Author Topic: Anyone growing Figo Preto or Black Madeira Figs in Florida? - Or any fig  (Read 9343 times)

chad6159

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Re: Anyone growing Figo Preto or Black Madeira Figs in Florida? - Or any fig
« Reply #25 on: October 02, 2018, 10:36:21 AM »
Well guys I was ridiculously lucky and was able to find an air layered Black Madeira KK!! It was JUST shipped, hopefully we don't have any issues while shipping.

I will keep it in the shade for a bit. But I would eventually like to put it in the ground. Have any of you guys put them in the ground before? I am thinking of waiting for it to grow more or wait until it is dormant to do so. What do you guys think would be better?

Also if any of you guys have recommendations on potting soil let me know, I usually do not pot plants or trees.

Thank you to everyone that has given advise so far!

spinfactor

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I thought the Black Madera JFE was best for Florida. No?

pvaldes

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> I keep seeing that the Figo Preto and the Black Maderia are the best two figs

This is debatable and subject to cultural practices, bird nets and the presence or not of fig wasp in your area. If you have the fig wasp the fruits will be enriched with seeds that provide a nutty and crunchy flavour. Those figs are in a group named smyrna figs and are the best by a mile, but if the wasp is not in the area, smyrna figs drop before maturation and are useless. In this case common figs can perform much better.

Figo Preto means "black fig" and is used often to name "any black fig". Notice that Black Madeira and Figo Preto can be exactly the same variety under two names.

So I would pick one green/yellow and one black fig first, instead two similar black figs that can be easily the same. There are several very good green figs around and can perform sligthly better if you have a lot of birds (but this guys learn fast).

You could want also a bifere fig providing early figs (to have a longer season starting in July, August). Early figs are bigger and less sweet, but are still useful

> I have also seen where they supposedly do not like really humid climates

Just provide a perfect drainage or culture figs in a hig bed or a big pot. Roots dislike being stagnated. As long as this is fixed, fig trees trive perfectly in humid climates. After all, is a genus typical from rainforests. In Europe the real problem is frost (I bet that cold is not a problem in Florida).

If there is a lot of rain, the fruit can spoil. If is the sase choose figs varieties "closed" with a small "eye". Some figs are selected to be dried and being less juicy could perform better also.

Galicia negra is a common old variety accidentally rebranded and sold in USA as a new cultivar.
« Last Edit: May 07, 2019, 06:52:32 AM by pvaldes »

Tropheus76

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I don't know where Cape Coral is for the OP but in Central FL you pretty much have to grow them in containers with no way to reach the soil or experimentally using the bottomless 5 gallon bucket method. I have one done that way that seems to be doing well and am thinking about something else.

Currently growing BM, Violette Bordeaux, Tiger Panache in pots and trying to root some various Maltese varieties, unsuccessfully so far. My Kadota is the in ground and seems to be doing well so far. I also have a bunch of smaller potted guys I picked up from WellSpring. Its a nursery down in Lakeland but they sell mostly on ebay. good prices, good quality. Decent selection. Ourfigs is a good place to go to, they run figbids which is a fig specific auction site. I think they are quite pricy for mostly cuttings and prefer live plants when I can.

carcarlo

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Hey Guys I currently growing Galicia Negra, not a great producer like B.M but to me is a better Fig than Blk. Madeira any given Day, The G. Negra are easier to root that the NEAR IMPOSSIBLE to root Blk.Mad. here are some of my Galicia Negra  producing in old wood and on green wood at the moment. My Figs are growing in containers I have no problem with rain, the only problem is they will root into the ground, unless you keep moving the container around.
Carlos








chad6159

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A little update. I currently have brown turkey, green ischia, figo preto and black maderia.

My brown turkey is in the ground as well as my green ischia. Both are doing great and are COVERED in figs.
My black madeira is still in a pot and is also covered in figs, has a fig for every leaf(a lot have 2 per leaf), plus some breba figs from last years growth. I have picked half of them off so the tree will still grow this year.

My idea with the brown turkey is to wait and see how BM does for me in my climate and then hopefully graft it onto the brown turkey. There is documentation showing this will make your BM grow faster (a known slow grower) and also produce more.

For the brown turkey I did the bottomless 5 gallon pot "trick" and the green ischia I just put straight in the ground. Both are doing great, besides the common rust issue that we get here in florida with the humidity, but it doesnt seem to really make much of a difference. I heavily mulch both and use ground up crab shells which is supposed to bring in the good nematodes to get rid of the root knot nematodes.
I have seen a bunch of people swear you cannot grow fig trees in florida in ground. But then I saw a bunch of proof that you can with not much of an issue from the nematodes or the figs themselves splitting open (if you choose the right cultivars). The nematodes only live in the first 12 or so inches of the soil so as long as they have roots further down than that the plant will be fine and the above roots that are getting attacked by nematodes do not show an ill effects on the fig tree.

Side note:
When I pruned my fig tree I made 10 cuttings, stuck them outside in pots of kellogs organic potting mix and now I have 10 brown turkey figs that I am going to experiment with. Currently I bud grafted BM onto one and figo preto onto another.
Couldnt believe how easy it was to start brown turkey cuttings.

Tropheus76

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Hey Carcarlo, just to point out the obvious here, why not put you pots on pieces of slate or rocks? I keep mine on leftover solid chunks of granite from counter tops to keep the roots from going down

chad6159

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Hey Carcarlo, just to point out the obvious here, why not put you pots on pieces of slate or rocks? I keep mine on leftover solid chunks of granite from counter tops to keep the roots from going down

Or why not just put them in the ground? If the reason for keeping them in pots is because of nematodes. Well keeping a pot on the ground is inviting nematodes in. If they get in a potted plant I have seen where the fig tree will die. Since there are no roots that they cant get to.

So if you are going to keep it on a pot it needs to be up off the ground like on a concrete slab or something.
« Last Edit: May 08, 2019, 01:48:07 PM by chad6159 »