Fig Fruit
All About the Brown Fig
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What is a Fig?

A fig is actually a flower that has inverted into itself. It's makeup is not of a singlle fruit, but is a combination of almost 1,500 tiny fruis, which helps give the fig it's unique texture. This phenomenon is also called a 'false-fruit' or 'fruit wihtout a flower'. The fig is the only known fruit to ripen and begin to dry while still intact with the tree. Figs are natural laxitive and their sap is an eye and skin irritant.

Popular Cultivations of Dark Figs

Beall
  • A medium to large, purplish-black fig. This dark fig has amber pulp. Main crop figs are oblate to pyriform with a short, thick neck.
  • Leaf: base cordate; 5 lobes; sinuses narrow; margins crenate.
  • Very good flavor.
  • Grows well in California.
  • Does not do as well is Eastern US.

Black Jack
  • Large to very large with reddish-purple to black skin and strawberry pulp.
  • Oblate, flattened at apex (eye end)
  • ribs not elevated, but darker
  • shaded side of fruit is a light shade of purplenumerous white flecks.
  • Leaf: base calcarate; 5 lobes, latate.
  • Good flavor.
  • Fairly hardy.
  • High fruit yield
  • Fairly hardy.

Brown Turkey
  • Rumor is that the Brown Turkey Fig got their name cause turkeys like to eat them.
  • Grows great in th South.
  • Very winter hardy
  • Has small eyes that foes not tend to swell or burst when figs are ripening
  • Develope fruit parthenocarpically, which means that it does not take pollination, so more than one fig tree is not needed.
  • Often bares two crops a year
  • Good as freash or preserves.
  • AKA English Brown Turkey, Everbearing, Lee's Perpetual

Calinfornia Brown Turkey
  • Similar to Brown Turkey
  • Well-adapted to Southern California, but does not perform well in general South; looses it's hardiness
  • California growers reccomend heavy pruning for the best crops.
  • Large fig
  • Required considerable heat to ripen evenly.
  • Grows very fast.

Celeste
  • Light Borwn to Violet Skin
  • The eye reamians green until the fig is almost ripe, which is the main way the celeste is distinguished from the Brown Turkey.
  • Very cold hardy
  • Excelent fleash, good dried or preserned.
  • Well adapted to the Eastern United States but usually does not grow well in Calinfornia.
  • AKA: Honey Fig, Sugar Fig, Tennessee Mountain Fig

Early Violet
  • Chocalate colored fig. Small to very small
  • Very early fruit yield
  • Grows well in South.
  • Suceptible to masaic, which dwarfs fruit and leaves.
  • Grows well in a pot. Nice flavor.
  • Grows fast and has good yield.

Flanders
  • Yellow fig with violet stripes.
  • Amber Pulp
  • Heavy fruit yields.
  • Plants grow fast and spread fast but are not very hardy.
  • Main crop ripens late
  • Good breba crop
  • Well adapted to South and San Joaquin Valley, California.

Hardy Chicago
  • Hardy Chicago does resemble Brown Turkey, but the leaves and fruit are different.
  • Blackish to purple skin
  • Strawberry pulp.
  • Small eye with slender neck.
  • Very good fresh
  • Very Hardy
  • Well adapted to Eastern US, may grow well in North West

Hardy Chicago
  • Hardy Chicago does resemble Brown Turkey, but the leaves and fruit are different.
  • Blackish to purple skin
  • Strawberry pulp.
  • Small eye with slender neck.
  • Very good fresh
  • Very Hardy
  • Well adapted to Eastern US, may grow well in North West

Hardy Chicago
  • Hardy Chicago does resemble Brown Turkey, but the leaves and fruit are different.
  • Blackish to purple skin
  • Strawberry pulp.
  • Small eye with slender neck.
  • Very good fresh
  • Very Hardy
  • Well adapted to Eastern US, may grow well in North West

Hardy Chicago
  • Hardy Chicago does resemble Brown Turkey, but the leaves and fruit are different.
  • Blackish to purple skin
  • Strawberry pulp.
  • Small eye with slender neck.
  • Very good fresh
  • Very Hardy
  • Well adapted to Eastern US, may grow well in North West

Hâtive d'Argenteuil
  • Small spherical violet fig.
  • Strawberry Pulp
  • Dries readily, Good Quality
  • Very sutible for areas with cool summers. Grows well in North

Hunt
  • Small brown fig with amber pulp.
  • Very good flavor, sweet & rich
  • Not a heavy berer.
  • Grows well in rainy areas of South
  • Fairly Hardy
  • May grow well in Northwest
  • Hard to propigate

Ischia Black
  • Small puplish black with strawberry pulp
  • Medium sweet with rich flavor.
  • Well adapted to costal California but does not flourish well in South.
  • Not very Hardy