I'm kinda envious!!
What's Growing in the Garden
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We have one cherry tomato bush and one larger tomato - not sure what kind - in pots on the deck. And we still have more tomatos than my wife and I can eat. For once the larger tomatos didn't all get ruined by blossom rot or whatever it's called when the bottom of the tomato turns black and rots.
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I'm about ready to get into tomato canning mode. Juice, then sauce, then whole tomatoes. I've also been drying romas for the last couple weeks.
Wow, had my mind blown this past Sunday. I've been growing figs for some 30+ years now. Began in honor of my grandmother – she had a love/hate relationship to her one fig tree on their 5 acres on the North side of San Antonio. She also had a pomegranate, a loquat, as well as some native agerita and TX persimmons, but she loved figs, and the hate part came in the battle with critters in order to partake of a ripe fig. I Took cuttings from her San Antonio tree - they struck roots, but died over the winter. It was the winter of 1985 when the temperature dropped to -17°F here in Nashvegas – a great example of my impeccable timing. Then, a few years later, I found some trees near Vanderbilt Univ. They ripened and were good (probably Celeste), took cuttings, and it was the beginning of my fig-growing. Originally, I wanted to conduct growth trials to find varieties that would reliably grow and produce without any protection. This was before the internet became widely available, and my primary source of information was the NAFEX Fig Growers Group. Ended up with about 25+ varieties – largely unknowns from the NE. I have a mature and very shady yard, so I had to find another place to plant, grow, and observe. Four different places fell through, and I decided to just plant some in my yard and give away the rest. But nobody wanted any, so kept them in pots and shuffled them back and forth between the garage in the winter and the yard the rest of the year One spring, I did not reshuffle the pots into the garage, and a late hard freeze killed all the potted trees. I have seven in-ground trees – two VdB, one Celeste (probably), one Chicago Hardy, one Brown Turkey, and two unknowns – one white and one purple. Well, until this weekend, and now I have two more – one Black Madeira, and one RdB, with more on order. We had to cut down a huge pine tree and have a huge hackberry that is on its last legs, so I will have more sun to utilize, plus I plan to put some pots on the deck. If I’m lucky, I get a couple of ALMOST ripe ones – if and only the critters allow it. I’m always hopeful.
Bought the trees from a guy I met on another site about TN Fig Growers. Never knew there was such a site. I went to his place on Sunday and walked through his orchard and was eating ripe sweet figs as I went. He has well over a hundred trees, maybe more than 200, of many, many varieties. I was in heaven or at least if felt like the Garden of Eden – not curly koa heaven, but almost! I had no idea that the hobby had grown since 30 years ago and that there were so many people near here that had the obsession!
My favorite this weekend – Black Ischia – it was heavenly in the mouth! He’s gonna air-layer me two trees so I can have some!!!! If you ask real nice, I might share one or two figs!
Bought the trees from a guy I met on another site about TN Fig Growers. Never knew there was such a site. I went to his place on Sunday and walked through his orchard and was eating ripe sweet figs as I went. He has well over a hundred trees, maybe more than 200, of many, many varieties. I was in heaven or at least if felt like the Garden of Eden – not curly koa heaven, but almost! I had no idea that the hobby had grown since 30 years ago and that there were so many people near here that had the obsession!
My favorite this weekend – Black Ischia – it was heavenly in the mouth! He’s gonna air-layer me two trees so I can have some!!!! If you ask real nice, I might share one or two figs!
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My grandmother had a black something and it tasted amazing. They cut it down. She should have told me. I would have probably tried to move the tree 
which would have been impossible seeing as it was 8-9 meters tall and failing that at least collected the wood and some cuttings. But did I mention that they tasted amazing. Also she sprayed them every year with some fig Schnaps that she made every year to keep the critters off and „improve the flavour“ though in New Zealand (where I was born and she lived) we don’t have so many critters that eat fruit. She learned of Schnaps on a visit to Germany on her honeymoon (how romantic, this was 1926) and fell in love with it too. When she tried to make some at home she realised that it required more skill than she had so she found someone who knew how and literally ripped the information from them and began her Schnapsmaking journey. She passed in ‘88 after living to 84. she lived through both world wars and lost a brother in the first one. She died eating her favourite food (fruit salad from her garden go figure) and drinking her schnaps before 10 in the morning. (Her tolerance for alcohol was unbelievable. She said it was spending her best years in the „golden twenties“) she was very nostalgic.
Also she was happy when she died so I don’t need any condolences or whatever. If she died happy then we don’t deserve to mourn her. We get to mourn our grief at losing them but we don’t get to mourn them dying happy.
which would have been impossible seeing as it was 8-9 meters tall and failing that at least collected the wood and some cuttings. But did I mention that they tasted amazing. Also she sprayed them every year with some fig Schnaps that she made every year to keep the critters off and „improve the flavour“ though in New Zealand (where I was born and she lived) we don’t have so many critters that eat fruit. She learned of Schnaps on a visit to Germany on her honeymoon (how romantic, this was 1926) and fell in love with it too. When she tried to make some at home she realised that it required more skill than she had so she found someone who knew how and literally ripped the information from them and began her Schnapsmaking journey. She passed in ‘88 after living to 84. she lived through both world wars and lost a brother in the first one. She died eating her favourite food (fruit salad from her garden go figure) and drinking her schnaps before 10 in the morning. (Her tolerance for alcohol was unbelievable. She said it was spending her best years in the „golden twenties“) she was very nostalgic. Also she was happy when she died so I don’t need any condolences or whatever. If she died happy then we don’t deserve to mourn her. We get to mourn our grief at losing them but we don’t get to mourn them dying happy.
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My little patch of ever bearing strawberries are really producing this fall. The spring and summer crop was pretty sparce. We had a great blueberry year and they are about done. It looks like the cook is going to combine the 2 for a treat tonight.
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I've never tasted a fig, but I understand your obsession. I've got lots of space, but have been holding back on planting more fruit trees. I've got 8 semi-dwarf and 3 standard trees, and it really is more than I can process or even give away. In spite of that I think I really need another variety each of sweet and sour cherry
If I was in the correct zone, I'd definitely add some figs, just because..... Adding some pawpaw is also in the back of my mind, as I've never seen one before.
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Do they even still make those? Haven't had one since I was a kid.
That reminds me though of dates. I'd love to have my own date palm
Many years ago we had a graduate student from the middle east helping at the research farm. A couple times a year his family would send him boxes of dates. Gigantic whole dates each presented in its own little gold cup. Incredibly generous guy as after lunch each day he would pass around the box for us each to have one. We kept telling him to let us have one and take the rest home, but he insisted that we share until they were gone.My dad has some Pawpaws that are about old enough to bear fruit. He has the orchard syndrome as well. ' One more tree...'I've never tasted a fig, but I understand your obsession. I've got lots of space, but have been holding back on planting more fruit trees. I've got 8 semi-dwarf and 3 standard trees, and it really is more than I can process or even give away. In spite of that I think I really need another variety each of sweet and sour cherry
If I was in the correct zone, I'd definitely add some figs, just because..... Adding some pawpaw is also in the back of my mind, as I've never seen one before.
He has at last count 2 Japanese persimmon, 1 American persimmon, 3 pear, 3 plum, 5 apple, 6 grapes, 3 muscadine vines, 2 peach, and 40 plus blueberry shrubs. Along with 3 horse chestnut, 3 American hybrid chestnut, 2 stands of hazelnut, and more autumn olive than you can cut down in a day.
He came up to visit me and was asking about getting a cutting from the neighbors apple tree. And requested all the spring starts I could get from under the old apple tree.
I, on the other hand , am on 2/3 acre so I am limited to 3 blueberry and a beauty bush. And two small black raspberry patches, and a couple canes of tame black berries that showed up in the fence row unannounced.
I don't think figs would survive up on the Cumberland plateau, but I would definitely be willing to try.
That reminds me, my dad should have 2 fig trees that he got from a friend in Giles county TN. I haven't asked him recently how they are doing
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Picked the rest of the pears today. Probably a bushel and half total. Lots were falling off the tree while picking, but when you are reaching 20 feet up with a pole to pick that is expected. Going to can some, give a lot away and eat as many fresh as possible.
Figs ought to do ok. The roots are pretty hardy, down to minus numbers. Unprotected the tops will die to the ground but will regrow. With protection, they will survive in Illinois and other places up north. There is a relatively famous fig tree at a veterinarians office in Oak Ridge. Most of my unknowns are/were from Boston, Philadelphia, Delaware, and New Jersey. A bunch of Kurds moved to Nashville years ago and they brought figs and pomegranates with them. There were trees at Scarett Bennett and apt some Methodist buildings near Vanderbilt that might be old enough to have survived the minus 17.
Or you can grow in pots and do the "fig shuffle" - moving them into a garage/barn in the winter and back out in Spring. If you want to try, I can root you some cuttings.
I am trying to wall in my shop this weekend, so the storing indoors may be an option. Will have to get this done but, yes I would trade a stick or two of wood for some fig cuttings. I have a hoard of cats in the neighborhood so squirrels are not a problem for now.
Anything you are looking to get from the plateau?
Pawpaws are interesting and I grow some mainly to say that I do. They are becoming more common in the wild around here, but there are named "better" varieties. You need two, but they need to flower at the same time and not too early for the flies that help pollinate them. Last year was good year, but I don't see any on my trees or in trees in the wild. Even though they had myriads of flowers, they did not set any fruit. And they were especially early to flower this year.I've never tasted a fig, but I understand your obsession. I've got lots of space, but have been holding back on planting more fruit trees. I've got 8 semi-dwarf and 3 standard trees, and it really is more than I can process or even give away. In spite of that I think I really need another variety each of sweet and sour cherry
If I was in the correct zone, I'd definitely add some figs, just because..... Adding some pawpaw is also in the back of my mind, as I've never seen one before.
Just the boards i've already liked. Or if you know where TN paint rock agate can be found!
Ummm, not currently up on the exact location of that paint rock. Have that on my radar. The wife likes stuff like that, to the point we already own gold sluices and the likes. So , yeah, want to put that on the schedule board in the near future...
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Every time I see "Chicago Hardy" in a catalog I think about it, but I'm not sure I could protect the above ground portion well enough out here on the prairie. We regularly get mid -20° during the winter and have some pretty strong winds to boot. I could probably keep one alive in a pot, but I'm not willing to go to that much trouble.
A number of growers in colder climates, of course, do the pots, and I'm with you about the trouble. Did it for 5 years - don't want to go down that path again on the scale I did - 30+ pots. But then many will prune the in-ground tree back after dormancy, to about 4' and wrap it in burlap, straw, bubble wrap insulation, etc.... with a heavy layer of straw mulch around. Many are successful down to -20 with that. Some will cut an in-ground tree almost to the ground after dormancy and then cover it with a bunch of loose mulch. That may take the temperature even further down. I've heard of some in the NE will dig a trench and bend the tree over in the trench and cover with mulch. Others will set up a mini-greenhouse of poly over a tree and put a light bulb or two in it for warmth. Lots of things seem to work for growers, but they do involve work and expense. As long as the roots live, they will resprout and if you have an earlier ripening variety or a long enough growing season - you should have fruit. Some people will lengthen the growing season by extra protection in the spring, after an early uncovering, with the aforementioned mini-greenhouse. If some of the limbs survive the winter, or get started earlier and have a good growing season, then you can have a bounty of figs.
The guy I went to see last weekend had many in-ground trees, but the most success he has is with "pots". His pots are the 12x12x10 plastic milk crates (maybe a little bigger) he lines with landscape fabric and plants in it. He uses drip irrigation and has them spaced in his growing area at about 6' spacing and less. Now, he does have to shuffle them inside in the fall, but he has tractors and a big garage he puts them in. Not his, but this is what he does.
The Chicago Hardy was probably brought over by Italian Immigrants from, probably, the Mt Etna area way back in the 1800's. So many pictures of it I have seen growing in ground in Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, etc.... with no apparent protection in the winter. All are multiple trunk trees/bushes, meaning they likely had died back to the ground, probably numerous times. The one I have actually had a couple of breba (on lignified wood) figs on it this year. The first blush of main crop figs got eaten by rodents! A later bunch of figs is on the tips. If they are allowed to remain, I will have to have a ladder to harvest. It grows with no protection and in early morning and afternoon shade. In 15 years, it has died to the ground twice but has always produce ripe fruit. Near it is a brown turkey, an unknown white and a japanese persimmon. The Chicago Hardy is by far the most successful.
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