Recipe? A recipe I saw needs 2 lbs of fresh figs. I was going to save some UP and Cravens Craving for ice creamHave done fig gelato... it's outstanding! But, they need to be ripe before they freeze!
Angelito - holy smokes!
- Thread starter Figgin' A
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TorontoJoe
Administrator
TorontoJoe
Administrator
1 kg figs (blended hard to preference)
500 ml cream
250 grams mascarpone
50 grams sugar
15 ml Amaretto
20 ml fresh lemon juice
I like a little vanilla, or even better, marsala wine
500 ml cream
250 grams mascarpone
50 grams sugar
15 ml Amaretto
20 ml fresh lemon juice
I like a little vanilla, or even better, marsala wine
WhiteCliffsFigs
Well-known member
@Figgin' A When do you start your cuttings in winter?
Figgin' A
Well-known member
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.
TorontoJoe
Administrator
You don't care for doing it outdoors when it's warm?
Figgin' A
Well-known member
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.
TorontoJoe
Administrator
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.
TorontoJoe
Administrator
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!
Figgin' A
Well-known member
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
TorontoJoe
Administrator
If I didn't experience this myself, I wouldn't have believed you
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
Figgin' A
Well-known member
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.
TorontoJoe
Administrator
Very cool. If you have the opportunity and it comes to mind at the right time... I'd love to see a pic of that pruning. I'm changing up some pruning myself this year.
One thing I'm trying..... not going full bush but trying to leave newer wood that comes out of the lower part of the tree. If they come from mid-tree I take them off near top of the main trunk or top of canopy. And new wood comes off completely if it stems from top of the tree... So all the newer wood terminates at around the same height. In this test I'm (trying to) pay a bit less attention to visual form and just try and keep newer wood in a tight space. I'm hoping this might help with older container trees with large diameter main trunks. I've been having issues with those.
I hope that made sense... If I could draw I would sketch what I'm hoping to achieve.
BucksCountyFigs
Well-known member
Yes, please share your thoughts and experiments!
BucksCountyFigs
Well-known member
Forgive this newbie question, but what if you gave the tree a headstart by bringing inside the house?
bushdoctor82
Well-known member
It basically comes down to pruning to 3-4 scaffolds, then prune those to create secondary scaffolds, then prune those to create tertiary scaffolds and so on. The amount of pruning at each step will be dependent on preference on size of tree and storage space.
You’ll end up with a tree that may only grow 6-12”/year but will have many fruiting branches with clusters of figs ripening around the same time. The length and angles of the first few cuts are important to develop the overall look and proportion of future tree.
Figgin' A
Well-known member
I can visualize what you are trying to do. It might work, but not for all varieties, as their growth habits may differ quite a lot. Also, keeping new growth in a tight space can cause its own set of issues, like productivity hit, smaller fruit size, and reduced pest/disease resistance. I pruned my VDB somewhat like what you described, and the foliage got too dense in the middle. Lots of figs it had, but smaller and of lesser quality compared to last year. It's possible that other factors were at play. It's an older tree. Didn't look like it needed root pruning badly, but I did it anyway this fall. I also thinned out the fruiting branches. Hopefully, it will go back to its original glory next year.
Figgin' A
Well-known member
Precisely. One caveat is that the secondary and/or tertiary pruning may not be required, as, depending on when/how the tree was pruned last, the length of the growing season, and/or the variety's growth habit, it may branch out naturally, and all that will be required after that is thinning and shape maintenance.
Here is one of my trees after only primary pruning (apical bud pinching, rather, to let the scaffolds develop in early spring), and no secondary pruning was needed. You can see, though, that one scaffold's top, at the very back, was pruned off, but that was done to take a cutting for a fellow grower. The rest of the scaffolds were left untouched.
They branched out at the tips naturally.
Another example, this is one of my trees after primary and secondary pruning.
No tertiary pruning was done as the fruiting branches tip-branched out naturally and looked like this:
From there, I would thin out the canopy by removing unwanted branches to keep the tree at the shape (and to a degree, height) I want.
Of course, you can just let the tree do its thing and end up with something like this (the pictures below are not mine, I saved them some time ago on my computer, can't recall where I saved these from... if someone knows the owner, let me know and I will credit them):
Which looks absolutely gorgeous, but will require special care/requirements when it comes to winter storage, and giving it even a short headstart.
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bushdoctor82
Well-known member
That sure is a gorgeous and well taken care of tree.Precisely. One caveat is that the secondary and/or tertiary pruning may not be required, as, depending on when/how the tree was pruned last, the length of the growing season, and/or the variety's growth habit, it may branch out naturally, and all that will be required after that is thinning and shape maintenance.
Here is one of my trees after only primary pruning (apical bud pinching, rather, to let the scaffolds develop in early spring), and no secondary pruning was needed. You can see, though, that one scaffold's top, at the very back, was pruned off, but that was done to take a cutting for a fellow grower. The rest of the scaffolds were left untouched.
They branched out at the tips naturally.
Another example, this is one of my trees after primary and secondary pruning.
No tertiary pruning was done as the fruiting branches tip-branched out naturally and looked like this:
From there, I would thin out the canopy by removing unwanted branches to keep the tree at the shape (and to a degree, height) I want.
Of course, you can just let the tree do its thing and end up with something like this (the pictures below are not mine, I saved them some time ago on my computer, can't recall where I saved these from... if someone knows the owner, let me know and I will credit them):
Which looks absolutely gorgeous, but will require special care/requirements when it comes to winter storage, and giving it even a short headstart.
Fair point on scaffolding. With my AJH I pinched it first year, pruned back at beginning of second year and pruned back only some branches at beginning of third year. I’m probably going to remove lower most scaffold this off season and possibly thin out some branches as they appear in Spring. I got over 250 figs off this tree this season.
BucksCountyFigs
Well-known member
Precisely. One caveat is that the secondary and/or tertiary pruning may not be required, as, depending on when/how the tree was pruned last, the length of the growing season, and/or the variety's growth habit, it may branch out naturally, and all that will be required after that is thinning and shape maintenance.
Here is one of my trees after only primary pruning (apical bud pinching, rather, to let the scaffolds develop in early spring), and no secondary pruning was needed. You can see, though, that one scaffold's top, at the very back, was pruned off, but that was done to take a cutting for a fellow grower. The rest of the scaffolds were left untouched.
They branched out at the tips naturally.
Another example, this is one of my trees after primary and secondary pruning.
No tertiary pruning was done as the fruiting branches tip-branched out naturally and looked like this:
From there, I would thin out the canopy by removing unwanted branches to keep the tree at the shape (and to a degree, height) I want.
Of course, you can just let the tree do its thing and end up with something like this (the pictures below are not mine, I saved them some time ago on my computer, can't recall where I saved these from... if someone knows the owner, let me know and I will credit them):
Which looks absolutely gorgeous, but will require special care/requirements when it comes to winter storage, and giving it even a short headstart.
Your pruned trees look great!