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I picked a bowl of figs today. They are super sweet this year. My tree is having its best year to date. I been picking 1/2 to a gallon a day this week. I let my neighbor pick all he can reach across the fence. I picked all I could reach with a ladder. ProbablyAttachment 167626 still have a gallon on the tree that's ripe I cannot reach. The tree is loaded with green ones still. Tonight I am going dry a load in the dehydrator.
Man those look good, another couple weeks before they are ready here in oklahoma.
those look almost as pretty as your box of sacs...........
Lol.....yea but I can fish year round. I can only get figs for a month. I put a tray in the dehydrator. They were so plump and over ripe I had to invert another tray over them to fit. I will dehydrate them at 135 for 24 hours. I prefer to eat them dried because they take on a candy flavor. I use the vine ripened ones that are about to fall off on their own.
Your picture brings sweet memories rushing back. Grandma would send my cousin and I up to the tops of the tress in Beaumont when we were young and light, 4-10, to get the ones she couldn't reach from the ladder. She had 6-8 BIG fig trees. We'd pick the ones that looked just like that. She would have her paring knife with her in a pocket on her apron and peel about ever third one and toss it back up to us to eat, putting the rest in her apron. When she passed she had a mountain of Mason jar cases stored under her old-timey high beds, all full of homemade preserved fig jelly. We ate fig jelly for years. I miss you Grandma Pate. Still haven't found anyone who could hug me as good as you could. Saute, thank you so much for the memories you brought back. In the same manner that I smell the fragrance of a magnolia blossom from seeing its picture, I look at your fig picture and instantly their taste comes rushing back over more than fifty years. That, and the visage of the top of grandma's head down there as she peeled us a fig.
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Sorry I jumped the gun and forgot the pics.
Your welcome. My grand mother is the reason I have the tree. I remember doing the same but I ate every third one I picked. My grand aunt use to make preserves with orange slices in it. Man it was the best.
I've been saying for years that all I need are some stompings to get me started and living here in the Big Thicket they would take off like gang-busters. I'd have some fair sized trees of my own by now if I would have acted then. Charlie, the guy on the Cowboy Chevrolet commercials lives down the street. He's got some figs the size of tennis balls, but they don't taste as good as those in your pics.
Suggestion for a pole picker for those out of reach figs
A lot of sites have instructions for an apple picker made from a 2 liter soda bottle. They really do work, I made one and was able to pick several bushels of apples that I could not reach with a ladder. Earlier this year, I made a new one from a 20 ounce soda bottle for picking cherries and it worked like a champ. I bet you could make one for picking figs and easily pick those that are just out of reach, My cherry pole is on a 10' PVC pole and I could pick a couple gallons in minutes. Sure beats up and down the ladder
My tree is 18 years old and it has been producing more and sweeter figs every year. I have 2 satsumas, 2 kumquats, and a lemon tree the same age. I picked 3 60qt ice chests of satsumas and a 134 lemons last year. Kumquats are best in March when they start to drop. I had 2 apple trees, 2 Japanese plums, 2 blood orange trees, and 2 peach trees lost during rita.
Thanks I will have to make me one.Quote:
Originally Posted by BuckeyeKdog
My first attempt were cumbersome but once I figured out the exact cuts I needed, they worked like a champQuote:
Originally Posted by saute86
How to Make a Fruit Picker - DIY - MOTHER EARTH NEWS
This is a more elaborate version that IMO looks like a worthwhile project
Make a Fruit Picker to Snag Out of Reach Fruit
yet another version
Mental Masala: DIY: A fruit picker made from recycled materials
I searched these out not so much as a recommendation but mostly so you can see the concept. For me it was trial and error then after got one working, had to improve it.
Nice figs!
Very nice saute. The figs are much sweeter than usual this year due to the lack of rainfall. This lack of rain concentrates the sugars and you end up with super sweet figs. Linda put up some fig preserves last night. I would post pictures but my phone is in the shop. Maybe tomorrow. I've been picking about a gallon a day of Celeste and a gallon of Cajun Gold, which is a large yellow fig somewhat like a LSU Gold but sweeter and more prolific. This is the first year that I can remember of figs over ripening and drying on the tree. I sometimes find one or two but this year with no rain if I miss one real ripe one yesterday it almost like candy today.
Tony, it's never too late to plant a tree, especially figs. The trees start producing young and you can start picking in 2 to 3 years. Like the saying goes, "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago or today".
"gene"
Here's another along those lines.
“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”
I cannot wait until my figs are ready. Being in North Louisiana it will be a few more days before mine start getting ripe.
Our fig tree almost got killed and for the last several years has been fighting its way back. Hurricanes blew it over it laid down spent a year looking dead when one of the branches touching the ground sprouted. I cut the dead original tree away, and now we have like 5 smaller trees growing in a cluster 19 ft away from the original tree. Last winter I pruned and fertilized and now we are picking a qt a day slowly increasing. I am dumping them into a 2 gallon zip loc bag in the freezer. When we can no longer zip the bag we are planning to can them. Peggy took the "first fruit" small batch and cooked them down then made some fig cookies to give to the neighbor kids.
Okay, then its a done deal. I am going to plant. I tasted those figs in my mind all night last night. Need your suggestions for fig varieties to plant. I am about as far in from the coast as Eunice or Opelousas, about 45 feet above sea level. Avg 63" rain per year, 70-80% humidity. Slightly acidic soil.
Gene will know for sure when it comes to figs. He'll pipe in before long.
Tony, if you can get your hands on an Improved Celeste, Alma or both they will make you happy. Both are heavy bearers and bear in just a couple of years and are light brown figs with the Improved Celeste being a little darker. If you would want a honey fig, a LSU Gold is a large yellow fig that is very sweet and I don't think you will go wrong. If your soil is a little acid add some dolomitic lime ("garden lime") or Agricultural Lime to the soil mix and each year spread some on top of the ground to be washed down by the rains. Good luck.
"gene"
Our poor tortured fig tree is a celeste, and if its hearty ya looking for ya cant go wrong. Hurricanes literately beat it to the ground, and left it for dead. Not to be done in one of its branches laying on the ground sprouted, and its now baring a bumper crop(for its size) and thriving.
Here are just a few of the ones I picked today. The variety is Cajun Gold, they are sugar sweet and juicy as all get up. If you look closely at the eye of the fig you can see a drop of honey in it. The honey seals the eye and won't let any bugs in.
"gene"
http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/f...4D7C8BF3DC.jpg
http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/f...5815C70CAD.jpg
All of those figs look good. Wife and I almost bought a fig tree this year but alas I would not let go of the money yet. I know that next year I can afford to buy them. Looking forward to having my own tree.
:)Well my poor lil storm battered tree now we have a 2 gal zip lock full and started another one. usually we small batch 1 bag full but the cucs are still making so it looks like a batch of relish before we do the figs.
Boar Buster, just get a branch off of someone elses tree, turn over a shovel of soil kind of soften it up. water the puddin out of it a lil miricle grow or shovel of compost or what ever ya got. mix it up make a lil mound and water it again. poke a branch in the ground around a foot deep leave plenty branch sticking up the more the merrier and it should have leaves. Just let it sit there till next spring if it sprouts ya got ya tree nothing to loose. If it dont by then maybe you can aford a store bought one. Believe me brother I know how it is to be poor cause I am now. But us Cajuns know some country boy tricks.:biggrin
I didnt know you could propagate figs. I need to trim mine Looks like a fig orchard in a few years.
The best time to propagate figs from cuttings is in the Spring just as the buds are breaking. Breaking a branch and sticking it in the ground where you want it to grow works just fine. To insure you get a tree you might stick 2 or 3 cuttings in the same place to increase you chances. You can always dig out the ones you don't need and give them to a friend.
"gene"
Yea, What PawPaw said.:biggrin
I am proud to announce that I picked my first three figs of the year this evening here in Ruston. They sure were good.
They will start ripening now so hope I can make my fig preserves for the year soon.