Marseilles does well for me up here also. I have one in a pot and gave one to my friend who put it in the ground. Nice tasting fig.

ejp, the Marseilles you mentioned is the one from me? Is it doing well for you?

Bass

Yes, this year believe it or not it gave me way more fruit than last year.

I have a Hunt that is producing good figs right now too. It had dropped all of its figs earlier in the season and has set a nice second crop.

Also, I have an unknown cultivar from the old LSU breeding program that looks like it is a Golden Hunt. It has a very long stem, very bright yellow colored skin, completely closed eye, and has the elongated shape of a Hunt fig. Dr. O'Rourke used both Celeste and Hunt as mothers to the figs in his breeding program.......so this just may be a Golden Hunt........time will tell. These golden figs are very good and rain tolerant too. I can't wait to study this fig more next year.

Dan

Got to admit I am staying in a less than ideal place for growing figs. My trees outside got almost all their leaves "burnt" by the sudden cold artic front on saturday. Record temperatures set for the last 30 years or more.

Dan, any pic's of this " Golden Hunt". Look forward to hear more on this variant.

Is there anyone with some cuttings of the Marseilles Yellow to share. I've never seen it available anywhere. Dan sounds like something I should plant.

From the bayou,
"gene"

Paully,

From your postings....sounds like you had a pretty good season despite the cool summer and your short season. My hats off to you. I'm sure I would not have done as well in your climate. Regarding pictures.......I do not plan on posting pictures on this forum.

Gene,

I have both the White and the Yellow Marseilles strains in my collection. The White did not fruit for me this year; so, I do not know if it has the same fruiting characteristics as the Yellow. I have heard that that some Marseilles strains are more rain tolerant than others......some have open eyes. The one I reported on is rain tolerant and I believe you will like its sweet/nutty taste. It will fruit for you long after most Celeste strains have gone dormant in our area.

I will be propagating cuttings from my tree in January. If you want one, I will give you a rooted one in the spring.... in addition to the Smith that I already promised.

FYI...I picked up another Smith the other day that an old guy had in 5 gallon pot. It was a neglected tree with very little soil in the pot....many roots were exposed and the tree was nearly dormant with a few leaves and some green figs. This morning I ate two of those figs. They were STRIPPED blue/grey in color.....sort of like a Grise or a Tiger cultivar. The eyes were closed, the figs were excellent....very sweet and rich tasting.....but, the pulp was amber colored and not red. The old man told me he got his tree from Thomas Becnel......who is the original source of this cultivar. I'm not sure why these figs are so different that the ones from the tree I have in the ground.....more fun studying this one too next year.

Dan

Dan, perhaps the difference in appearance of the fruit from the neglected tree was because of it's neglect. Not enough soil, uneven watering- too little and too much cycle, or any of many stressed conditions under which it lived could all have had a bearing on the outcome. Perhaps if you give it a happy home it can reach it's full potential. Then again you know how the human mind works or doesn't work, maybe it wasn't a Smith from the beginning, but just thought to be a Smith.

Thanks for the offer of the trees I accept them gracefully and with many thanks. Looking forward to spring.

From the bayou,
"gene"

I had a good season. Due credit goes to the wife & Prof Bostock. She's one tough "supervisor" & the unselfishness of Bostock by giving me the right advise & variants.