The Millennial Gardener I've never had a fresh fig yet but I saw a video of someone cutting one open that was full of worms. Was that faked and if not how do you deal with preventing it?
@@deploribusunum3894 in some climates, growers have a problem with a tiny fruit fly called SWD (spotted winged drosophila) that will crawl into the open eye and lay eggs, which will hatch into very tiny larvae and can spoil the fig. They're not exactly "worms," but they do squirm around. They're very tiny. Is that what you're referring to? I haven't had a problem with them in my hot summer climate, but some growers in the northeast struggle with them during late-summer rains. Covering the fruits with organza bags helps.
You just made me even happier that I just got those two VDB and Neggrone figs. I can't wait! Now I want to find me some I-258s too. Congrats on the fig success. The weather has been cool/amazing the last week or so. I have been planting grass though. lol
I love VDB. My tree has been exceptional this year. I think people under-rate it because it is so common. My I258 tree has a number of big figs on it but no where near ripe yet. In zone 6a and this year we had a cold may and june but I am hoping with the summer temps continuing into mid oct as predicted that it will ripen up.
I agree. I was not prepared for the flavor explosion. Outside of my I-258’s, it was probably better than any fig I’ve had all year. Even better than Smith. Just fantastic.
Okay I just commented on your other fig video about buying the Olympian yesterday. I was trying to decide. They had the Violet de Bordeaux, and now I'm convinced I should get one of those too.
Do you need several of each variety for pollination? or is 1 Violette de Bordeaux enough? Will they not grow well in the ground, I'm curious about all the buckets your growing yours in
Actually looking at grabbing some de Bordeaux cuttings. At the moment, i just have a brown turkey, a black genoa, and a white adriatic. The question i have is, when the tree is pumping out new growth and you check along the internodes for double bumps (new branch/leaf and a potential fig), if you have a bunch of new growth and no double bumps, will pinching the end of the branch off cause the plant to produce figs anyway, or is that entirely dependant upon 2 bumps already existing on the node. The reason i ask is, i have several plants that haven't fruited properly yet (just one breba that fell off or got snaffled by my dog last season) before it was even close to being full size. I get a lot of green growth, the occasional double bump, but no figs by the end of the season. I want to know if i get a decent branch but it has no indicators a fig will form, would pruning the end off the branch trigger a fruiting response anyway in the absence of a double bump at an internode? Hopefully that question makes sense. Light exposure may be my issue, its early spring and they get full sun from about 8am to 2pm. Theres a bunch of large trees throwing shade that i can't really do anything about. Haven't timed how much light the plants get over summer yet as that is still a coupe of months away here in Australia.
@@TheMillennialGardener haha sorry, being lazy! Brown turkey fig! Bought some black mission in the store to try before I buy, they were not good at all. Thanks for the time!
Would you ever sell a cutting from your VDB? I have heard on lots of forums that there are a few different varieties being called VDB. I want this exact one lol. Seriously though id love to buy a cutting.
Is this Violet de Bordeaux the one you bought from Burpee???? You say So far behind???? Holy molie it grew by leaps and bounds. Awesome!!!I noticed that you removed the leaves and just leave the ones at the end of the branch.Does that help ripe the figs on that particular branch???
P Jorge yes, that is the little tissue culture I got from Burpee. It had a late start because I headed the plant - completely decapitated it. It should be earlier next year. I didn’t remove any leaves on my plant. My VdB got a terrible case of rust and dropped its leaves. You definitely do not want to remove healthy leaves. Healthy leaves are “solar panels” and provide the tree with the necessary energy to ripen the fruit. I’m sure my VdB would have had earlier and better quality fruit if I didn’t have the rust problem.
Are they ok for diabetics to eat? Your "Ummm's" make me want to taste one. I was given a fig tree this summer and I can't wait to taste my own figs. God bless!
Type 1 or Type 2? I'm not a doctor, so I'm not qualified to answer that question. Figs are a fruit, so just like most fruits, most of their calories come from sugar. While fruit sugar does not induce as acute of a glucose spike as starch thanks to the fructose component, it is still going to spike your blood glucose. How much sugar you can eat at any given time is going to depend on your own individual condition, as some diabetics are more insulin resistant than others. Therefore, I can't make that judgment call. All I can tell you is that individual figs are very small, so if you can tolerate eating an apple or an orange without issue, a fig is a very tiny fraction of that size. If a piece of fruit gives you trouble, a fig is a piece of fruit, so there will be similar problems.
I have negronne, we just tasted 2 ripe brebas. Surprisingly good but it does split in rain or at least the breba did. But the rain finally stopped and rendered 2 very nice brebas. The main crop is on the way and it's loaded. First year fruit so i hoping it gets better.
My two TC VdB's from burpee were my first two figs. I got them at a weird time of the year (and they were tiny, 2-3" tall), so I had a really hard time keeping them alive through the winter. They didn't make it through the spring (I think a rabbit gave them too hard of a pruning). I have since replaced them with a single VdB from Dave Wilson Nursery, which is a much larger tree for about the same price (I bought it locally for half off). It was a 3' tall whip in a tree pot that I think I'm going to prune into a column espalier. I repotted it in July (quite rootbound) and it produced figlets immediately. I'm not sure if it'll ripen them in time, with our first frost coming up in the next few weeks...but it looks like it's super prolific. I would say...for a fig collection, even a small one... VdB (or similar, negronne, vista, etc) is just mandatory.
NM Nate I bought my VdB as a tissue culture June 2018. It was very tiny, and took until October to get a decent single stem. Because of that, this is its first true fruiting year. It was simple to overwinter in my garage in a 3 gallon container, but in ground, you want to get it to a 3 gallon size and plant it in the spring so it grows strong roots and hardens up all spring, summer and fall. It is very, very prolific and a very unique tasting and textured fig. It is very intense, but one of those figs that due to its strong flavor, I don’t know if I could eat a bunch of them. I could eat I-258’s all day long. VdB is like very dark chocolate. A little goes a long way.
@@TheMillennialGardener Yeah, I think I bought them in September - didn't know better at the time. They went dormant and started to look pretty unhappy (some stems started shriveling up), so I woke them up early and then put them under grow lights for the remainder of winter until I could put them outside. I don't think they got enough dormancy or had a good root system to really do much. They did a bit better once I pruned them to a single stem. I've also since gone to a much better custom potting mix with higher aeration and all of my figs really perked up. Most of the figs I've bought in late spring / early summer do better, but it isn't until the next year that they really start to take off. Usually the plants are really shocked when they arrive via mail. The low humidity here and the harsh sun are pretty unforgiving. I leave them in the shade for 2 weeks until I think they've adjusted a little better, but that's enough to stunt their growth for a bit. They all seem to perk up in the fall. Next year is going to be a good year :)
NM Nate try using fish emulsion immediately upon planting/transplanting. When I water in my plants with fish emulsion mixed in water, I never get shock. They take right off (assuming they’re sun acclimated). It is magical stuff.
Where do you get your cuttings? I know you said you got some plants from Home Depot, but not available in Texas stores near me. There are so many online suppliers that its hard to know who's reputable.
Bill McCaffrey the list is long. Figbid, Bill from Off The Beaten Path Nursery, trades from forum members on Ourfigs, Wills from willsfigs, Harvey is another good option from figaholics...that’ll get you started.
@@yannikin I try to cut some of that stuff out. I always assume that people don't want to hear me gurgling haha. Sony mic's are hot. They pick up everything.
Thanks for sharing! Man I cant wait for next year, I grew my violette de bordeaux this year but wont have enough time to get figs. Seeing this makes me think that I should get an Italian 258, should I wait for next year or am I still in a good time to buy one and grow it over the winter inside. What would you do?
I would recommend looking for cuttings because you can get them a lot cheaper. Between Figbid, Harvey and Wills, they aren’t hard to come by during peak cutting season in October thru January.
Yes, eventually, but due to the age of my trees and length of my growing season, I won’t have a lot of cuttings and they’ll be later in the season. Probably December or January. A lot of folks from the northeast will have cuttings well before me, so I wouldn’t wait on me.
I got to eat about 30 or so varieties that ripened for me this year. Believe it or not, my favorite so far is Chicago Hardy Fig. I think I got an especially good Chicago Hardy Fig tree (it was from fast-growing-trees website). I have another Chicago hardy from other source that is not as good. I am in north San Diego California . My second favorite is called Little Miss Figgy, which looks very similar to your Violette de Bordeaux, and my third is the Tiger fig.
That's interesting. I got my Chicago Hardy from Home Depot and it was by far my least favorite fig of the year. I've heard, however, that Chicago Hardy takes several years to get really good. That being said, there can be a lot of variability in a strain of figs. Sometimes, individual branches perform better than others. Sometimes, a new branch is so much better, people cut it off and propagate it into a new tree. That's how we got Col de Dame Mutante, which I believe was a mutated branch on a Col de Dame Blanc that produced giant fruit for some reason.
That’s virtually impossible for me. It would be a hard battle between I-258, Col de Dame Blanc, and White Madeira #1 for taste. However, for production in our climate, it would be a fight between Olympian, Celeste and Smith. Galacia Negra came out of Left Field this year, too. Excellent, large figs that held up well to rain. But then again, there are thousands of varieties I’ve never tried, so...🤷♂️
Holy smokes that de bordeaux is awesome lookin my ebay figs cuttings just got rooted n sprouting like crazy two weeks ago so i hope to get some figs soon.
My local Lowe's just got a truckload of Violette de Bordeaux figs last week. If you're interested in that variety, they were only $12.98 a plant at Lowe's. I'm not sure your local Lowe's gets the same stock, but it's worth a try.
I've never had Little Miss Figgy, so I cannot say for sure. I've heard many people refer to it as "a Violette de Bordeaux type," which seems to imply that it is different, but similar.
Would you not distribute the figs for us? Also, I see some people sell fig seeds. Do you think that will work? I feel seeds are easier and cheaper to make plant than cuttings. What do you think?
Jeong Kim figs are pollinated by a very rare and special wasp indigenous to the Mediterranean. Wasp colonies were established in 1899 along the Sacramento River Valley, but outside of those wasp colony locations, none exist in the US. Anywhere else, we can only grow parthenocarpic figs - common female figs that set fruit without pollination. All my figs are common females, and the seeds are completely infertile. Almost all the seeds sold are likely scams and will be infertile, and if you do get seeds from a female fig pollinated by a wasp: 1. Chances are it’ll be a Smyrna variety, which cannot ripen without pollination. If you don’t live by a wasp colony in California, 100% of the fruit will drop. 2. If you do somehow magically get pollinated seed and it grows a common fig that will set for you - highly unlikely - it will be a hybrid and in no way resemble the mother parent. It’ll be a cross between an unknown male persistent caprifig. Fig hybridization is incredibly complex! Long story short, do not buy seed! It is a total scam. That’s why we only propagate by cutting. It is the only way to clone the mother.
Also I have volunteers that grew with no help. They give out this really nice purple and black fig I call space dust cus it’s got ivory and pink specs on it.
Thank you for your replies. I am more convinced not to use seed. If it worked for Brown turkey, that's great. But as I wateched the videos, I began not to like what I have; brown turkey and chicago hardy. They might be tough against cold but I now envy more exotic fig trees. For that matter, I would not take chance. Only now I learnef some figs need to be polinated to bear fruit and seeds from those trees will give off trees of unpredictable character.
Jeong Kim I’m a fig farmer 👨🌾 in California. I have volunteer fig trees that grew with no help. Almost all give great fruit some I use as root stock cus they develop drought characteristics, which I like. my brown turkey I grew from seed last year and now I’m enjoy the fruit. I grow 25 variety 10 are volunteers which give great tasting figs.
A couple reasons. First, it fruited too late for me (probably because I headed it), and as a result, the fruit didn't ripen at the right time. The first few fruits were good, but the rest didn't do so hot. This year, it seems to be struggling as well, which is odd, because all my other figs are doing phenomenal. It may be root-bound and needs to be up-potted. This tree is being a little problematic, so I'm concerned putting it into the ground and spending precious space on it. I'm debating propagating it via cutting because it's a tissue culture and may be behaving strangely.
No. Fig wasps don’t exist in the US except for tiny pockets of CA where they were introduced in 1899. If you check the top comment thread, I gave the full explanation. There are no wasps in my figs, and even if there were, they’d be fully digested. If you eat pizza, your insides don’t turn into pizza, and if you grow tomatoes in horse manure, the tomatoes aren’t full of manure. This is the same principle.
Shahpour Ahmadi this is incorrect. Plants with male and female flowers are called “self-fertilize.” Figs are not self-fertile. Common figs do not have male and female flowers. Male flowers are only found inside caprifigs. Common figs only have female flowers, but they are “parthenocarpic.” That means they do not need male flower fertilization to set fruit. As a consequence, the seeds are infertile. If you plant the seeds of a common fig that have not been fertilized by the wasp, nothing will grow. All my figs are sterile because they are unfertilized.
I will be offering cuttings in January once the trees go dormant. Cuttings can't be taken at this time of year because they are green. I'll make an official announcement when the time comes.
@@TheMillennialGardener Ok .When you selling cutting . Let's me know .I already subscribed .Bc I love fig and watch your chanel all the time.Thanks for replied
Both types are no way near as common in Australia. VBD is available but not common & pricey. I258 I have only seen twice for sale here & missed out on both.
I went to Sydney and Cairns last May, and I was blown away by the prices of things. The isolation certainly adds a premium. The US had an advantage in figs from all the Italians that emigrated over 100 years ago and brought fig cuttings with them. This was back before customs had laws against importing wood, and airplanes didn’t exist, so that’s how the US got so many varieties. So many families had fig wood, and they have the wasp there so everyone had their own hybrid. With customs laws worldwide these days, that won’t happen again. It is why the fig market in the US is so robust. The Italian immigration swell of the early 1900’s brought us countless varieties!
@@TheMillennialGardener Australia had several of these infuxes from both italians & greeks. Have a grape from other half's mothers childhood home. Unfornuately a lot of the old figs from those times have now gone. Because of progress & lack of interest about figs here. There are the die hards, like myself. Or as with most people here, they have not even tried a fig let alone grown one. Interest in them has wavered for them due to several problems. As you said, cost. As I said, lack of variety. Which has caused the 3rd problem, lack of growers. Which in turn causes problem 1 & 2.
That is a shame because much of Australia has an incredible climate for figs. I would think from Sydney to Brisbane, Adelaide to Perth, and pretty much the entire west coast would do well with figs.
Saw it on Gumtree. Saw ad less then 2 hrs after being placed. Gentleman had sold all 2x cuttings sets he had in less then 20 minutes. Pulled listing down less then an hour later. Must have had a HUGE interest. Apparently he could prove variety through documents he had. He also had a VDS & Panache. Already had a Panache & could not afford the VDS. Shame.
No, they are completely different figs. Italian Honey, also called Lattarula, is a light green-skinned fig with an amber/yellow interior with a very light flavor that tastes honey-like. I-258 is a dark purple-skinned fig with a deep red interior and very intense flavor. To me, I-258 tastes like a blend of strawberries and maple syrup. They look, taste and feel nothing alike.
The natural chimpanzee diet is almost 50% figs, so I don't find it that surprising that Homo sapiens find figs so delicious, given how closely related we are evolutionarily.
@@TheMillennialGardener Although chimps seem to manage without toilet paper at all...🤔 Haha, only joking, love your content, it is always very critical and quantitative. Much appreciated.
I’m upset bc I just learned that figs have decomposed dead wasps inside of them. That’s the only way they are pollinated. Every fig you eat has a dead bug in it. You’re welcome lmao😫
Radiculously Rawthentic that’s not exactly true. There are no fig wasp colonies anywhere in the US except parts of Southern California along the Sacramento River Valley, where they were introduced in 1899 for commercial production reasons. Anywhere else in the US, you can only grow parthenocarpic figs, known as “common figs,” which are infertile, sterile and set fruit without pollination. I am in North Carolina and all my figs are common parthenocarpic female figs. My figs are not pollinated, so all my seeds are infertile. That’s why we must propagate figs by cuttings. Unless you live near a wasp colony in California, your seeds cannot be planted. None of my figs contain wasps. Even if they did, it is total clickbait. Even if you had a wasp colony, there are not dead wasps in your figs. The wasps crawl in early and are tinier than a grain of rice. By the time the fig ripens, the wasp has been fully “digested” by the enzymes inside the fig and assimilated into the plant (like a Venus flytrap). If you were to eat a slice of pizza, you don’t become pizza. You digest it fully and it is assimilated into your body. It is the same thing with the wasp. You’re not eating a dead wasp by eating a pollinated fig anymore than you’re eating horse manure by eating a tomato grown in dirt fertilized by horse manure 🙂 So eat figs and enjoy them! No matter what, you’re not eating a dead bug 😂
I just looked up the fig wasp thing after seeing this post. It appears that millennial gardener's response is an educated one. None around our region in NC (at this time)… each fig species has a very specific fig wasp that is adapted for it... which means the wasp will only be there if that exact species is there in sufficient numbers. The plants do literally absorb/digest the wasp long before the fig matures. That being said... most foods to have bugs or worms in them. lol Especially if home grown without pesticides. I would take a tiny bug any day of the week if the food is clean from chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides... and isn't nuked/etc. Figs are one of the BEST plants for growing organically... as so I shall.
MySuburbanHomestead chances are wasp colonies cannot be established in NC, or along 97% of our landmass. The fig wasp must overwinter inside male caprifigs, so areas that get more than light frosts will kill the colonies. Basically, any landmass colder than Zone 9b probably won’t be able to maintain a population. It took three trials in the 1800’s to finally establish colonies in California. One finally took in 1899. We have had fig wasps in this country for 120 years and they haven’t spread outside of tiny pockets of CA. That tells me they can’t survive anywhere else, or they would’ve spread. They are very fragile creatures. The only place I would see wasp colonies as viable is southern FL, the southernmost point of Texas, tiny pockets of Arizona, and maybe the extreme Gulf Coast, like Grand Isle or Dauphin Island, and even that would be a stretch.
The Millennial Gardener I actually lived just North if Dauphin island in Mobile, AL a few years ago. We had nights that got down into the mid teens a few times! So not likely then. If course it was likely warmer on the island since it is surrounded by water. I remember he ting into my kayak and seeing ice in the salt water down there in the tidal marshes. Some amazing fishing!
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The Millennial Gardener
I've never had a fresh fig yet but I saw a video of someone cutting one open that was full of worms. Was that faked and if not how do you deal with preventing it?
@@deploribusunum3894 in some climates, growers have a problem with a tiny fruit fly called SWD (spotted winged drosophila) that will crawl into the open eye and lay eggs, which will hatch into very tiny larvae and can spoil the fig. They're not exactly "worms," but they do squirm around. They're very tiny. Is that what you're referring to? I haven't had a problem with them in my hot summer climate, but some growers in the northeast struggle with them during late-summer rains. Covering the fruits with organza bags helps.
First year growing figs and I've purchased both of these varieties. I hope to have figs next year from both. Thanks for sharing.
You just made me even happier that I just got those two VDB and Neggrone figs. I can't wait!
Now I want to find me some I-258s too.
Congrats on the fig success. The weather has been cool/amazing the last week or so. I have been planting grass though. lol
That was one of the the strongest mmmm's ive ever heard i had to go find a cutting of the Violette de Bordeaux and buy it! 🤙
VdB is a really common variety. You can get it from almost any online nursery. Mine was from Burpee and only cost a few dollars.
I've placed many cutting orders based on these videos. Bravo!
I’m glad you’ve found them helpful! Thanks for watching.
I look forward to your fig vids this year.
Your best review to date!
Thank you! I’m glad you found it helpful. These are two great figs.
Thanks, looks like I need some more fig trees!!
Be careful, collecting figs can get out of control quickly. Ask me how I know!
I start with one fig now I have 34 varieties 😊, can be so addictive .
I love VDB. My tree has been exceptional this year. I think people under-rate it because it is so common. My I258 tree has a number of big figs on it but no where near ripe yet. In zone 6a and this year we had a cold may and june but I am hoping with the summer temps continuing into mid oct as predicted that it will ripen up.
I agree. I was not prepared for the flavor explosion. Outside of my I-258’s, it was probably better than any fig I’ve had all year. Even better than Smith. Just fantastic.
Okay I just commented on your other fig video about buying the Olympian yesterday. I was trying to decide. They had the Violet de Bordeaux, and now I'm convinced I should get one of those too.
Another excellent well detailed video! Thank you for sharing what you learn!
Do you need several of each variety for pollination? or is 1 Violette de Bordeaux
enough? Will they not grow well in the ground, I'm curious about all the buckets
your growing yours in
Actually looking at grabbing some de Bordeaux cuttings. At the moment, i just have a brown turkey, a black genoa, and a white adriatic. The question i have is, when the tree is pumping out new growth and you check along the internodes for double bumps (new branch/leaf and a potential fig), if you have a bunch of new growth and no double bumps, will pinching the end of the branch off cause the plant to produce figs anyway, or is that entirely dependant upon 2 bumps already existing on the node. The reason i ask is, i have several plants that haven't fruited properly yet (just one breba that fell off or got snaffled by my dog last season) before it was even close to being full size. I get a lot of green growth, the occasional double bump, but no figs by the end of the season. I want to know if i get a decent branch but it has no indicators a fig will form, would pruning the end off the branch trigger a fruiting response anyway in the absence of a double bump at an internode? Hopefully that question makes sense. Light exposure may be my issue, its early spring and they get full sun from about 8am to 2pm. Theres a bunch of large trees throwing shade that i can't really do anything about. Haven't timed how much light the plants get over summer yet as that is still a coupe of months away here in Australia.
i have a celest fig and brown turkey
i just bought the VDB at lowes yesterday. Can't find the i-258 anywhere. is it normal for them to sell for $40 a cutting on ebay?
This is on the level of a Mark Weins food tourism video. I want all of it!
I just got a Violette de Bordeaux yesterday. cant wait for it to bear fruits. yum! also btw, can it easily be propagated?
Do these 2 varieties do well in zone 9B Florida ?
I purchased 6 varieties: 2x VDB, BTF, Celeste, Olympian, Magnolia
What's BTF? I'm not familiar with that acronym.
@@TheMillennialGardener haha sorry, being lazy! Brown turkey fig! Bought some black mission in the store to try before I buy, they were not good at all. Thanks for the time!
Had to watch this video for the 2nd time. I am anxious to do this same taste test this yr.......or maybe next yr. Thanks
Spring can’t come soon enough!
I got my first fig on a 2 year old cutting. And coffee grinds woks wonders.
Glad to hear the grounds are working!
I just put in a bare root fig it leafed out but the leaf is a half inch thick fills like leather
Would you ever sell a cutting from your VDB? I have heard on lots of forums that there are a few different varieties being called VDB. I want this exact one lol. Seriously though id love to buy a cutting.
Is this Violet de Bordeaux the one you bought from Burpee???? You say So far behind???? Holy molie it grew by leaps and bounds. Awesome!!!I noticed that you removed the leaves and just leave the ones at the end of the branch.Does that help ripe the figs on that particular branch???
P Jorge yes, that is the little tissue culture I got from Burpee. It had a late start because I headed the plant - completely decapitated it. It should be earlier next year.
I didn’t remove any leaves on my plant. My VdB got a terrible case of rust and dropped its leaves. You definitely do not want to remove healthy leaves. Healthy leaves are “solar panels” and provide the tree with the necessary energy to ripen the fruit. I’m sure my VdB would have had earlier and better quality fruit if I didn’t have the rust problem.
Are they ok for diabetics to eat? Your "Ummm's" make me want to taste one. I was given a fig tree this summer and I can't wait to taste my own figs. God bless!
Type 1 or Type 2? I'm not a doctor, so I'm not qualified to answer that question. Figs are a fruit, so just like most fruits, most of their calories come from sugar. While fruit sugar does not induce as acute of a glucose spike as starch thanks to the fructose component, it is still going to spike your blood glucose. How much sugar you can eat at any given time is going to depend on your own individual condition, as some diabetics are more insulin resistant than others. Therefore, I can't make that judgment call. All I can tell you is that individual figs are very small, so if you can tolerate eating an apple or an orange without issue, a fig is a very tiny fraction of that size. If a piece of fruit gives you trouble, a fig is a piece of fruit, so there will be similar problems.
I have negronne, we just tasted 2 ripe brebas. Surprisingly good but it does split in rain or at least the breba did. But the rain finally stopped and rendered 2 very nice brebas. The main crop is on the way and it's loaded. First year fruit so i hoping it gets better.
My two TC VdB's from burpee were my first two figs. I got them at a weird time of the year (and they were tiny, 2-3" tall), so I had a really hard time keeping them alive through the winter. They didn't make it through the spring (I think a rabbit gave them too hard of a pruning). I have since replaced them with a single VdB from Dave Wilson Nursery, which is a much larger tree for about the same price (I bought it locally for half off). It was a 3' tall whip in a tree pot that I think I'm going to prune into a column espalier. I repotted it in July (quite rootbound) and it produced figlets immediately. I'm not sure if it'll ripen them in time, with our first frost coming up in the next few weeks...but it looks like it's super prolific. I would say...for a fig collection, even a small one... VdB (or similar, negronne, vista, etc) is just mandatory.
NM Nate I bought my VdB as a tissue culture June 2018. It was very tiny, and took until October to get a decent single stem. Because of that, this is its first true fruiting year. It was simple to overwinter in my garage in a 3 gallon container, but in ground, you want to get it to a 3 gallon size and plant it in the spring so it grows strong roots and hardens up all spring, summer and fall.
It is very, very prolific and a very unique tasting and textured fig. It is very intense, but one of those figs that due to its strong flavor, I don’t know if I could eat a bunch of them. I could eat I-258’s all day long. VdB is like very dark chocolate. A little goes a long way.
@@TheMillennialGardener Yeah, I think I bought them in September - didn't know better at the time. They went dormant and started to look pretty unhappy (some stems started shriveling up), so I woke them up early and then put them under grow lights for the remainder of winter until I could put them outside. I don't think they got enough dormancy or had a good root system to really do much. They did a bit better once I pruned them to a single stem. I've also since gone to a much better custom potting mix with higher aeration and all of my figs really perked up. Most of the figs I've bought in late spring / early summer do better, but it isn't until the next year that they really start to take off. Usually the plants are really shocked when they arrive via mail. The low humidity here and the harsh sun are pretty unforgiving. I leave them in the shade for 2 weeks until I think they've adjusted a little better, but that's enough to stunt their growth for a bit. They all seem to perk up in the fall. Next year is going to be a good year :)
NM Nate try using fish emulsion immediately upon planting/transplanting. When I water in my plants with fish emulsion mixed in water, I never get shock. They take right off (assuming they’re sun acclimated). It is magical stuff.
Where do you get your cuttings? I know you said you got some plants from Home Depot, but not available in Texas stores near me. There are so many online suppliers that its hard to know who's reputable.
Bill McCaffrey the list is long. Figbid, Bill from Off The Beaten Path Nursery, trades from forum members on Ourfigs, Wills from willsfigs, Harvey is another good option from figaholics...that’ll get you started.
Where do I buy the 258 fig? Do you sell figs?
Lol. That first reaction bro. Ooooohhhhh! 🤣
I'm so ready for my first figs of the year. I'm thinking we're 30 days away from the first one...waiting impatiently...
Bro make sure you record with sound up as you bite into it. Lol.
@@yannikin I try to cut some of that stuff out. I always assume that people don't want to hear me gurgling haha. Sony mic's are hot. They pick up everything.
Thanks for sharing! Man I cant wait for next year, I grew my violette de bordeaux this year but wont have enough time to get figs. Seeing this makes me think that I should get an Italian 258, should I wait for next year or am I still in a good time to buy one and grow it over the winter inside. What would you do?
I would recommend looking for cuttings because you can get them a lot cheaper. Between Figbid, Harvey and Wills, they aren’t hard to come by during peak cutting season in October thru January.
The Millennial Gardener awesome, are you planning to sell? If so, I’d like to buy from you!
Yes, eventually, but due to the age of my trees and length of my growing season, I won’t have a lot of cuttings and they’ll be later in the season. Probably December or January. A lot of folks from the northeast will have cuttings well before me, so I wouldn’t wait on me.
Am from Borneo sarawak malaysia...Am very interested in planting figs...My question is ...Are fig tree afraid of rain...
Good video. I have Violette de Bordeaux too. BTW, de in French is pronounced like "duh." It rhymes with "the."
Will the I-258 fruit at zone 6B
Another great review!
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Thank you for the great video
You're welcome!
I got to eat about 30 or so varieties that ripened for me this year. Believe it or not, my favorite so far is Chicago Hardy Fig. I think I got an especially good Chicago Hardy Fig tree (it was from fast-growing-trees website). I have another Chicago hardy from other source that is not as good. I am in north San Diego California . My second favorite is called Little Miss Figgy, which looks very similar to your Violette de Bordeaux, and my third is the Tiger fig.
That's interesting. I got my Chicago Hardy from Home Depot and it was by far my least favorite fig of the year. I've heard, however, that Chicago Hardy takes several years to get really good. That being said, there can be a lot of variability in a strain of figs. Sometimes, individual branches perform better than others. Sometimes, a new branch is so much better, people cut it off and propagate it into a new tree. That's how we got Col de Dame Mutante, which I believe was a mutated branch on a Col de Dame Blanc that produced giant fruit for some reason.
Little miss figgy is supposed to be the same as vdb just essentially a dwarf version instead.
Do you tear the leaves off your fig plants?
No. Figs are deciduous trees and will drop their leaves naturally in the fall.
If you could only have one fig tree forever, which one would you pick (for South Carolina ha!)
That’s virtually impossible for me. It would be a hard battle between I-258, Col de Dame Blanc, and White Madeira #1 for taste. However, for production in our climate, it would be a fight between Olympian, Celeste and Smith. Galacia Negra came out of Left Field this year, too. Excellent, large figs that held up well to rain. But then again, there are thousands of varieties I’ve never tried, so...🤷♂️
Holy smokes that de bordeaux is awesome lookin my ebay figs cuttings just got rooted n sprouting like crazy two weeks ago so i hope to get some figs soon.
My local Lowe's just got a truckload of Violette de Bordeaux figs last week. If you're interested in that variety, they were only $12.98 a plant at Lowe's. I'm not sure your local Lowe's gets the same stock, but it's worth a try.
Is Little Miss Figgy pretty much the same taste-wise as VDB?
I've never had Little Miss Figgy, so I cannot say for sure. I've heard many people refer to it as "a Violette de Bordeaux type," which seems to imply that it is different, but similar.
They look so delicious
These were probably my tastiest figs of the year.
I have a question can you grow black mission fig trees in zone 7 ? Thanks
In containers or in-ground?
On the ground
Would you not distribute the figs for us?
Also, I see some people sell fig seeds. Do you think that will work? I feel seeds are easier and cheaper to make plant than cuttings. What do you think?
Jeong Kim figs are pollinated by a very rare and special wasp indigenous to the Mediterranean. Wasp colonies were established in 1899 along the Sacramento River Valley, but outside of those wasp colony locations, none exist in the US. Anywhere else, we can only grow parthenocarpic figs - common female figs that set fruit without pollination. All my figs are common females, and the seeds are completely infertile. Almost all the seeds sold are likely scams and will be infertile, and if you do get seeds from a female fig pollinated by a wasp:
1. Chances are it’ll be a Smyrna variety, which cannot ripen without pollination. If you don’t live by a wasp colony in California, 100% of the fruit will drop.
2. If you do somehow magically get pollinated seed and it grows a common fig that will set for you - highly unlikely - it will be a hybrid and in no way resemble the mother parent. It’ll be a cross between an unknown male persistent caprifig.
Fig hybridization is incredibly complex! Long story short, do not buy seed! It is a total scam. That’s why we only propagate by cutting. It is the only way to clone the mother.
I grew brown turkey from seed. One season later I have fruit.
Also I have volunteers that grew with no help. They give out this really nice purple and black fig I call space dust cus it’s got ivory and pink specs on it.
Thank you for your replies. I am more convinced not to use seed. If it worked for Brown turkey, that's great.
But as I wateched the videos, I began not to like what I have; brown turkey and chicago hardy. They might be tough against cold but I now envy more exotic fig trees. For that matter, I would not take chance.
Only now I learnef some figs need to be polinated to bear fruit and seeds from those trees will give off trees of unpredictable character.
Jeong Kim I’m a fig farmer 👨🌾 in California. I have volunteer fig trees that grew with no help. Almost all give great fruit some I use as root stock cus they develop drought characteristics, which I like. my brown turkey I grew from seed last year and now I’m enjoy the fruit. I grow 25 variety 10 are volunteers which give great tasting figs.
hi again, why did VdB not make the cut for the ground?
A couple reasons. First, it fruited too late for me (probably because I headed it), and as a result, the fruit didn't ripen at the right time. The first few fruits were good, but the rest didn't do so hot. This year, it seems to be struggling as well, which is odd, because all my other figs are doing phenomenal. It may be root-bound and needs to be up-potted. This tree is being a little problematic, so I'm concerned putting it into the ground and spending precious space on it. I'm debating propagating it via cutting because it's a tissue culture and may be behaving strangely.
@@TheMillennialGardener if you need vista cuttings, let me know during dormancy.
is it true that there's a dead wasp in every fig?
No. Fig wasps don’t exist in the US except for tiny pockets of CA where they were introduced in 1899. If you check the top comment thread, I gave the full explanation. There are no wasps in my figs, and even if there were, they’d be fully digested. If you eat pizza, your insides don’t turn into pizza, and if you grow tomatoes in horse manure, the tomatoes aren’t full of manure. This is the same principle.
Shahpour Ahmadi this is incorrect. Plants with male and female flowers are called “self-fertilize.” Figs are not self-fertile. Common figs do not have male and female flowers. Male flowers are only found inside caprifigs. Common figs only have female flowers, but they are “parthenocarpic.” That means they do not need male flower fertilization to set fruit. As a consequence, the seeds are infertile. If you plant the seeds of a common fig that have not been fertilized by the wasp, nothing will grow. All my figs are sterile because they are unfertilized.
Vy-o-lett. Sorry, I had to. Love your videos man.
I guess if the name is French or Italian, you are probably pronouncing correctly.
It is a French fig and pronounced the way I do in the video. It is not an English word, i.e. 'violette', not violet.
Lowes had Kadota,VDB and Olympian. I bought Kadota, shouldve bought VDB.😢
VDB is really wild. If I am being completely honest with myself VDB/Nero 600m is probaby the best fig I ever had.
That's great. My VdB struggles year after year. I hope it eventually irons out the kinks. It may be because it's a tissue culture.
Do you have the I258 cutting? Thanks
I will be offering cuttings in January once the trees go dormant. Cuttings can't be taken at this time of year because they are green. I'll make an official announcement when the time comes.
Nice video. I live it.
Thank you!
Great video. You can pronounce “de” as the english “the”
You have I 258 fig tree for sale.Thanks
I do not sell fig trees. I offer cuttings come winter to my subscribers and announce when they're available.
@@TheMillennialGardener Ok .When you selling cutting . Let's me know .I already subscribed .Bc I love fig and watch your chanel all the time.Thanks for replied
I have a white Genoa that produces two crops a season. I’ll trade you a cutting of my white Genoa. That’s on my page. For a cutting of that i258.
Both types are no way near as common in Australia. VBD is available but not common & pricey. I258 I have only seen twice for sale here & missed out on both.
I went to Sydney and Cairns last May, and I was blown away by the prices of things. The isolation certainly adds a premium. The US had an advantage in figs from all the Italians that emigrated over 100 years ago and brought fig cuttings with them. This was back before customs had laws against importing wood, and airplanes didn’t exist, so that’s how the US got so many varieties. So many families had fig wood, and they have the wasp there so everyone had their own hybrid. With customs laws worldwide these days, that won’t happen again. It is why the fig market in the US is so robust. The Italian immigration swell of the early 1900’s brought us countless varieties!
@@TheMillennialGardener Australia had several of these infuxes from both italians & greeks. Have a grape from other half's mothers childhood home. Unfornuately a lot of the old figs from those times have now gone. Because of progress & lack of interest about figs here. There are the die hards, like myself. Or as with most people here, they have not even tried a fig let alone grown one. Interest in them has wavered for them due to several problems. As you said, cost. As I said, lack of variety. Which has caused the 3rd problem, lack of growers. Which in turn causes problem 1 & 2.
That is a shame because much of Australia has an incredible climate for figs. I would think from Sydney to Brisbane, Adelaide to Perth, and pretty much the entire west coast would do well with figs.
@@elenidemos Hey can I ask where you see the I-258 advertised in Aus? I've only seen Vdb advertised...
Saw it on Gumtree. Saw ad less then 2 hrs after being placed. Gentleman had sold all 2x cuttings sets he had in less then 20 minutes. Pulled listing down less then an hour later. Must have had a HUGE interest. Apparently he could prove variety through documents he had. He also had a VDS & Panache. Already had a Panache & could not afford the VDS. Shame.
What up fig bro? Nice figs
I got 25 different variety
Ever had “candy cane”?
Thank you. I have not heard of that variety. There are so many, thousands really. They are such cool trees.
Super Video hat mir sehr gut Gefallen danke dafür Liebe Grüße aus Deutschland wünscht Benny
Thank you for watching from Germany!
Is Italian 258 the same as Italian honey fig or they are different?
No, they are completely different figs. Italian Honey, also called Lattarula, is a light green-skinned fig with an amber/yellow interior with a very light flavor that tastes honey-like. I-258 is a dark purple-skinned fig with a deep red interior and very intense flavor. To me, I-258 tastes like a blend of strawberries and maple syrup. They look, taste and feel nothing alike.
Che buoni
The natural chimpanzee diet is almost 50% figs, so I don't find it that surprising that Homo sapiens find figs so delicious, given how closely related we are evolutionarily.
Conor Hope I would not recommend any person make 50% of their diet figs, especially with the current toilet paper stock issues 😂
@@TheMillennialGardener Although chimps seem to manage without toilet paper at all...🤔 Haha, only joking, love your content, it is always very critical and quantitative. Much appreciated.
@@conorhope2307 problem with my climate is there are few deciduous trees. It's mostly pine needles 😀
the viewlett...lmao
too many ads man
TH-cam chooses whether or not to show ads, which ads, the lengths, etc. I have no control.
I’m upset bc I just learned that figs have decomposed dead wasps inside of them. That’s the only way they are pollinated. Every fig you eat has a dead bug in it. You’re welcome lmao😫
Radiculously Rawthentic that’s not exactly true. There are no fig wasp colonies anywhere in the US except parts of Southern California along the Sacramento River Valley, where they were introduced in 1899 for commercial production reasons. Anywhere else in the US, you can only grow parthenocarpic figs, known as “common figs,” which are infertile, sterile and set fruit without pollination. I am in North Carolina and all my figs are common parthenocarpic female figs. My figs are not pollinated, so all my seeds are infertile. That’s why we must propagate figs by cuttings. Unless you live near a wasp colony in California, your seeds cannot be planted. None of my figs contain wasps.
Even if they did, it is total clickbait. Even if you had a wasp colony, there are not dead wasps in your figs. The wasps crawl in early and are tinier than a grain of rice. By the time the fig ripens, the wasp has been fully “digested” by the enzymes inside the fig and assimilated into the plant (like a Venus flytrap). If you were to eat a slice of pizza, you don’t become pizza. You digest it fully and it is assimilated into your body. It is the same thing with the wasp. You’re not eating a dead wasp by eating a pollinated fig anymore than you’re eating horse manure by eating a tomato grown in dirt fertilized by horse manure 🙂
So eat figs and enjoy them! No matter what, you’re not eating a dead bug 😂
wrong
I just looked up the fig wasp thing after seeing this post. It appears that millennial gardener's response is an educated one.
None around our region in NC (at this time)… each fig species has a very specific fig wasp that is adapted for it... which means the wasp will only be there if that exact species is there in sufficient numbers. The plants do literally absorb/digest the wasp long before the fig matures.
That being said... most foods to have bugs or worms in them. lol Especially if home grown without pesticides. I would take a tiny bug any day of the week if the food is clean from chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides... and isn't nuked/etc. Figs are one of the BEST plants for growing organically... as so I shall.
MySuburbanHomestead chances are wasp colonies cannot be established in NC, or along 97% of our landmass. The fig wasp must overwinter inside male caprifigs, so areas that get more than light frosts will kill the colonies. Basically, any landmass colder than Zone 9b probably won’t be able to maintain a population. It took three trials in the 1800’s to finally establish colonies in California. One finally took in 1899. We have had fig wasps in this country for 120 years and they haven’t spread outside of tiny pockets of CA. That tells me they can’t survive anywhere else, or they would’ve spread. They are very fragile creatures.
The only place I would see wasp colonies as viable is southern FL, the southernmost point of Texas, tiny pockets of Arizona, and maybe the extreme Gulf Coast, like Grand Isle or Dauphin Island, and even that would be a stretch.
The Millennial Gardener
I actually lived just North if Dauphin island in Mobile, AL a few years ago. We had nights that got down into the mid teens a few times! So not likely then. If course it was likely warmer on the island since it is surrounded by water. I remember he ting into my kayak and seeing ice in the salt water down there in the tidal marshes. Some amazing fishing!