Figs in 2024

The fig cuttings sale is on reallygoodplants.com

The summer and fall of 2024 were pretty fruitful, with a wide diversity of figs producing excellent fruits. All my fig trees planted in 2022 have fruited. Many trees planted in 2023 also produced fruits, although normally later in the season. 

The figs I had fruits this year from are:

1. Bass Favorite
2. Black Madera
3. Black Tuscan
4. Bordissot Blanca Negra
5. Bordissot Negra Rimada
6. Bourjasotte Gris
7. Bourjasotte Noire
8. Col de Dame Blanc
9. Col de Dame Gris
10. Col de Dame Noir
11. Coll de Dama Gegantina
12. Coll de Dama Rimada
13. Cravens Cravings
14. De la Senyora (Hivernica)
15. Desert King
16. Emallyn's Purple
17. Excel
18. Figo Preto de Torres Novas
19. Galicia Negra
20. Genoviese Nero (AF)
21. Hative de Argentueil
22. Igo
23. Ischia Black
24. Italian 258
25. Longue d'Aout
26. Maltese Beauty
27. Martinenca Rimada
28. Negra d'Agde
29. Panache
30. PAS
31. Pastillier
32. Ponte Tresa
33. Red Lebanese
34. Rigato de Soliento
35. Socorro Black
36. Tashkent
37. TV3
38. UCR187-25
39. UCR K-6-5
40. Valle Negra
41. Violette de Soleis
42. White Madeira #1
43. Woodland Green
44. Zidi
45. Palmata hybrid DFIC0023

I often get asked, which fig is my favorite? Well, not all figs fruit at the same time, to do the head-to-head comparisons. However, I think the overall favorite was the Woodland Green in this season. It is a large green fig with juicy bright red interior. In the picture below it is the most left pile of fruits. Desert king in the lower part of the picture with PAS on the right. Woodland Green is the most juicy with the most bright/sharp and complex flavor.

This video https://youtube.com/shorts/Fp1427kC3fk goes over all of these three excellent figs.

Woodland Green is a productive midseason ripening fig, most likely of the Adriatic type.  Another video cover just Woodland Green:  https://youtube.com/shorts/Sc1BKP0xkDM

I really enjoyed eating majority of the fig fruits. Below will be the pictures of the plates I made sometime in summer.  All figs there are wonderful fruits. This video covers my tasting results for these figs: https://youtu.be/ySZnar_bKJw

I compared the Black Madera, Black Tuscan, and Craven's Cravings. Some consider them the same cultivar, but they seem different to me. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/d6UJY67Y7Q8

https://youtube.com/shorts/9ASqkCBWl7Q

https://youtube.com/shorts/Pbrqlyq1E6o

Desert King, Rigato de Soliento, Figo Preto de Torres Novas, Emallyn's Purple, and UCR 187-25 produced pretty nice breba fruits.

The only two figs I really did't care about are Excel and UCR K-6-5, and these are going out of my collection.

As I'm writing this post, there are 83 videos in my Figs Playlist on YouTube.  Each video features one of more fig fruits.  The Fig Playlist link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiwjdtJGDLQf9PALpj-VnX7LevoxrQcf9

Most trees grew vigorously this summer. In October-November of 2024 we are offering the fig cutting of many cultivars on our sales site reallygoodplants.com

These cuttings are lignified, but not yet dormant. They will push the roots right away if started soon. My rooting video is here: https://youtu.be/Owewb8MtPMc

Cuttings sale in June of 2024

Update: No shipping after June 27, 2024 and until the winter sale. The orders placed after June 27 need to be picked up in person. 

This post describes the cuttings sale on reallygoodplants.com in June of 2024.

The sale will open at 6 PM PST on June 1.

• This is our first ever summer sale of greenwood, and all species will be cut to order. This kind of wood doesn’t store for a long time, and should be used in under a week or two after receiving.

• Our summer temperatures are pretty high in June, and the shipping transit time may negatively affect the wood viability.   We will only offer the one and two days shipping options, as well as local pickup in Davis, CA. Your shipping charges will be calculated according to your location and you will be presented with your mailing options. If our weather is too hot, we will postpone shipping until the conditions are more favorable. Note that we may delay the 2-day shipments if the weather is too hot somewhere else, e.g. the Louisville International Airport (UPS shipments) or their destination.

• For many cultivars you will find the links to our blog and/or YouTube channel. Some are missing, as we are still working on getting the pictures and descriptions for them.

• Most of the material offered here should be grafted, however, there are some accessions that could be rooted. We successfully rooted all Elaeagnus species, Kei Apples, Adara plum, rose apple, grapes, and many mulberries. Here is the post on mulberry rooting abilities you may want to check. If you plan on rooting some material, I would still recommend grafting (or budding) a piece for a backup.  More about grafting in this post.

• The length and diameter of the cuttings will depend on the species. We will supply at least 6 inch long cuttings with at least 3 buds. We might need to split some single mulberry cuttings with three buds into two pieces as they might be too long for economical shipping. Some of our mulberry cultivars have 8-inch internodes. 

Frost tolerance of Himalayan Mulberries

 The past winter of 2023-2024 was the second test for my Himalayan mulberries frost tolerance. I have five two-years old trees of four cultivars, Naples, two Skinners, Taiwanese Long, and DMOR9. I also have one year old trees of these cultivars plus two trees of Steve Murray Himalayan.

The new shoot development observed on March 22 of 2024 confirmed the frost tolerance data I had last year: https://youtu.be/mtrUIJL1sJ8?si=fSJ3mkQf4iAF-AbU

As recorded in spring of 2023, Naples was the most damaged by the frosts and DMOR9 was the least damaged. 

This spring of 2024 recoding is under this link https://youtu.be/vFbuMc4Nhb0?si=-DkNqvUMi4aprtCN

Our lowest temperature this past winter was 24F.

While I have a new one-year old Napes, I could not clearly see if it will re-sprout or not. I may add the info on this later.

The frost tolerance of the cultivars I grow as following, starting from the most tolerant and ending with the most frost sensitive:

• DMOR9
• Taiwanese Long
• Skinner
• Steve Murray 
• Naples 

The scions of these cultivars might be available during our winter and spring sales at reallygoodplants.com

Blooming time for various apricot cultivars in Sacramento Valley

 

Update from April 1, 2024

Apricot cultivars still blooming with unopened buds too:

• Iskra 8
• Altair 4
• Canada White
• Albasun
• Seedling of Small White 

The Short with there is on the YouTube:

https://youtube.com/shorts/dt1hsJmcLaw?si=HpRtxNwBbyD00Hbw

Update from March 26, 2024

Dudi and Alisa apricots have open flowers.

Update from March 21, 2024

Five cultivars are still mostly in the closed bud stage:

• Iskra 4
• Iskra 8
• Seedling of Small White
• Canada White
• Altair 4

The link to the video taken on March 21 https://youtube.com/shorts/MRMhl6ODwj4?si=viccDo3Ela6eC-8s

Below is the data for 32 cultivars as recorded on March 13, 2024

Some additional cultivars in the orchard might show some flowering buds later. 

The scions of some of the above listed cultivars might be available at reallygoodplants.com during the winter and spring sales.

Cuttings sale in March 2024

This posts describes the cuttings sale on reallygoodplants.com in March of 2024.

The sale will open at 6 PM PST on March 1.

1. All deciduous cuttings and scions were precut while dormant and stored at 40°F.

2. The evergreen species will be cut to order. The wood of white sapote, cherimoya, rose apple, and avocado do not store for a long time. These should be used in under a week or two after receiving.

3. Some cultivars are not linked to descriptions. There are various reasons for this. Some are easily searchable on the web, like many apples, plums, peaches, a couple of Opuntias, etc. And the others are novel in circulation, and we have not yet evaluated them in detail. These are for gardeners looking for new gerplasm to test in their conditions.

4. Most of the material offered here should be grafted, however, there are some accessions that could be rooted. We successfully rooted all Elaeagnus species, Kei Apples, sour cherry PV Hybrid #1, Adara plum, rose apple, and many mulberries. Here is the post on mulberry rooting abilities you may want to check. If you plan on rooting some material, I would still recommend grafting a piece for a backup. This time we also offer the cuttings of Osage orange, which are typical rootstock for Che. These will root and, will grow fast, and can be grafted with Che the following year.

All pomegranates root fine. If you want to graft them, make sure to graft onto strong young shoots. More about grafting in this post.

All Opuntia pads, as well as grapes will root.

5. The length and diameter of the cuttings will depend on the species. We will supply at least 6 inch long cuttings with at least 3 buds. A 6 inch long apricot scion can have up to 20 buds, while some vigorous mulberries might have 6-8 inch long internodes. On average, mulberry cuttings will be longer than avocado, apricots, and feijoa. Some mulberries grow very thick shoots. If you are planning on getting the Himalayan types like Naples, Steve Murray, etc, these may be up to 1 inch in diameter and will require established rootstocks to graft onto, or prepare yourself for chip budding your smaller rootstocks.

White Sapote Golden Globe

 This is the most late fruiting cultivar for me in Davis. The tree is very vigorous and fast growing. The fruits are medium in size, excellent tasting. The flavor has caramel notes in it, they are very sweet and creamy, the skin is edible. The fruits in the pictures below were harvested on February 9, 2024. 

The scions are usually available during our spring sale at reallygoodplants.com

The first fruit trees to bloom in 2024

As of February 14, 2024 I have the following fruit trees blooming.

Orion peach

Katy apricot 

 

Anna apple 

Aussie mulberry 

Also called AustroTurkey, Australian Turkish, etc. 

Himalayan Red Skinner mulberry 

Four Seasons mulberry 

Shangri La mulberry