I slightly overdid it this season

Figgin' A

Figgin' A

Well-known member
Seriously, it's way too early for me to have ripe figs here, even with a long headstart, but they started ripening. On average, 80-85 days from setting fruit. And these are supposed to be later varieties. Crazy. I wanted them to ripen in the summer heat, mid/late-June to the first week of September here, but they suddenly came a month earlier. I guess I'll have to eat them anyway :p The taste is very good, sweet, but not as sweet as I remember last summer, and the flavor is not the same as when ripened outside. Something is missing. The skin definitely tastes a bit off and ruins the overall enjoyment. I've seen people argue online that greenhouse-ripened fruit and veg taste exactly the same as ripened in the open. To me, they never tasted the same. Some, like tomatoes, don't even come close. Figs are the same. IMHO, ripened outside, exposed to the elements, to various stressors, the fruit looks, feels, and tastes much better. Still, I am very thankful for this harvest.

Unk Prosciutto
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Craven's Craving
Excuse the crappy quality picture taken under indoor lighting. This one is a finicky variety. The good news is that there is no splitting so far. And the flavor is really, really good despite the indoor ripening. Can't wait to try this one ripened outdoors.
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WM#1

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Vince #3
This one has been ripening for almost a month now; an early starter. Very, very good. Can't wait to try it ripened outdoors.
Curiously, I've seen growers describe the flavor of this fig and compare it to other figs, and no one ever said it tasted like an Adriatic fig, which to me it very much does. It looks and tastes like an Adriatic fig. One time I ate it and thought it tasted similar to WM#1.
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I too think the fruit is better ripening outside but the weather isn't always agreeable. I did shuffle for one season when the whole crop was late. I moved them outside whenever the weather was encouraging. Even with the move, only CddB did well(it tasted as good as its peak).

This year, I was too busy and we had some late extreme weather in early spring so I brought the trees outside really late(last week of Mar). Somehow, I ended up with some unexpected ripening this week. Taste wise, it wasn't great because the birds and ants got to them first. And we suddenly hit 101F today. I think that is the first over 100F of the season. We were still in the 60s a week or two before.
 
grasshopper said:
I too think the fruit is better ripening outside but the weather isn't always agreeable. I did shuffle for one season when the whole crop was late. I moved them outside whenever the weather was encouraging. Even with the move, only CddB did well(it tasted as good as its peak).

This year, I was too busy and we had some late extreme weather in early spring so I brought the trees outside really late(last week of Mar). Somehow, I ended up with some unexpected ripening this week. Taste wise, it wasn't great because the birds and ants got to them first. And we suddenly hit 101F today. I think that is the first over 100F of the season. We were still in the 60s a week or two before.
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Wish we were near 101F here... Daytime temps hovering over high 50s and low 60s for the next two weeks with two nights touching 43F. Most of my warm-weather crops are already out. No bueno.

I've had some more figs from Craven's Craving 'ripen' two weeks ago, but they weren't good. I think those were aborted. Kinda looked like they ripened, shriveled, but weren't fully ripe.
 
Figgin' A said:
Seriously, it's way too early for me to have ripe figs here, even with a long headstart, but they started ripening. On average, 80-85 days from setting fruit. And these are supposed to be later varieties. Crazy. I wanted them to ripen in the summer heat, mid/late-June to the first week of September here, but they suddenly came a month earlier. I guess I'll have to eat them anyway :p The taste is very good, sweet, but not as sweet as I remember last summer, and the flavor is not the same as when ripened outside. Something is missing. The skin definitely tastes a bit off and ruins the overall enjoyment. I've seen people argue online that greenhouse-ripened fruit and veg taste exactly the same as ripened in the open. To me, they never tasted the same. Some, like tomatoes, don't even come close. Figs are the same. IMHO, ripened outside, exposed to the elements, to various stressors, the fruit looks, feels, and tastes much better. Still, I am very thankful for this harvest.

Unk Prosciutto
figs-875.jpg

figs-878.jpg

figs-880.jpg


Craven's Craving
Excuse the crappy quality picture taken under indoor lighting. This one is a finicky variety. The good news is that there is no splitting so far. And the flavor is really, really good despite the indoor ripening. Can't wait to try this one ripened outdoors.
figs-873.jpg

figs-881.jpg


WM#1

figs-876.jpg

figs-877.jpg

figs-879.jpg


Vince #3
This one has been ripening for almost a month now; an early starter. Very, very good. Can't wait to try it ripened outdoors.
Curiously, I've seen growers describe the flavor of this fig and compare it to other figs, and no one ever said it tasted like an Adriatic fig, which to me it very much does. It looks and tastes like an Adriatic fig. One time I ate it and thought it tasted similar to WM#1.
figs-874.jpg
Click to expand...
Good looking figs and pics.
 
Figgin' A said:
Wish we were near 101F here... Daytime temps hovering over high 50s and low 60s for the next two weeks with two nights touching 43F. Most of my warm-weather crops are already out. No bueno.

I've had some more figs from Craven's Craving 'ripen' two weeks ago, but they weren't good. I think those were aborted. Kinda looked like they ripened, shriveled, but weren't fully ripe.
Click to expand...
🤤
 
Armo said:
Wow great looking figs. They ripened very early for you this year. Enjoy them for now until better ones start coming in June and July :)
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Thanks. Yeah, I was a bit surprised. Last year, WM#1 and U Prosciutto took 117 and 103 days, respectively, to ripen. But then again, both were younger, second-year trees last year. CC is a second-year tree, but I expected it to start ripening a lot later. My Tia Penya and I-258 are in the same grow tent, still some time away from ripening, but about a dozen TP started to swell ever so slightly. Though I-258 is a late starter for me, this year was no exception. I tweaked my setup a bit this year; more heat and more light, I am sure that also helped.
 
Figgin' A said:
Thanks. Yeah, I was a bit surprised. Last year, WM#1 and U Prosciutto took 117 and 103 days, respectively, to ripen. But then again, both were younger, second-year trees last year. CC is a second-year tree, but I expected it to start ripening a lot later. My Tia Penya and I-258 are in the same grow tent, still some time away from ripening, but about a dozen TP started to swell ever so slightly. Though I-258 is a late starter for me, this year was no exception. I tweaked my setup a bit this year; more heat and more light, I am sure that also helped.
Click to expand...
What tempature and humidity level do you keep your growtent? Mine with 65% light strength it gets to 29C in there and when the lights are off it drops to room tempature to 20C. I try to keep humidity around 60%.
I started my trees in middle of Feb. but my trees are nowhere near yours. I know my lights aren't as good as yours but I wonder of heat has anything to do with it.
 
Armo said:
What tempature and humidity level do you keep your growtent? Mine with 65% light strength it gets to 29C in there and when the lights are off it drops to room tempature to 20C. I try to keep humidity around 60%.
I started my trees in middle of Feb. but my trees are nowhere near yours. I know my lights aren't as good as yours but I wonder of heat has anything to do with it.
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My temp started around 25C and now it's about 32-33C with the lights on. Humidity is around 70%. DLI is about 45, 50 in the center.
 
Figless said:
@Figgin' A I always love your posts. Great pictures, comprehensive, and well-written enjoy this early Harvest with your family. The later summer Harvest is coming and you will get to enjoy that too. LOL it's obvious you put in a lot of work.
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Thank you. I certainly hope so. Still waiting on good weather up here... daytime highs have been quite low so far and forecasted in the upper fifties next week and mid-60s the following week... 😞 it's not very typical for this time of the year up here. Who stole our warmth? :) Well, today all of a sudden was very warm, 81-82F, but that will change back tomorrow. Hope our summer is better than our spring.

One fig tree that woke up in the garage and that I took outside in late April has some minimal growth... It will be interesting to see when it will set figs and ripen here... this is Texas Peach, so it should be early and hopefully ripen here. This will be my first tree without any headstart of shuffling, or any cold night protection. I am cautiously optimistic, but I will have to see what happens.

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My cukes and tomatoes were off to a rough start this year, a good couple of weeks behind last year's progress at this time, but I erected tomato cages over all of them and loosely covered them with a 6mil plastic.... and what do you know, the plants exploded and I see lots of small tomatoes and cukes...

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I am contemplating experimenting with this method with a few of my fig trees next year.
 
I’ve never thought about that but that’s an easy and good idea. Tomato cage and plastic over plant. I have probably a 100 tomato cages my grandfather left me.
 
superdave336 said:
I’ve never thought about that but that’s an easy and good idea. Tomato cage and plastic over plant. I have probably a 100 tomato cages my grandfather left me.
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The effect is mind blowing. On a cloudy day, I am about 3-5 degrees Celsius (about 8-10F) above ambient under the plastic. Partial sun - up to 10 degrees C (18F) and full sun - it gets pretty hot in there and I have to raise the sides quite a bit. So far, I was able to easily maintain 26-28C there pretty much daily, and the plants love it. Even with some quite cold nights here and there, GDD is works out to be pretty high for a good sustainable growth even with cool daytime temps. The setup is pretty basic and I have to closely monitor the temps and make quick adjustments 2-3 times per day on average, but it works well for me. I don’t want anything complicated or expensive. I may leave the plastic over my melons all summer as they love heat, up to 100F, and protection from rain will help with powdery mildew. May also help tomatoes in the fall. Anyway, I am quite excited.
 
Well that's just hitting below the belt! LOL

Excellent haul, I can only hope to see a harvest like that this year.
Time will tell.

Congrats!
 
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