headstarting them substantially, so they all ripened by mid-August for me. But from what I recall, U Prosciutto ripened very well into late October in 2023. WM#1, on the other hand, had some issues. It ripened very slowly, and the figs had a very thick and leathery skin at the end of the season. But that's just based on one season, and I'd need to do more testing with it to be certain. Angelito, even in its first year, was terrific this year. I didn't do a direct comparison, as my other Adriatics were done by the first week of August this year, but it seemed like Angelito had a better flavor than the others. The larger size was also a benefit. Hence, I am inclined to grow more of it based on that alone. But time will tell. I intend to experiment more with my Adriatics and have some extra trees ripen late in the season.

I think another way to get more figs from a later-ripening variety is to prune it so you end up with many small fruiting branches growing at the same time, and setting fruit early and simultaneously. Kind of like how figs grow in the wild, unpruned. The trick is to shape the tree such that it stays relatively small. I managed to shape a few of my trees like that. They are space hogs - too wide - and I don't want them in my grow tent for more than 3-4 weeks. But if they can ripen well in cold weather, that shape will work great, and you can have a lot more figs than 15-20 from one tree. The challenge is to get that shape, and it takes 2+ seasons, unless I find a faster way. I have an idea, but need to test it out.
 
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