Shawn,

My potted 'Fig Orchard,' is in Pittsburgh (teetering between zone 5 and 6), not anywhere near you, but we do share some climactic similarities. Chief among them is the necessity of growing early ripening fig varieties.

What are your cultural practices? What varieties do you have?

I am also relatively new to figs, but have been an avid gardener for almost 60 years.

Moses

Hello Shawn

What kind of fig trees you have.The best for PNW are

King Desert,Graham Royal,Olimpian,Italian honey,Osborne Prolific,Dauphine,

Hi Shawn, we probably know each other from the other fig forum!

Short answer: Nearly all figs will fruit successfully IN POTS in the PNW. The weather patterns have been getting warmer over the past several years. So the old timers who say only breba figs ripen here are only partially right. They haven’t accounted for the increased heat units our area has been getting.

I know people successfully growing Hardy Chicago in our area so I disagree with the previous comment. Petit Negri is also an excellent tasting fig, nearly as good as Negronne, which is among the best for our area.

In ground I agree it is wiser to restrict the plantings to breba and very early main crop figs.

Oh, and Kiwibob is a good friend of mine and we have visited each other’s urban orchards.

The GDD's haven't increased that much!! And the comment about the Chicago Hardy came from kiwibob himself so if you have issues with that, take it up with him!

@gardengal48: Please define "very much".

Condit had said in his 1955 monograph that VdB grows and ripens 2 crops in the Portland area.

Please see this link for Condit's monograph: http://ucanr.edu/datastoreFiles/391-296.pdf

Using the GDD calculator from wunderground.com: Portland had approximately 1882 GDD hours (>50F) in year 2000. Seattle had about the same in 2010. Seattle had > 2700 GDD hours in 2016. Portland's has increased now to over 3000!

If this isn't a substantial change, I dont know what is.

Now, we should EASILY be able to ripen 2 crops of VdB in Seattle. And we do. As I did last year.

Bob and I have had numerous discussions about this, including the increased GDD.

Bob only grows figs for breba crop for reasons that I dont care to discuss on a public forum. He has seen my trees and I've seen his. We agree on what is possible and not possible.

The articles you reference are unfortunately out of date and should not be used to dissuade people from growing great varieties of figs in the PNW.

ramv3, they are Bob's articles. If they are out of date, then ask your good friend Bob to revise! And I have no interest in arguing with you. Some figs are just better choices for a cool maritime climate. Period!

Not arguing, just correcting some misstatements.

I fully agree that some figs are just better choices for a cool maritime climate.

Here is a list of figs i grow in z6 most havent fruited yet since i just started last spring with growing figs.

VarietiesExcelBrown TurkeyBlack MissionViolette De BourdeauxChicago HardyPanacheCorkeys HoneyAtreanoBlack SpanishCelestDesert KingLattarullaNegronneStellaOlympianLSU PurpleSalsGreen IschiaSmithFloreaNero 600mBordissot RossaMarseilles Black VSSouadiMelanzanaDeannaGrise OlivetteSarizeybekUCR 184-15 Strawberry TeardropType 208SweetjoyFigo PretoAbebereiraMaltese Falcon

VDB and BT and Atreano are the ones that have produced enought to judge, the rest that have produced have yielded around 6 or so not much to judge. this year i will have many more to taste test.

I have about 22 new varieties putting out main crop figlets this year including a couple in-ground. I expect that they will all ripen by early Fall. I'll know much better which ones actually ripen properly and taste good then.

I think VdB is a winner for most of the warmer areas of the PNW including the Puget Sound which is less warm than several others.

GDD is good way to prove that what trees are reliable, Bob posts was dated 2009, weather in PNW are warmer than before, I have seen old in ground trees ripened main crop locally recently years.

I think that our rain season starting at End of September, Figs taste bland with lots of rain and weak sun.

I have young Chicago Hardy in ground, I may feed it good rich soils last winter, It has lots of figs now, According to GDD methods, it seems that it will ripen many figs before rain season starting, Chicago hardy's figs are very rich berry tasty than Desert king.

I have Vdb/Negronne in pots, Its main crops are even more rich berry taste than Chicago Hardy but late.

Look forward for report on ripening figs in PNW this year.